Patience in the early church · Sophia Scriptura

Patient endurance of wrongs and hardships. Part of Ethics.

Didache 3.8Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Be patient, merciful, and gentle, and revere God's words.
1 Clement 5.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Paul showed the way to the prize of endurance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 5.1.1 (33.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Be patient, and you will master evil.
First Apology 16Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christ taught patience, truthfulness without oaths, worship of God alone, and that only those who do his will are true Christians.
Sentences of Sextus 298Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · As you wish to be praised in good actions, so in faults accept it patiently if you are blamed.
Fragment 6Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd–early 3rd century · Freedom from disturbance is the most precious thing, and Job, who bore scorn and wrong with patience, is its model.
Miscellanies 7.12.80Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows does good promptly, shares his goods and bears his brothers' burdens, keeps the Lord's commands day and night, teaches his children, and, like Job, is thankful and patient in every loss.
On Patience 1Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian confesses that he, an impatient man, writes on patience as a sick man speaks of health; patience is necessary to every Christian virtue and is praised even by pagan philosophers.
On Patience 2Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The model of Christian patience is God himself, who bears with ungrateful and wicked humanity and gives his gifts to just and unjust alike.
On Patience 3Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Christ showed divine patience throughout his life, from his birth and baptism to his gentle ministry, his refusal of the sword at his arrest, and the insults of his passion.
On Patience 4Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Just as servants follow their master's character and even animals obey us, we ought to obey God, and obedience itself springs from patience.
On Patience 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Patience proved Abraham's faith; Christ, bringing faith to the nations, replaced the law's “eye for an eye” with patience, commanding love of enemies.
On Patience 7Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Christians should bear loss of property patiently, since nothing is truly theirs; patience in loss trains them to give freely, whereas pagans value money above the soul.
On Patience 8Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Christians should bear blows and insults patiently, as Christ commanded; patience blunts every injury, so that the one who inflicts it loses his aim and is himself the one who grieves.
On Patience 10Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The desire for revenge is a chief form of impatience; it makes the one provoked as guilty as the provoker and usurps God's right to judge and avenge.
On Patience 11Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Whatever the source of our troubles, the devil, ourselves, or God's discipline, we must bear them patiently; the Beatitudes promise happiness to the patient.
On Patience 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Patience makes peace and forgiveness possible, waits for the repentance of sinners (even a separated spouse), and is the source of the love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13.
On Patience 13Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Patience is also exercised in the body: in fasting and penance, as Nebuchadnezzar showed, in continence and celibacy, and above all in enduring persecution and martyrdom.
On Patience 14Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Isaiah, Stephen, and above all Job are models of patience; Job, stripped of everything, only thanked God and was restored double.
On Patience 15Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · God rewards patience, which supports every virtue; Tertullian pictures Patience as a serene figure sitting on the throne of the gentle Holy Spirit, who cannot dwell in us without her.
On Patience 16Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Pagan “patience” in pursuit of money and pleasure is a devilish counterfeit; Christians should repay Christ's patience with patience of spirit and body, believing in the resurrection of both.
Commentary on Daniel 4.22-23Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Instead of calculating the end, be patient like the martyrs under the altar; Hippolytus nonetheless reckons Christ's birth in the year 5500 from Adam, so that the six thousand years before the sabbath rest of the saints are not yet complete.
Against Marcion 4.16Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Love of enemies, turning the other cheek, giving to all who ask, and the Golden Rule are the Creator's own law brought to fulfillment by Christ; a god who does not avenge would command patience in vain.
Fragments on Job, column 61Origen · ca. 220-254 · Job's wife spoke the devil's counsel, but Job, like a good pilot, stayed steady in prosperity and disaster alike.
Fragments on Job, column 69Origen · ca. 220-254 · Job, after the trophy of his patience, still felt the weight of his friends' hard words, as Paul endured reviling.
Commentary on John 19.157Origen · ca. 230–248 · If we give up under toil or are weak, we have not believed in Christ as endurance and strength.
Homilies on Exodus 9.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Each believer can build the tabernacle within himself, with silver pillars of patience, an inner altar for sacrificing pride, anger, and lust, a lampstand of watchfulness, and a ruling mind that serves as high priest.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 2.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Wickedness is willed malice, distinct from other sins, as the devil is “the evil one”; the land promised to those who wait for the Lord is the true land, of which the earth bears only the name, and the Lord himself is our patience.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 8.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Three degrees of response to insult: the small repay in kind, the advancing keep silent “even from good things,” and the perfect bless those who curse them, as Paul did.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 8.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Like athletes, the perfect feel no pain at insults, imitating the impassible God, while those still advancing feel the old wound reopened, yet hold their tongue.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 8.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The one still advancing feels his heart grow hot at insults but cools it by silence.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 9.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God himself arranges the contests of insult as exercises in patience; one should keep silent, or better still, as Paul taught, bless those who curse.
