Song of Solomon 4

Song of Solomon 4:1

Ambrose of Milan: [The church] mourns in its eyes, that is in its faithful, because it is written, “Your eyes are as doves apart from your reticence,” because they see spiritually and know how to keep silent about the mysteries which they have seen. — CONSOLATION ON THE DEATH OF EMPEROR VALENTINIAN 7

Ambrose of Milan: But Christ, beholding his church, for whom he himself, as you find in the book of the prophet Zechariah, had put on filthy garments, now clothed in white raiment, seeing, that is, a soul pure and washed in the laver of regeneration, says, “Behold, you are fair, my love, behold you are fair, your eyes are like a dove’s,” in the likeness of which the Holy Spirit descended from heaven. The eyes are beautiful like those of a dove, because in the likeness of a dove the Holy Spirit descended from heaven. — On the Mysteries 7:37

Aponius: Having been cleansed from every habit of the vices of the flesh and converted to the one true God from the worship of a multitude of shameful gods, Christ the Lord praises the twin beauty of the church of the Gentiles, both body and soul. For the first beauty of the soul is that it would know its Creator, second that it would know itself, the kind of thing it is or the reason for which it was created. — EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 6:1

Augustine of Hippo: We are not to administer rebukes until we have removed from our eye the beam of envy or malice or pretense, so that we may have clear vision to cast out the speck from a brother’s eye. For we shall then see that speck with the eyes of the dove, the kind of eyes that are commended [as belonging to] the spouse of Christ, the glorious church which God has chosen for himself, the church which has neither spot nor wrinkle, that is, the church which is pure without guile. — SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2:19.66

Bede: For if goats and the hair or skins of goats always signified the foulness of sinners and never the humility of penitents, that animal would by no means have been reckoned among the clean [animals], nor would it have been said in praise of the bride: “Your hair is like a flock of goats.” — On the Tabernacle 2:3

Bede: Your eyes are those of doves, etc. Your senses are lofty and venerable in the contemplation of spiritual matters, by which you also deserved to see and recognize my gifts, which you recently expounded; my diadem, which you preached. For, as we mentioned above, the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove, and thus the name of that spiritual grace is fittingly signified. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Bede: Without that which lies hidden within. Without the invisible reward in the heavens, which in your pilgrimage on earth you are not yet able to see. For this is the greater beauty of glory, which cannot be worthily evaluated at present. And beautifully, where he praises the simplicity of her eyes, that is, the knowledge of what is hidden in her, he also calls her a friend, according to the Lord’s words: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John XV). — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Bede: Your hair is like a flock of goats, etc. If the sharpness of the spiritual senses is rightly understood in the eyes of the bride, the purity of countless general thoughts can not inappropriately be recognized in the hair, which in the saints, even though sometimes undertaken for the administration of temporal things, are never separated from the intention of heavenly matters. For it is written that Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in Asia. He was hurrying, if possible, to be in Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost (Acts 20). Here, he was indeed occupied with such thoughts regarding the earthly journey; but he was undertaking the earthly journey with the intention of a heavenly reward. This must also be understood about the trade of tent-making, which he practiced with Aquila and Priscilla, for the thoughts with which they fulfilled it were indeed temporal, but the gaze was fixed on the eternal, so that by this earthly work they might support the ministry of the Gospel, which was heavenly. Thus, the hair of the bride is aptly compared to the flocks of goats that ascended from Mount Gilead. These are clean animals and are accustomed to climbing the heights of cliffs or trees for the sake of seeking food, because evidently, the thoughts of the elect, as we said, even though they engage in earthly matters, nonetheless aim at heavenly things, and even when they care for the needs of the flesh, they direct the sharpness of the mind rather towards the well-being of the soul and the heavenly nourishment. Moreover, in the eyes of the bride, the preachers of the Holy Church can also be understood, through whom the hidden secrets of heavenly mysteries, which the general multitude of believers does not see, are revealed. In the hair, the faithful people can also be understood, who, although they are less skilled in overseeing and governing the steps of the Church, nonetheless provide it with great honor through their numerous acts of obedience. Of these things, the Lord Himself, when preaching to the disciples sent to preach, said, “You will be hated by all because of my name;” he immediately added by consolation, “Not a hair from your head will perish” (Luke 12). This is to say plainly: although the hate of persecutors rages, they cannot even seize your slightest, namely your head, from among those who belong to me. Hair, in this context, is aptly compared to herds of goats; for sinners are customarily designated by goats; and since the entire Church truly acknowledges that it cannot be free from sin, how much more must those who are in a common life do this, because we all offend in many ways (James 3)! Therefore, the faithful have sin, but they nonetheless strive through daily advances of good works toward that life where they may be free from all sin. For this reason, it is aptly added about those same goats: “Which ascended from Mount Gilead:” for they dwell indeed on the mystical mount, all who are united to the body of their Redeemer. But the goats ascended the same mount, seeking the upper parts of the mount to graze, as they who are humble and conscious of their sins and frailty, fired by the very fear of their weakness, always strive to lift themselves up to the pastures of heavenly life in Christ. Indeed, we read in the Book of Numbers and Chronicles that Mount Gilead had very good and abundant pastures. This aptly fits that very high and very fruitful mountain from which the city itself, which is built on it, that is, the holy Church, is wont to say: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; in a place of pasture, there he has placed me” (Psalms 22). The name of the mountain itself is also pertinent, being called “a heap of testimony.” For the Lord is the heap of testimony, because in Him is gathered and united all the multitude of the saints, namely the living stones, who have been proved by the testimony of faith, as the Apostle says. Thus, the hair of the bride is compared to flocks of goats, which, grazing on this mount, always strive to ascend to higher places, because whether the temporal thoughts of the elect or the more fragile people of the Church, the less they find themselves to be free from fault, the higher they seek the help of Him from whom they understand themselves to be liberated. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Cassiodorus: So they say that these eyes have fainted after the Lord’s salvation, because of the holy coming of the incarnation, which they bore with such longing that it could allow them no rest. So they were right to faint, because they had no period of leisure. — EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 119:123

