Kazanie na Gromniczną
The Witness of Simeon
The sermon introduces the feast of Candlemas through the testimony of Simeon, who recognizes the salvation of God in the infant Jesus.
My eyes have seen your salvation. Saint Luke writes these words for the honor and praise of this present feast.1 These very words were spoken by a holy father named Simeon—a man who was holy, true, and God-fearing.2 But the explanation of these words translated from Latin into Polish is this: "My eyes have seen," he says, "your salvation"—that is, your Son.3 These are the words the holy father Simeon speaks in the name of God the Father Almighty: that He has sent His Son for the consolation of the human race.4 In these words, holy Simeon tells us two things: his own boundless joy, and the glorious manifestation of the Son of God; his boundless joy comes from seeing the Son of God. He says, Viderunt oculi mei—the glorious manifestation of the Son of God; tuum—that is, your salvation.5 The holy father Simeon also tells us of his boundless joy at the mere sight of Him, for he says: My eyes have seen Your salvation.✦6
Visions of the Divine
The preacher catalogs various biblical visions of God, culminating in Simeon's unique experience of seeing the Savior in human form.
We find many kinds of visions of Almighty God in Holy Scripture. First, Abraham saw Him in the form of three men walking along the road.✦7 Second, Moses saw Him in the burning bush. Third, Ezekiel saw Him sitting on a high throne. And fourth, Saint John saw him in the image of the slain Lamb.8 And fifth, that holy father Simeon saw him under a human form.9
Read the original Latin
Viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum. Ta słowa pisze święty Łukasz na cześć i na fałę godom niniejszym. A są ta ista słowa zmówiona oćcem świętym, jemuż biesze imię Symeon, święty, prawdziwy, bogobojny.
Awa tych słów [wykład z jęz]ka łacińskiego w polski jeść taki: widzicie, prawi, oczy moji [zbawienie twoje], to czu syna twgo. Ta to słowa tet to ociec święty Sy[meon powiada na i]mię Bogu Oćcu wszemogącemu, iż jeść sesłał syna swego na [pocieszenie po]kolenia człowieczego. I powiada nam dwoje w tych słowiech święty Symeon: swoje przezmierne ucieszenie, a Syna Bożego sławne przejawienie; swoje przezmierne ucieszenie z widzienia Syna Bożego. Mówi; viderunt oculi mei Syna Bożego sławne przejawienie, tuum, gdzież zbawienie twoje.
I powiada nam tet to ociec święty Symeon swoje przezmierne ucieszenie ilkoż do widzienia, bo mówi: widziele oczy moji zbawienie twoje. Rozmajite widzienie nałazimy w świętem pisani Boga wszemogącego. Owa ji pirzwiej widział Habraham pod obrazem trzy męży po drodze idącego.
A wtóre ji widział Mojżesz we krzu połającego. A trzecie ji widział Ezechijel na wysokiem stolcy siedzącego.
A cztwarte ji widział święty Jan pod obrazem barańca śmiernego.
A piąte ji widział tet to ociec święty Symeon pod opłcenim człowiecz[ym].
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.2.30 — that my eyes have seen your salvation
- ↩Gen.18.1-Gen.18.2 — Then the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, and he was sitting at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. Gen.18.2 — He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing near him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the entrance of the tent and bowed down to the ground.
Notes
- 1 ↩Old Polish fałę = chwałę (praise/glory); godom niniejszym = this present feast-day (here Candlemas / Gromniczna).
- 2 ↩biesze = było (was); zmówiona = spoken/uttered; oćcem świętym = by a holy father (elderly holy man).
- 3 ↩Bracketed lacunae restored in the source as [wykład z jęz]ka and [zbawienie twoje]; twgo read as twego. Source surface widzicie is taken as the sermon's Polish gloss of Latin viderunt ("have seen"), in line with the Nunc dimittis and the neighboring section's widziele oczy moji zbawienie twoje.
- 4 ↩Lacunae restored as Sy[meon powiada na i]mię and [pocieszenie po]kolenia; sesłał taken as zesłał (sent down). na imię may mean either 'to the name/praise of' or 'in the name of'; rendered 'to the name of' to keep the source phrasing.
- 5 ↩The preacher maps Latin viderunt oculi mei onto 'the glorious manifestation of the Son of God' and tuum onto 'your salvation' (gdzież zbawienie twoje). The punctuation and elliptical gloss make the exact syntactic join slightly uncertain.
- 6 ↩ilkoż do widzienia: rendered as 'at the mere sight of him' (Old Polish ilkoż ≈ tylkoż, 'only / just so far as'); it stresses that Simeon's extreme joy rests on the seeing alone.
- 7 ↩Habraham and pirzwiej are medieval spellings for Abraham and pierwej ('first'); number agreement is mixed (trzy męży plural vs. idącego singular), typical when the one God appears as three men.
- 8 ↩Old Polish 'śmiernego' (cf. modern śmierć/śmiertny) is rendered 'slain' for the Apocalypse Lamb (Agnus occisus), not merely 'mortal'.
- 9 ↩Source form opłcenim is uncertain in Old Polish; rendered as 'form' on the parallel with the prior section's pod obrazem ('under the image') and the reconstructed adjective człowiecz[ym] ('human'). Likely related to oblicze/obleczenie (countenance, covering/guise) rather than a modern sense of payment.
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