Thus it is the will of God that they who draw night to Him should live amidst adversities, humbled and brought low with all their soul and their body. Some of them abide in voluntary afflictions, others in toilsome warfare against the passions; some bore with bitter diseases in their bodies, some with miseries, and with persecutions of men; in peril from passions, in peril from demons, in peril from sicknesses, in peril from poverty. Some were persecuted, some were slain, some were sawn asunder, some were stoned, some were drowned in the sea, some while living had their limbs cut off; some were delivered up to sport and mockery; some entered into a hole of blazing flame, others into chains and mighty scourgings; some fell by the edge of the sword, others went about clothed in sheep-skins and goat-skins, and were as wanderers in the desert. The saints were in afflictions in mountains and caves and in dens of the earth, according to what the Apostle testifies, 'Of whom the world was not worthy.'
Homily 60 (pp. 434-435)