Richard Challoner: How beautiful art thou: Christ again praises the beauties of his church, which through the whole of this chapter are exemplified by a variety of metaphors, setting forth her purity, her simplicity, and her stability.

Robert of Tombelaine: Because we have explained these things above (Chapter 2, n. 35), as best we could, we now avoid repeating the same things for the sake of preserving brevity. But because there is added ‘Apart from what lies hidden within’, we must briefly consider how it is connected with what precedes. The bride is therefore beautiful, and her eyes are those of doves, apart from what lies hidden within, because whatever she does in outward things is very honorable: that she lives simply among people, that she disdains to desire the things she sees in this temporal world, and if anything in this world nevertheless pleases her, she abhors going after her desires. But it is far more beautiful and honorable that she strives to keep the desire of her heart unstained, that she holds in her mind the brightness of eternal blessedness and gazes upon it with uplifted contemplation, that in those things which she sees within she sweetly rests and is purified. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Robert of Tombelaine: If by the eyes the preachers of the Church are designated, because they show the way to the rest, then by the hair the peoples are fittingly signified, because they bestow adornment upon the same Church. The hair of the bride is therefore said to be like a flock of goats, because the peoples of the Church, while ruminating on the precepts of the law and contemplating heavenly things by faith, are clean animals and graze on the heights. Now Gilead is interpreted as “heap of testimony.” And what do we understand by a heap of testimony, if not the multitude of martyrs? For while they held the faith of Christ unconquerably, we know that they bore testimony to the truth even through their own death. And so that flock of goats ascends from Mount Gilead, because the people of the Church raise themselves by faith toward eternal things all the more, the more firmly they have known that the holy martyrs bore testimony to that same faith. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:2

Ambrose of Milan: [There is a] pleasing comparison to those that are shorn; for we know that goats both feed in high places without risk and securely find their food in rugged places, and then when shorn are freed from what is superfluous. The church is likened to a flock of these, having in itself the many virtues of those souls which through the laver lay aside the superfluity of sins and offer to Christ the mystic faith and the grace of good living, which speak of the cross of the Lord Jesus. — On the Mysteries 7:38

Augustine of Hippo: The teeth of the church are those through whom she speaks. Of what sort are your teeth? “Like a flock of sheep that are shorn.” Why “that are shorn”? Because they have laid aside the burdens of the world. Were not those sheep, of which I was a little before speaking, shorn, whom the bidding of God had shorn when he said, “Go and sell what you have, and give to the poor; and you shall find treasure in heaven: and come and follow me”? They performed this bidding: shorn they came. And because those who believe in Christ are baptized, what is there said “which come up from the washing” means they have come up from cleansing. “Whereof every one bears twins.” What twins? Those two commandments, whereupon hang all the law and the prophets. — EXPLANATIONS OF THE Psalms 95:9