Against Celsus 7.55Origen · ca. 248 · Jesus' silence under scourging and his gentleness when mocked show more fortitude than any Greek hero; his prayer in Gethsemane was not cowardice but submission to providence.
Commentary on Romans 9.11Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Hope in unseen glory brings joy and patience in tribulation, provided we persevere in prayer for the help human frailty needs.
To Quirinus 3.6Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The righteous suffer more than others, but must endure, since trials prove them, as Job, Paul, and the Psalms show.
On Mortality 10Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Job and Tobit were proved, not defeated, by their sufferings, blessing God in adversity and refusing their wives' temptations.
On the Good of Patience 1Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Cyprian opens by noting that even listening requires patience, and that nothing in the Christian life is more useful or glorious than patience.
On the Good of Patience 4Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · God shows patience by giving his gifts to good and bad alike and delaying judgment so that sinners may repent.
On the Good of Patience 5Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Christ taught his followers to love their enemies so as to be perfect like the Father; patience restores in us the divine likeness Adam lost.
On the Good of Patience 6Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Christ taught patience by his whole life: his incarnation, baptism, fasting, temptation, washing his disciples' feet, and bearing with Judas and his opponents.
On the Good of Patience 7Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · In his passion Christ patiently bore spitting, scourging, thorns, blows, stripping, gall and vinegar, false witness, and death, silent to the end.
On the Good of Patience 9Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Christians must walk as Christ walked, following his example of patient suffering, as John and Peter teach.
On the Good of Patience 10Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David all showed patience, and the prophets and martyrs won their crowns by it.
On the Good of Patience 13Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Christ requires endurance to the end; since we hope for what is unseen, patience is needed to persevere in good works until we receive the crown.
On the Good of Patience 15Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Love, the greatest virtue and the bond of unity, cannot last without patience, as Paul shows in describing love as enduring all things.
On the Good of Patience 16Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Christ's commands to forgive, love enemies, and turn the other cheek require patience, as Stephen showed; patience keeps anger and discord out of the Christian heart.
On the Good of Patience 19Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Impatience is the devil's evil: it caused his fall, Adam's sin, Cain's murder, Esau's loss, Israel's idolatry, and the rise of heresies.
On the Good of Patience 20Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Patience underlies every virtue: it restrains anger and lust, keeps virgins, widows, and married people faithful, forgives, and endures persecution and martyrdom.
On the Good of Patience 21Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Christians should not seek quick revenge on persecutors but wait for God's day of vengeance, as even the martyrs in the Apocalypse are told to wait.
Cib. 3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Suffering must come before honor, as the examples of farmers, helmsmen, runners, Joseph, David, Daniel, Moses, the prophets, and the apostles show.
Cib. 5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Self-control and patience in trials are health for the soul, as Job on the dunghill shows; affliction is God's discipline, like dung that makes a plant fruitful.
Homilies 3.31Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Those who reject the apostles fare worse than Sodom; to receive peace one must refuse to do wrong and bear wrong, trusting God’s justice.
Recognitions 3.49Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The people drive Simon out, and Peter urges patience with the wicked and laments that Simon has become a chosen vessel of the evil one.
Divine Institutes 4.26.27Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He willingly suffered to teach patience in pain and contempt of death.
Divine Institutes 5.22.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Patience is a great virtue.
Divine Institutes 5.22.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Patience requires that the just suffer at the hands of the unjust.
Divine Institutes 5.22.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Without adversity there is no patience.
Divine Institutes 5.22.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The prosperous lack patience and innocence.
Divine Institutes 6.4.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Patient endurance wins the crown of immortality.
Divine Institutes 6.18.18Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Impatience answering wickedness breeds strife.
Divine Institutes 6.18.19Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Patience quenches wickedness; impatience inflames it.
Divine Institutes 6.18.20Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Universal patience would end crime.
Divine Institutes 6.18.23Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Patience distinguishes the wise from the foolish.
Divine Institutes 6.18.28Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Had Cicero been patient, his Philippics would not have cost his life.
Divine Institutes 6.18.30Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Patience is the highest virtue, proved by insults.
