How did purity, innocence, and chastity attract pagans to accept the Christian faith in the early Church?

The scholar Athenagoras praises purity as one of the sublime fruits of Christian life. He points out its positive purpose thus: “You would find many among us, both men and women, growing old unmarried, in hope of living in closer communion with God.”⁷⁹⁶

Further, the noble martyr Apollonius compiles this list of virtues for Perennis the ruler: “For He taught us to pacify anger, to moderate desire, to abate and diminish appetite, to put away sorrow, to take part in pity, to increase love, to cast away vainglory, to abstain from taking vengeance, not to be vindictive, to despise death, not indeed from lawlessness, but as bearing with the lawless; to obey the laws of God, to reverence rulers, to worship God, to

794 See St. Augustine of Hippo, On Continence (NPNF II/3:379–396; FOTC 16:189–234).

795 Chromatius of Aquileia, Sermons and Tractates on Matthew Tractate 17.6.4 (ACW 75:183). 796 Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians 33 (ANF 2:146) .

intrust the Spirit to immortal God, to look forward to judgment after death, to expect rewards after the resurrection to be given by God to those who have lived in piety.”⁷⁹⁷

In the book called the Shepherd of Hermas we find this outline of the principles of the virtues: “For from faith arises chastity; from chastity, intelligence; and from intelligence, love. The deeds, then, of these are pure, and chaste, and divine.”⁷⁹⁸

The scholar Origen says, “A little while ago your feet were running off to the temples of demons; now let them run to the Church of God. Previously they were running off to shed blood (cf. Prov. 1:16; Isa. 59:7); now let them run out to save it. Earlier your hands were stretched forth to plunder the property of others; now stretch them forth to lavish your own goods upon others. Previously your eyes were looking around for a woman or some property to lust after (cf. Matt. 5:28); now let them look around for the poor, the weak, the needy, in order to show them mercy … Let the tongue, which was accustomed to abuse, cursing, and obscene speech, now be converted to blessing the Lord at all times (cf. Ps. 34:1).”⁷⁹⁹

St. Basil the Great says, “Here we are instructed to marvel at the unspeakable benevolence of God in Christ Jesus and with the greater fear to cleanse ourselves of every defilement of the flesh and the spirit.”⁸⁰⁰

St. Augustine says, “That continence, the true continence which is from above, does not wish to repress certain evils for the sake of others, but to heal all evils through goods.”⁸⁰¹

St. Gregory of Nazianzus says, “These three things that God requires of all the baptized: right faith in the heart, truth on the tongue, temperance in the body.”⁸⁰²

St. Mark the Ascetic says, “We who have received baptism offer good works, not by way of repayment, but to preserve the purity given to us.”⁸⁰³

St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “Perhaps these examples have led us gradually on to the discovery that we can be changed into something better than ourselves; and it has been proved as well that this union of the soul with the incorruptible Deity can be accomplished in no other way but by herself attaining by her virgin state to the utmost purity possible,—a state which, being like God, will enable her to grasp that to which it is like, while she places herself

797 “The Martyrdom of Apollonius” in H. Musurillo (trans.) The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Clarendon Press, 1972): p. 101.

798 Pastor of Hermas (or Shepherd of Hermas), Vision 3.8 (ANF 2:15).

799 Origen of Alexandria, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Books 6–10 6.4.2 (FOTC 104:11).

800 St. Basil of Caesarea, Concerning Baptism 1.2 (FOTC 9:374).

801 St. Augustine of Hippo, On Continence 13.28 (FOTC 16:225).

802 Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection , trans., Benedicta Ward (Liturgical Press, 1984): p. 45.

803 St. Mark the Ascetic, “On the Spiritual Law, Two Hundred Texts” in The Philokalia: The Complete Text, Volume I , trans., G. E. H. Palmer et al., eds., Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, and Makarios of Corinth (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979): p. 127.

like a mirror beneath the purity of God, and moulds her own beauty at the touch and the sight of the Archetype of all beauty.”⁸⁰⁴

“Changing in everything for the better, let him exchange ‘glory for glory’ (2 Cor. 3:18), becoming greater through daily increase, ever perfecting himself, and never arriving too quickly at the limit of perfection. For this is truly perfection: never to stop growing towards what is better and never placing any limit on perfection.”⁸⁰⁵

“We see, then, that the Bride is being led by the Word through the ascents of virtue up to the heights, just as if she were climbing stairs. To this Bride the Word first of all sends in, through the prophetic windows and the law’s lattices, the ray of the commandments and summons her to draw near to the light and to become beautiful once, in the light, she has been given the shape of the dove. Then, when she has shared, as far as is possible for her, in the good things, he draws her toward participation in the transcendent Beauty just as though she had hitherto had no part in them at all. The result is that it seems to her that desire increases in proportion to her progress toward that Light which eternally shines out and at the same time that her ascent is just beginning, on account of the transcendence of the good things, which are always beyond her. That is why he says once again to the awakened soul, Rise up, and to the soul that is coming, Come!

“For to one who has risen up in this manner there will never be wanting an uprising without end; nor for one who runs to the Lord will opportunity for the divine race be used up. For it is always necessary to rise up, and it is never right for those who are drawing near by their running to halt. For that reason, as often as he says Rise up! and Come! he confers the capacity for an ascent toward what is better.

“This is also the meaning of what comes next in the passage, for he who commands virtue to be born of virtue straight way appends the apostolic counsel by prescribing that the same image ‘be transformed from glory to glory’ (2 Cor. 3:18), meaning that glory is always being received and that what is forever being discovered, no matter how great and exalted it is, is believed to be less than what is hoped for. So it is, then, that the bride is commanded, dove though she was in her former achievements, to become nothing less than a dove again by being transformed for the better; and if this comes to pass, the Word, when next he uses the word dove, will again refer to what lies beyond this.”⁸⁰⁶