Augustine of Hippo: “Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes.” What do shorn ewes mean? Those who lay aside secular burdens. What does shorn mean? Those who lay aside their fleeces, like the load of secular burdens. Those persons were your teeth, about whom it is written in the Acts of the Apostles that “they sold all their possessions and laid the proceeds at the feet of the apostles, so that distribution might be made to each, as there was need.” You have received the fleeces of your shorn ewes. That flock has come up from the washing of holy baptism. All have given birth, because they have fulfilled the two commandments. — SERMON 313B.3

Augustine of Hippo: He says to the church, his spouse, “Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn, which come up from the washing, all with twins, and there is none barren among them.” By this twin offspring the twofold object of love is meant, namely, God and the neighbor: “On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” — LETTER 149

Bede: Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep, etc. Just as in the hair of the Church, the people who are still dedicated to more fragile deeds are designated, in the teeth, the more perfect ones and those suited for governing the Church are denoted, because the former excel in number, the latter in firmness; the former inwardly refresh with the word, the latter, even if they grasp less of the internal mysteries, adorn the Church externally with good works. Is not he rightly called the shepherd of the Church, of whom it was said: “Rise, Peter, kill and eat” (Acts 10)? Kill, by teaching to anathematize what they worshipped in their evil ways, and graft them, having returned to the profession of true faith, into the unity of your body, which is the Church of Christ? Indeed, above, these same teachers were designated under the name of eyes; but they are eyes, because they sharply perceive the secrets of spiritual mysteries; they are teeth, because they rebuke the wicked with the word of truth and transfer those rebuked and purified into the holy members of the Church. They are the teeth of the Church, because they prepare the bread of the word of God for its little ones, to whom they themselves are not sufficient to be eaten. Pious nurses are accustomed to chew pieces of bread with their teeth and insert the small morsels into the mouths of infants while nursing, until they gradually lead them away from milk to the use of bread; thus the holy mother Church has teachers who, like breasts, minister the milk of milder doctrine to beginners; these same teachers also provide the bread of stronger word to those who are well progressing. But in order to rightly advance, it is necessary for them to gradually and by parts provoke to learn higher things, and first entrust more open things concerning spiritual secrets to them, and these discussed with careful and diligent exposition, as if already chewed beforehand by teeth, so that by doing this repeatedly, they gradually render them capable of the more interior secrets. These teeth are rightly compared to a flock of shorn sheep that have come up from the washing, because they are cleansed by the font of baptism and stripped of their possessions. And indeed, it is for all to be purified by the washing of Christ’s life, because unless one is born of water and the Spirit, and the rest (John 3), it is for the perfect, and especially those to whom the care of feeding his sheep is entrusted, to renounce all that they possess. Which, both those first and foremost teeth of the Church, that is, the apostles, and a great crowd of the primitive Church, are recorded to have done. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Bede: All bear twin offspring, etc. The sheep of Christ bear twin offspring, because all whom the holy teachers bring to God through preaching, they instruct in the twin love of the same God and neighbor. They bear twins, because they imbue the disciples whom they instruct with the knowledge of faith and good works. And there is none barren among them: there is no sheep of the supreme shepherd which does not produce offspring of good work; among whom there are many who rejoice in the offspring of both work and doctrine. But neither will those be counted among the barren who, washed by the fountain of salvation, are immediately taken from this life. For they have had the offspring of faith, which either they professed for themselves, or others professed for them; they have had the desire for good works, which they would have exercised among the sheep of Christ, if they had been granted more time. Concerning such it is written: “Being made perfect in a short time, he fulfilled long times” (Wis. 4:13). For his soul was pleasing to God; therefore He hastened to take him away from iniquity (Ibid.). — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Cyril of Jerusalem: “Your teeth are like a flock of ewes to be shorn.” A sincere confession is a spiritual shearing! And further: “all of them big with twins,” signifying the twofold grace, either that perfected by water and the Spirit, or that announced in the Old and in the New Testament. — Catechetical Lecture 3:16