Divine Institutes 6.18.32Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Patience opposes all vices and restores the soul.
Appendix of Ten Documents on the Donatist Controversy 9Anonymous · documents of 303–330 · Constantine, abandoning coercion, urges the African Catholics to bear Donatist injuries patiently, leave vengeance to God, and count their sufferings as martyrdom.
On the Anger of God 20.5Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Because our flesh is so prone to sin, God is supremely patient and holds back his anger.
On the Anger of God 20.13Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Yet God's patience ends: he punishes, however late, those he sees are incorrigible.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 48.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Christians do not resist but patiently endure, trusting God to avenge them.
Defence of His Flight 21Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius argues that the saints’ flight preserved the line of Christ and the preaching of the Gospel, and that in flight they taught and encouraged the faithful.
Homilies on the Psalms 7.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains Ps 7:8–12: the psalmist asks to be judged by human righteousness and pardoned for inexperience, prays that sinners' wickedness may end, and teaches that God tries heart and reins, helps the upright, and delays punishment out of patience.
Homilies on the Psalms 61.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains that the two psalms “for Idithun” (Pss 39 and 62) were composed by David for the temple singer Idithun, and that both teach endurance and humility, by which the humble man is not moved by insults; in Ps 62 the soul refuses to be the slave of the passions and declares that it serves only God, its true King.
Letter 367Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory ends his consolation, urging the grieving woman to be an example of endurance, and prays to see her again.
Tractates on the Psalms 61.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The saint perseveres, his soul subject to God, learning patience from Christ's suffering and hoping to share his glory.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.18.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The eighteenth letter: in every suffering we must confess God just, for he permits trials so that our patience may defeat the devil.
Tractates on the Psalms 144.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Human justice and mercy often undercut each other, but God's justice is merciful through patience: he delays punishment, awaiting repentance, and punishes only after patience has failed.
Oration 32.30Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory urges patience with an erring brother, who is the image of God: admonish him repeatedly and, like the farmer with the fig tree, seek his correction rather than his removal.
Tractates 1.6.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno begins a discourse on patience, the harbour of all virtues, which cannot be moved by anything.
Tractates 1.6.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno shows patience at work in the order of nature: the sun, moon, sea, crops, birds and fish.
Tractates 1.6.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno traces the ruin caused by impatience from Adam and Cain to Sodom and the rebellions of Israel.
Tractates 1.6.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno turns to examples of patience: Abel, the first martyr, and Noah, who built the ark patiently.
Tractates 1.6.5Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno describes the sacrifice of Isaac as a supreme example of patience, in which both father and son obeyed God calmly.
Tractates 1.6.6Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno gives Jacob and Joseph as examples of patience in exile, service and power.
Tractates 1.6.7Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno describes Job's patience under the devil's attacks and declines to praise the Lord's patience, which surpasses all comparison.
Tractates 1.6.8Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno ends with a hymn to patience as queen of the virtues, sustaining virgins, widows, the married, slaves, the poor, prophets, apostles and martyrs.
Tractates 2.15.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno retells the story of Job's trials and patience.
Homilies 10.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Retaliating against abuse brings the same guilt; Christians should bear insults humbly, remembering that they are poor and naked by nature and that Christ was slandered, struck and spat upon.
Homilies 21.12Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Job received back double wealth but only the same number of children, since the dead children still live; Basil urges the victims of the fire to bear their loss in the same way.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 4:11–12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The apostles suffered hunger, beatings and contempt, and worked with their hands rather than take gifts from those in error.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 6:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul commends himself as God's minister by patience and endurance in afflictions, necessities, and distresses.
Question 68, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God will avenge his servants who cry to him; a Christian who seeks moderate redress without bloodshed does not sin, but does better to leave it to God.
Question 118, section 9Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Job’s patience taught his wife and others to bear God’s will, so Satan’s attack doubled Job’s reward on earth and in heaven and turned to the devil’s own loss.
Letter 39.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reminds Paula of her ascetic vows and holds up Naomi, Job, and Melania as examples of patience in bereavement.
Letter 108.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Paula met the envy and hostility she suffered at Bethlehem not by flight, as Jerome advised, but by patience and humility, sustained by many Scriptures on endurance.
Letter 118.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome lists Julian's bereavements and losses and compares them with Job's greater trials, which Job bore with worship and patience.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.46.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Better to suffer loss than to quarrel, with believers or unbelievers.
On Tobit 2Ambrose · ca. 380-390 · Tobit, though just and merciful, bore captivity patiently, judging it less than his sins deserved.
