St. Melito of Sardis
quotes from Melito of Sardis →
Melito of Sardis was the bishop of Sardis near Smyrna in western Anatolia, and a great authority in early Christianity. Melito held a foremost place in terms of bishops in Asia due to his personal influence and his literary works, most of which have been lost. A letter of Polycrates of Ephesus to Pope Victor about 194 (Eusebius, Church History V.24) states that “Melito the eunuch [this is interpreted “the virgin”. Melito may have been the immediate successor of the apostle of the church of Sardis. He was an “Apostolic Father” and very probably knew Polycarp and his disciple Irenaeus. He became a martyr, probably under Marcus Aurelius, circa a.d.177.
Fragments from Melito of Sardis
Quotes & Excerpts:
On the Divinity and Humanity of Christ:
“Being incorporeal, he put on a body; being impassible, he came to suffer; being immortal, he submitted to death; being life, he came to experience corruption, so that he might free and save the suffering.” –Homily on the Passion, Fragment 9 (Preserved by Anastasius of Sinai)
On Christ as the Paschal Lamb:
“This is he who took a body from the Virgin, who was hanged on the wood, who was buried in the earth, who was raised from the dead, who ascended to the heights of heaven, who sits at the right hand of the Father.” –On the Pascha, Section 66
On Our Priesthood:
“He is the one who delivered us from slavery to liberty, from darkness to light, from death to life, from tyranny to eternal royalty, and made us a new priesthood and a chosen people forever.” –On the Pascha, Section 68
On Christ’s Preexistence and Creation:
“This is the one who made the heavens and the earth, who in the beginning created humanity, who was proclaimed through the Law and the Prophets, who became human in a virgin, who was hanged on a tree, who was buried in the earth, who was resurrected from the dead, and who ascended to the heights of heaven.” –On the Pascha, Section 100