Gregory of Nyssa: Now is the time to examine the beauty attributed to the teeth of shorn sheep.… If we look at the literal meaning of this verse, I do not see how teeth can be compared with prolific sheep.… What then can we gather from these words? Persons reducing the divine mysteries into small fragments for a clearer interpretation of the text make spiritual food more easily acceptable for the body of the church. They perform the function of teeth by receiving the thick, dense bread of the text into their mouths. By a more subtle contemplation, they make the food delectable. — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 7

Robert of Tombelaine: Just as by the eyes preachers are understood, because through them the Church is illuminated, so likewise they can be called her teeth, because through them unbelievers are consumed and little ones are nourished. Indeed, holy preachers are rightly called teeth, because when they elucidate Holy Scripture by expounding it to the lesser brethren, they chew bread, as it were, for the little ones, like mothers for their children, so that the weak may grow strong for harder fare. These are rightly said to be like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, because when they remember that they were washed from all sins in baptism, they willingly lay down the burdens of the world, so that they may advance toward attaining and preaching heavenly things all the more freely and easily. Of these it is added: All bearing twins, and there is no barren one among them. All holy preachers bear twin offspring, because while they surpass other people in the two precepts of charity, they preach the twofold love, and in it they do not cease to beget two peoples, Jewish and Gentile. Among them none is barren, because indeed one who disdains to beget spiritual children is not to be called a preacher. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:3

Bede: Like a scarlet ribbon, your lips, etc. The lips of the bride are compared to scarlet because the Church ceaselessly proclaims the price of the Lord’s blood by which it was redeemed; but it continually sings: But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians XIV). And it should be noted that her lips are compared not simply to scarlet, but to a scarlet ribbon: for a ribbon is typically used to bind the hair. If by the hair of the bride the faithful people are understood, the ribbon that binds them and fits them more properly to the head, what else is it understood to be but the doctrine of truth? With which it is necessary to confirm the immature minds of believers and diligently apply them to the love and worship of their Creator, lest the wicked roam freely through idle acts and flee from the embrace or adornment of the true head, lest they impede even the eyes, that is, those who ought to show them the light of justice, by undue relaxation. Just as the good deeds of disciples sometimes become an example of virtue for teachers, so more often their neglect causes harm to the teachers’ good actions. Therefore, he says, like a scarlet ribbon, your lips, and your speech is sweet, because the Church customarily fortifies and as it were dyes its doctrine, which restrains the minds of the weak from licentiousness, with the memory of the Lord’s passion. For nothing more effectively restrains the voluptuous from carnal desires than when they hear or recall that the Lord of glory was pleased to be incarnate and suffer for them. Hence rightly the Lord considers such speech sweet because he very gladly accepts it when he sees us recount and meditate on this to one another, for the sake of which he himself came down to us from heaven. If we say that thoughts are represented by hair and spiritual senses of the faithful by eyes, the end of the exposition is the same: because we restrain the unrestrained wandering of superfluous thoughts by no other order more easily than by the memory and frequent recollection of the Lord’s blood. But also, often when we entertain harmful thoughts with an incautious mind, and are suddenly checked by God, we imprint the sign of the holy cross on our breast and discard what we were contemplating wickedly, as if binding our hair with a scarlet ribbon, because we suppress the loose thoughts with the trophy of sacred blood. If this salutary binding is lacking, they sully the whole beauty of the head by drifting, because they disturb the tranquillity of the mind and cover the sharpness of the eyes, because they obscure the grace of spiritual senses with the improper meditation of carnal things. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Bede: Like a fragment of a pomegranate, etc. We have also previously taught that shame is designated by the cheeks, because surely a sudden blush usually spreads over these when we are embarrassed. However, the pomegranate, because it is of a rosy color, quite fittingly hints at the mystery of the Lord’s Passion, just as does the scarlet. For it was fitting that the manner of our redemption is indicated frequently in sacred song by the repetition of figures, as also intimated in other prophetic Scriptures. Therefore, because the holy Church is not ashamed of the cross of Christ, but even rejoices in the reproaches and sufferings for Christ, and usually carries the banner of his cross on her face, it is fittingly remembered that her cheeks are like a pomegranate fragment. Nor is it inconsequential that they are compared not to an entire pomegranate but to a fragment; for in a broken pomegranate, both the part of the redness that was exposed is seen, and the part that lay hidden inside, whiteness, is revealed. Thus, the bride has the redness of a pomegranate on her cheeks when the Church confesses the sacrament of the Lord’s cross in words. She also shows the whiteness of the broken pomegranate when she proves the chastity of a pure heart through being struck by pressures and deeds, just as the cross itself of her Redeemer reveals what it holds within of saving grace. Again, she shows the red color on her cheeks when the foremost and most eminent of her members, that is, the holy martyrs, shed their blood for Christ. She also adds the white when these same martyrs, during their suffering or after completing their passion, shine forth even with miracles. Nor should we overlook that the pomegranate encloses a great abundance of seeds within one outer peel, whence it is also called the apple of seeds, which indeed cannot be seen when the pomegranate is whole, but become clear how numerous they are when it is broken. So indeed the holy Church, the more she is broken by adversities, the more clearly she reveals how many grains of virtues she embraces under the covering of one faith. And rightly it is added: Besides that which lies hidden within, because indeed the confession of the life-giving cross in the Church can be heard by all, the pressures on the Church can be seen by all; also the brilliance of charisms, which heals the sick, raises the dead, cleanses lepers, drives out demons, and other such things can be viewed by both infidels and the faithful, they can also be marveled at. But she alone knows with what love of invisible life she is held, with what flame she burns in the vision of her Creator, with what love she ignites in the progress of her members. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Robert of Tombelaine: These same preachers are called the lips of the Church, because through them she speaks the precepts of life to the peoples. They are fittingly compared to a ribbon, because while they restrain loose thoughts in the hearts of men by their preaching, they hold back, as it were, scattered hairs lest they spread out excessively. But what does it mean that they are compared not merely to a ribbon, but to a scarlet one, unless that by scarlet is understood the flame of charity, with which they burn, and through them others are kindled? Through them the speech of holy Church is sweetened, because while they practice what they preach, they set before men their preaching as if it were savory food. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Robert of Tombelaine: What do we understand by the cheeks of the Church, if not those same preachers who, while they stand out among the peoples so as to benefit them, appear as if visible upon the face of the Church? By the pomegranate, moreover, the Church itself is signified, because while it nourishes many peoples in the unity of faith, it binds together, as it were, many seeds under one rind. The holy preachers are therefore a piece of pomegranate, because while they afflict themselves as seeds more vigorously than others in divine service, while they despise all worldly things, while they deny their own pleasures and utterly mortify their vices, and elevate others, and while they nourish others through their examples, they offer themselves as food, as if broken open and laid bare. But although the things that appear outwardly are great, they nevertheless retain greater things in secret, which the divine eyes alone see. Therefore it is added: Apart from what lies hidden within. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:4