On the Complaints of Job and David 2.5Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Like Job and David, we should meet insults with silence rather than self-defence.
On the Complaints of Job and David 2.9Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · We should laugh at false accusations and keep silence, for God’s judgment, not men’s, decides.
Apology of the Prophet David 30Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David bore Shimei’s curses patiently, seeing them as a trial permitted by God.
Apology of the Prophet David 31Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David saw Shimei’s curse as permitted by God, who would repay him for it.
Apology of the Prophet David 32Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Bearing insults patiently wins God’s pardon and reward.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.6Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · David’s silence under Shimei’s curses shows that the righteous are better off despising abuse than resenting it.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.21Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Anger must be foreseen, restrained, or at least kept from the tongue, after the examples of Jacob, children, Christ, and David.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.48Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Those wronged fall into three classes—the weak who retaliate, the advancing who keep silent, and the perfect who bless—and David under Shimei’s curses reached the third, looking to the perfection of the life to come.
Exposition of Psalm 118 6.14.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Bearing abuse without returning it wins God’s protection.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.23.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David bore Shimei’s curses patiently and restrained Abishai.
Exposition of Psalm 118 9.3.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Jeremiah’s verses under the same letter show this good exclusion: patient hope shuts out impatience.
Exposition of Psalm 118 9.3.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Waiting, bearing the yoke, and sitting alone shut out impatience, pleasure, and fear.
Exposition of Psalm 118 9.20.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The humbled should grow through humility, as Christ, enduring insults, healed us by his wounds.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.3.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Jeremiah’s words about offering the cheek anticipate Christ’s teaching on patience.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.3.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Patience under blows is a sign of humility, as desolate Jerusalem must learn.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.4.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David, cursed by Shimei, stayed silent and humble rather than avenge himself.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.4.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · When humiliation is complete, sin is loosed; desolation leads through humility and patience to hope and the Spirit’s comfort.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.5.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Putting the mouth in the dust means a silence of patience that no injury can break.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.29.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Job, formed by the law of God, did not perish under his losses, sickness, his wife’s advice and his friends’ speeches.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.27.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Hope does not shame; affliction produces patience and proof, which strengthen hope.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.27.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Without hope patience fails; hope keeps outward struggles and inward fears from harming.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.43.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Job was proved when he kept faith after losing everything.
Letter 138.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ's precepts of non-retaliation aim to overcome evil with good, so that the wrongdoer may be corrected and restored to concord.
Letter 138.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The command to turn the other cheek is not to be taken literally but as teaching patience: temporal things should be yielded for the sake of eternal ones.
Letter 138.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ and Paul, when struck, did not literally turn the other cheek, showing that the precept concerns the heart's readiness more than the outward act.
Homilies on Matthew 18.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Bearing a blow and yielding the cloak in a lawsuit disarm the aggressor and win him over, and the one who lives so will not be left naked.
Homilies on Matthew 33.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · If people now, with all the hopes of the Gospel, despair over the loss of a little gold, Job’s endurance deserves countless crowns.
Homilies on Matthew 42.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Every idle word will be judged, and we are judged by our own words, not by others’ words about us; Chrysostom shows from David and Saul and from Jacob and Laban that to suffer wrong makes one stronger, and to do wrong weaker.
Homilies on Matthew 84.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Christian conquers not by doing evil but by suffering it, as martyrs and saints did and as Joseph did when, silent and imprisoned, he overcame both his brothers and the Egyptian woman, a type of Christ condemned in silence.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.7.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The Psalms teach patience and arm us against evil spirits, as David's playing drove off Saul's spirit.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.32.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Tribulation, drunk first, produces patience and hope.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.45.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The just man imitates Christ, the silent lamb.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.1.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Psalm 38 (39) teaches patience; David wrote it for Jeduthun to sing.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.2.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Provoked by enemies, human and spiritual, David meditated and chose patience.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.6.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Those who trouble the just are the devil's ministers; David's silence guarded him.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.8.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Those of our own household are often driven against us; patience and silence are the remedy.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.9.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Be silent under insult and pray God not to leave you; he who has God is not alone.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.31.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · He kept silent, recognizing God's will in the reproach.
On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · As examples of patience from the Old Testament, Augustine points to Job, who held his riches lightly, and above all to the mother of the seven martyred sons in 2 Maccabees, strengthened by Scripture's precepts of fortitude.
