Today (8/29) is the Feast of the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, Christ’s forerunner. In honor of the occasion, here is an excerpt from my translation of Paulinus of Nola’s Poem 6, his epyllion (mini-epic) on St. John. This comes from the end of the poem (at least, in the state of the text as we have it).
Through you, the clemency of God was manifested first;
To you, the power of showing mercy was entrusted first. 320
When many miracles of God’s new people sought for you,[1]
Christ said of you, “It has been granted to behold a prophet
Such as no age in history has ever seen before.
I say, as one who knows alone what has and will be done:
Among all mortal offspring born of woman in the past, 325
As well as those in days to come, conceived according to
The normal human mode, there will be none surpassing John.”
He says such things of you: Jesus, who sees the human heart’s
Inmost abyss, and all the course of history in order,
Just as we see the objects that are placed before our eyes. 330