Bede: As the tower of David, your neck, etc. And we have said above about the neck, which signifies the holy teachers who continuously enrich the Church by nourishing it with spiritual sustenance and strengthen it in faith through the words of holy exhortation. But also, the fact that the neck, positioned in the middle, connects the head to the body, aptly suits those through whose ministry the Church is united to Christ, who handed down the nourishment of life received from the Lord Himself. The Apostle, commending the grace of the Gospel, says about them: “Which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him” (Hebrews 2). Hence, it is written about Him: “And He gave to the disciples the loaves, and the disciples gave them to the crowds; and they all ate and were satisfied” (Matthew 14). This was done in such a corporal manner to signify also the spiritual acts of the Lord, because evidently, He entrusted the bread of heavenly doctrine to the first members of His Church, namely the apostles, who then served it to the body of the Church subjected to them, and thus succeeded by ministers of the word in order, the full nourishing of salvation was spread throughout the world. That neck is rightly said to be like the tower of David. If the city of David is the Church of Christ, the tower in that city is the unassailable constancy of the preachers who, to defend the edifices of faith and repel the weapons of enemies, were built with higher strength than other believers from the strong hand and beloved king, which the name David signifies. The bulwarks with which this tower is constructed are understood to be either the sacred Scriptures or the defenses of divine gifts. For He compared the neck of the bride to a tower, when the Lord made the first teachers of the Church, with the grace of the Holy Spirit given, invincible to their enemies. He added bulwarks to the tower when He opened their understanding to comprehend the Scriptures (Luke 24), and proved true the words of their preaching against the sayings of the preceding fathers. He added bulwarks to the tower when He also bestowed upon them the gifts of performing signs, so that by new works of miracles they might assert the divine nature of the new things they preached, and through the healing of bodily diseases, they might more easily attract those they taught to the salvation of the soul. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Bede: A thousand shields hang from it, etc. The thousand shields hanging from the tower of David are innumerable defenses of divine protection, by which the holy preachers are assisted by the Lord so that they cannot be overcome by enemies, and they also teach their listeners to be helped against the attacks of enemies, whether visible or invisible. All the armor of the mighty is every instruction or operation or heavenly doctrine, through which these same teachers not only evade but also overcome the ranks of evil spirits, when by preaching they rescue many of those whom they had held deceived from their dominion, and transfer them from vessels of wrath into vessels of mercy; and fittingly, where there is mention of spiritual war, there the tower of David, not the tower of Solomon, is set as an example, since the name and person of both kings often represents the figure of the eternal king: for David means strong in hand, or desirable to see, and rightly by this name is designated the Lord, where it is taught to fight against the enemies of the Church, so that it proceeds to the combat unafraid, reminded that it is aided by Him who cannot be overcome, and strives more urgently to conquer the more it knows His face to be desirable to see, to which it will come when the enemy is defeated. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Robert of Tombelaine: For we stretch out the neck when we wish to see farther ahead. Therefore the holy preachers are fittingly called eyes for one reason, teeth for another, cheeks for yet another, and the neck for still another. Rightly, then, the neck of holy Church is said to be like the tower of David, because the holy preachers watch from afar the enemies approaching holy Church, and they resist mightily if any try to harm the Church, and, freely despising earthly things, they contemplate heavenly things. They are called the neck, therefore, on account of watching for enemies, and a tower on account of their strength and on account of the lofty contemplation of heavenly joys. This tower is rightly said to be David’s, because David is interpreted as “strong of hand,” by which Christ is signified, whose is whatever works with strength and loftiness. Of this it is added: ‘Which is built with battlements; a thousand shields hang from it, all the armor of the mighty.’ The tower of David is said to be built with battlements because the holy preachers are armed with miracles against hostile men, if need be. Against vices, however, they fortify themselves with shields, because lest they succumb to spiritual enemies, they defend themselves with virtues. On them hangs all the armor of the mighty, because whoever wishes to resist strongly the battalions of enemies sees in them examples by which he is able to vigorously overcome armed foes. A thousand here stands for perfection, because in the number one thousand all perfect numbers are completed. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:5