Tractates on Matthew 11.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that Christ replaces the law of retaliation with patience, which trains Christians for martyrdom.
Sermon 18.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God judges some things now, so that his existence is not doubted, and reserves others for the judgment, patiently waiting for sinners to repent; those who despise his patience store up wrath.
Sermon 38.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Two laborious virtues are required in this life: continence, which refrains from the world’s goods, and endurance, which bears its evils, while we wait for the Lord.
Sermon 38.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · People endure great hardships for avarice but refuse to labor for God’s promises; like the ant in summer, we should store up God’s words while things go well, for tribulation and death come to all.
Sermon 47.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God’s silence is his patience, meant to lead us to repentance; those who sin unpunished and think God is like them will hear his rebuke.
Sermon 81.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pressure is not a stumbling block but can yield oil like an olive press; Job’s wife, urging blasphemy, was the stumbling block, which Job, being meek, overcame.
Sermon 157.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Patience in hope requires meekness that accepts God's discipline; Christ, handed over by the Father and handing himself over in one will, is the way and the example.
Sermon 157.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ's passion teaches patience and his resurrection grounds hope, since what we hope for is already accomplished in our head; being scourged is a mark of sonship.
Sermon 164.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Catholics must treat the Donatists patiently and gently, without gloating over their victory, since no one is wholly healthy and all must bear one another's burdens.
Sermon 261.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To see God the heart must be cleaned for his coming; avarice fills the chest and breaks the conscience, while Job, having lost everything, was full and brought forth praise.
Sermon 274.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Vincent conquered in every torment, but his patience was God’s gift and his cause, not his pain, made him a martyr; the last temptation, pride in victory, is conquered by being praised in the Lord.
Sermon 283.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pleasure entices and pain drives people to sin; against them God gives continence and patience, and sets his own promises and threats above the world’s.
Sermon 284.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paying his sermon-debt on a martyrs’ feast, Augustine teaches that the martyrs’ patience, like every good gift, comes down from God, the fountain of life and light.
Sermon 296.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · When people ask why Rome, holding the apostles’ tombs, is laid waste, Augustine answers that the memorials are there but not in their hearts, and urges patient obedience to God’s will, after Christ’s example in Gethsemane.
Sermon 303.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · For a small congregation Augustine retells how the deacon Lawrence brought the poor as the Church’s riches and, roasted on a gridiron, calmly told his persecutors to turn him over; he lost his life for Christ and saved it.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains that the law of retaliation set a measure on revenge, which Christ perfects by commanding readiness to suffer more, and interprets the cheek, the tunic and garment, and the forced mile as dispositions of the heart, citing the conduct of Paul and of Christ himself.
On the Faith against the Manichaeans 21Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · Christ suffered freely, out of mercy, to give an example of patience, unlike Mani's god, who suffered by necessity.
Letters 2.13Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · His daily struggles against human and spiritual wickedness showed unfailing fortitude and patience.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · Augustine answers weariness over imperfect speech and occasional error: correct mistakes calmly, bear malicious critics patiently, trust God with hearers who take offence, and work from love.
Letter 12, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent encourages the exiled John Chrysostom to endure with patience, trusting in a clear conscience as the saints did.
Dialogues 2.3Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Soldiers whose wagon team shied at Martin beat him savagely; their mules then refuse to move until the soldiers find Martin and beg his pardon.
Dialogues 3.16Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Postumianus applies the example to an unnamed neighboring bishop, quarrelsome for three years, who should imitate Martin’s patience.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 28.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's time is the time of judgment; now his body must live justly and bear with the wicked until justice is turned into judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 37.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ did not come down from the cross, deferring his power to teach patience; that hidden power will be manifest at the judgment, for he is one Christ, God and man.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ, though all-powerful, patiently bore being told he had a demon; we must imitate his patience to come to his power.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · When they took up stones, Christ, though he could have destroyed them, hid himself as man, commending patience rather than power.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 50.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ kept a purse and tolerated a thief to teach the Church patience with the wicked in its midst.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 113.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Struck by an officer, Jesus answers truly and gently, showing that the command to turn the other cheek concerns the readiness of the heart.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 116.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Pilate has Jesus scourged and the soldiers mock him, by which Christ teaches the martyrs patience and conquers the world through suffering.
On Patience 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · God is called patient because he waits for sinners to be corrected, though his impassible nature suffers nothing; Augustine turns to human patience.
On Patience 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · True patience bears evils with an even mind so as not to abandon the good, and so escapes worse evils and gains eternal glory.