Bede: Your two breasts, etc. The same mysteries of Christ and the Church are repeated in various ways and in many forms, but repeated they always bring something new, which either provides an explanation for the same mysteries or through the novelty itself, delights the minds of the listeners further. Therefore, the same teachers who were previously designated by the names of eyes or teeth or neck, are now expressed by the term breasts: indeed, they may rightly be called eyes, because they perceive the hidden mysteries; rightly called teeth, because by rebuking the wicked, they as it were chew, and pass them into the body of the Church softened and humbled; rightly called neck, because to the whole body of the Church, they minister eternal joys by preaching, as if they were providing vital breath, and prepare the food of doctrines by which it is refashioned for salvation. But they are most aptly called breasts now, because they pour out the milk of the saving word to those who are still infants in Christ. Nor does he say “your two breasts” without reason, with the addition of a number, since no woman usually has more or less than two breasts: he says two breasts, to suggest that the infants of the two peoples, namely the Jewish and the Gentile, are to be nourished in faith. Finally, Paul says: James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto the circumcision; and so forth (Gal. II). But see what Peter, who was sent to the circumcision, says: As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby; if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious (I Pet. II). By saying this, he also explains the mystery of the Church’s breasts, saying that it is reasonable to desire the milk of the Lord, because He is sweet. Again, let us see if Paul, who was sent to the uncircumcision, also performs the duty of the breasts; for he says: And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ, I have fed you with milk, and not with meat (I Cor. III). These two breasts are like two twins of a roe, because they are indeed offspring of the one to whom it is so often said in this song: Be thou like to a roe or to a young hart. Like twins of a roe, because with the pure eyes of their hearts, they discern what is to be done, what avoided, by which path of virtues to proceed, because with a sagacious mind they perceive the words’ complexities to be avoided, and hasten in the swift course of good works from the valley of weeping to the place which God has appointed; so that walking from virtue to virtue they may deserve to see Him in Zion, that is, in the watchtower of eternal habitation. For roes excel in both the swiftness of their feet and the sharpness of their eyes; hence those who are ordered to show the way of knowledge and virtue to the unlearned are fittingly compared to these. As he says, like two twins of a roe; well twins, because imbued with the same faith, renewed by the same sacraments, the teachers of both peoples gather all whom they educate into the one Church of Christ. Thus, Peter says of those who believed from the uncircumcision: And God, who knows the hearts, bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith (Acts XV). — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Bede: Those who are fed among the lilies, etc. The holy teachers are nourished by the pure and resplendent flowers of the divine Scriptures, and lest the milk of salvific doctrine, with which they feed the little ones, should lack, they always read in the writings of the Fathers what they ought to achieve, how they should teach, and they satisfy their hearts as though with vital sap, and this until the end of the world. For after that day shall dawn which the Psalmist desiringly spoke of: For one day in your courts is better than a thousand (Psalms 83), there will be neither a time for teaching nor a time for learning. The prophecy will be fulfilled which says: And they shall not teach each other, saying: Know the Lord, for they shall all know me (Jeremiah 31); but with all the shadows of this world entirely inclined and consumed, the saints will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13), each receiving rewards according to what they have learned, done, and taught. Beautiful, indeed, as far as the natural order is concerned, is the vanishing of the night, the inclination of the shadows, because the darkness of the night, as philosophers say, is nothing other than the shadow of the earth. For the sun, circling the earth, brings with it light and day; on the other hand, from the side where it is absent, it leaves the shadow of the earth. And this is the primordial division whereby God divided between the light and the darkness. These shadows, with the sun setting, and now and then rising again, gradually begin to lift, and as much as the sun descends under the earth, these shadows grow and rise, until, at the midpoint of the night, the sun being set under the middle of the earth, the shadows themselves, now raised, occupy the middle of the earth, and then, with the sun gradually proceeding, they also gradually bend towards their setting, until, with the dawn appearing, they entirely inclining vanish away. Therefore, the shadows of the earth do not reach the stars because the sun, created larger than the earth, makes a pointed shadow which, before it reaches the stars, dissipates, and the splendor of the sun spread all around the earth freely illuminates the stars that look upon it. Hence, the present life is night; the sun of justice, Christ. Whose light is often concealed from us by the heavy mass of earthly desires, so that it is not seen. And as strictly as He recedes from us, we are darkened; as graciously as He returns, we are illuminated. Truly, however, we will enjoy His light when, all darkness of present affliction and blindness being now inclined and dispersed, we will see Him as He is (1 John 3). Yet, being mindful of our salvation in all things, He did not leave the night of this life entirely in darkness, but like planting stars in the sky, He proposed to us the examples of the saints, through which we might walk the path of our deeds unfalteringly. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Gregory the Dialogist: And hence in the Song of Songs it is said to Holy Church by the voice of the bridegroom, “Thy two breasts are like two twin kids of the she goat, which feed among the lilies, until the day breathe, and the shadows incline.” For what are the two breasts, except the two peoples coming from Jewry and from among the Gentiles, who are implanted in the body of Holy Church, by the purpose of wisdom, upon the secret of the heart. And they who are elected from these people, are compared to the young of the she-goat, because they are conscious through their humility that they are weak and sinful; but if any obstacles meet them in the way of worldly impediment, as they are hastening on by the power of love, they bound over them, and with the leaps of contemplation climb to the knowledge of heavenly things. And in order to do this, they study the examples of the Saints who have gone before. Whence they are said to feed amongst the lilies. For what is meant by lilies, but the conduct of those who say with all truth, “We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ?” The Elect, therefore, in order to gain strength to attain the highest eminence, feed themselves to the full by beholding the sweet-scented and pure life of the just. — Morals on the Book of Job, Book 24.17