On Patience 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · People endure great hardships most patiently for riches, honours, and amusements, and are even praised for it.
On Patience 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Criminals such as Catiline and robbers also endure much, but that is hardness, not patience, which serves wisdom and a good conscience.
On Patience 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Patience is judged by the cause of the suffering: only those who suffer rightly have true patience.
On Patience 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · If people bear so much for temporal things and bodily health, the soul should bear far more under persecution for its own salvation.
On Patience 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Patience is exercised in the mind alone, as by David under insult and Christ toward Judas, or in bodily suffering for righteousness, as by the martyrs in both ways.
On Patience 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Job, attacked secretly by the devil through loss of goods and children, bodily torment, his wife, and his friends, kept patience throughout.
On Patience 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Against those who kill themselves and claim the glory of martyrs, Augustine argues from Job that suicide destroys patience and is worse than parricide, even under persecution.
On Patience 11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Scripture teaches patience under trial and discipline, by which we return to the paradise we lost through appetite for pleasure.
On Patience 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Patience comes from the same giver as love; the endurance of worldly desire is a numbness of disease, not health.
On Patience 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Love of God, and so true patience, can only be given by God; Scripture calls patience his gift.
On Patience 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · A schismatic who suffers rather than deny Christ is not to be blamed; his patience is praiseworthy and may lighten his judgement, though without love it does not gain the kingdom.
On Patience 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Schismatics may receive some gifts of God, like the gifts Abraham gave the sons of his concubines, but not the inheritance; the patience of Christ's poor heirs will bear eternal fruit.
The Institutes 4.42John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Patience must come from one's own humility, not from others refraining from provocation.
The Institutes 8.19John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · In solitude Cassian found himself angry at a pen, a knife, and a flint; anger must be cured, not merely deprived of people to vent on.
The Institutes 12.33John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Humility makes us bear injuries patiently, remembering Christ's sufferings and our approaching death, and confess that every virtue and even this understanding is God's gift.
Commonitorium 1.241–270Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · The law of retaliation was just, though Christ's grace teaches patience and leaves vengeance to God; the reader should live for the life to come and believe that the same bodies will rise, gathered from wherever they lie.
The Conferences 12.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Chastity grows with meekness and patience, which bring the “abundance of peace” promised to the meek; until it is secure, the monk will experience relapses, which teach him that his purity is God’s gift.
The Conferences 12.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Like the taste of honey, the joy of these gifts cannot be described but only known by experience; God’s wonderful work is a steadfast soul, like the old man in Alexandria who said Christ’s miracle was that he was not moved by insults.
The Conferences 16.18John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Mocking silence and scornful gestures that inflame a brother’s anger are as guilty as open insults, since God judges intention; such false patience is like Judas’s treacherous kiss.
The Conferences 16.22John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Joseph explains that turning the other cheek means the inner man yielding in humility so as not to be moved within; patience must be inward and aim to calm the other, not win glory at his expense.
The Conferences 16.26John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · A weak partner may eventually break away despite a strong one’s patience; to keep friendship, one should keep inner calm, fall silent when disturbed, and remember past and future love even in anger.
The Conferences 16.27John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Anger must be restrained by discernment and dissolved in a heart made wide by patience; “giving place to wrath” means humbly yielding, not walking away, and anger that must be hidden should be hidden in order to die.
The Conferences 18.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Piamun warns against feigned humility, illustrated by Abba Serapion’s exposure of a self-abasing young man who resented a mild rebuke, and says true humility shows in patience under insult.
The Conferences 18.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Piamun teaches that patience rests on humility, not on solitude, and is proven in trials, as the parable of the two houses shows.
The Conferences 18.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · An Alexandrian woman asks Athanasius for the most difficult widow to care for, and through her insults attains perfect patience.
The Conferences 19.1John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · At a crowded festival in Abba Paul’s coenobium, a young monk slapped by the abbot for slowness bears it without the least change of word or face.
The Conferences 19.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · John prescribes that the solitary rehearse imagined insults to train patience, rebuke himself sharply when any disturbance is revealed, and hold that anger is never lawful.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 25.2Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · No one may put God's coming to save on trial; Nestorius, like the enemy who sowed darnel, sowed error, but the people's patience and simple faith bore fruit.
Part 1, chapter 22Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Job, of Esau’s Idumean line, overcame the devil and his wife’s temptation by patience and received double; so Christ promises a hundredfold, as shown in the emperor Valentinian I.