Origen of Alexandria: And in the song of the bride, hair, teeth, lips, cheeks, the neck, and breasts, are praised by the bridegroom. The bride is either the soul of man, which enters into marriage with Christ, or the church. The parts of the body are interpreted figuratively: if they are said of the soul, then they apply to its powers. — FRAGMENTS ON Luke 186

Richard Challoner: Thy two breasts: Mystically to be understood: the love of God and the love of our neighbour, which are so united as twins which feed among the lilies: that is, the love of God and our neighbour, feeds on the divine mysteries and the holy sacraments, left by Christ to his spouse to feed and nourish her children.

Robert of Tombelaine: By the two breasts, two orders of preachers are designated: one in circumcision, the other in uncircumcision. They are fittingly called like two fawns of a doe, because they are children of the Synagogue and feed on the mountains of contemplation. They are called twins because they preach in harmony and think in harmony. They feed among the lilies until the day breathes and the shadows decline, because they pursue purity tirelessly until on the day of judgment they receive the rewards which they continually contemplate during the labors of the night. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:6

Bede: I will go to the mountain of myrrh, etc. In myrrh is represented the mortification of the flesh, or the endurance of sufferings for the sake of piety; in incense, the high devotion of prayer is expressed. But the mountain of myrrh, and the hill of incense, represent the very loftiness of the mind of those who effectively overcome the struggle of the flesh, and fervently lift themselves to the love of heavenly things. Indeed, to this mountain and this hill the Lord goes, because He will often deign to visit and dwell in the hearts of those who strive for virtues. Hence, He says: I will dwell in them, and walk among them (II Cor. VI). Praising the Church, therefore, and enumerating each member of its virtues, He suddenly adds: I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense, which is openly saying: I will frequent them and glorify them with benevolent enlightenment, whom I observe to be exalted in the virtue of suffering or prayer. I will come often and make my abode with them; whom I regard as purifying from the pollution of the body and perfecting sanctification in the fear of God. Not that He proposes to desert it, which He praised, and to go to others, but because He intends to daily add new peoples to the same Church and to extend it throughout the entire world. Nor is it incongruous that these things, since the speech is about the Church from the nations, might be understood regarding the calling of the Synagogue, which is to occur at the end. For He returns an answer to her desire, in which, having found Him previously, she said: I held Him and would not let Him go until I brought Him into my mother’s house. And in the next verse, He taught that the Church of the Gentiles would never let Him go, as He said: Your two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies, until the day breathes and the shadows flee away; that is, teachers will be in you, who will instruct two peoples, concordant in humble and chaste love until the end of the age, when the day of eternal retribution will appear. Then, because He is also going to call Judea, He more manifestly insinuates, adding: I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense; not because on coming, He will find it in the height of virtues, which having given a bill of divorce has long since departed from His faith, but because by coming, He will make it worthy of His fellowship. Hence, He well immediately subjoins about the very ample beauty of the one and the same Church, which is to be gathered either from Judea or from all nations throughout the world. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Robert of Tombelaine: What do we understand by the mountain of myrrh, if not the strong height of mortification in work, and what by the hill of frankincense, if not the lofty humility in prayer? The bridegroom therefore goes to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense, because he intimately visits those whom he perceives to be advancing to great heights through the mortification of vices and to be giving off a sweet fragrance through pure and humble prayers. For by these virtues the holy Church, or each individual soul, is made clean, because while she struggles against vices through the mortification of pleasures, and is frequently washed with tears through holy prayers, she cleanses away her stains so that she may please the bridegroom, before whom she strives to appear beautiful. The bridegroom through his grace brings her striving to its fulfillment, and kindly praises his own work in the bride. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:7

Ambrose of Milan: God the Word says to [the church], “You are all fair, my love, and there is no blemish in you,” for guilt has been washed away. “Come here from Lebanon, my spouse, come here from Lebanon, from the beginning of faith you will pass through and pass on,” because, renouncing the world, she passed through things temporal and passed on to Christ. — On the Mysteries 7:39

Ambrose of Milan: This is indeed true beauty, to which nothing is wanting, which alone is worthy to hear the Lord saying, “You are all fair, my love, and no blemish is in you. Come hither from Lebanon, my spouse, come hither from Lebanon. You shall pass and pass through from the beginning of faith, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of the leopards.” By which references is set forth the perfect and irreproachable beauty of a virgin soul, consecrated to the altars of God, not moved by perishable things amidst the haunts and dens of spiritual wild beasts but intent, by the mysteries of God, on being found worthy of the beloved, whose breasts are full of joy. — Concerning Virginity 1.7.38

Ambrose of Milan: You pass through and penetrate from the beginning of faith. That is, you will pass through to fight the world and you will penetrate to Christ to triumph over the world. You have heard that he removes you from the incursions of lions and leopards, that is, of spiritual evils. You have heard that the beauty of your virtues pleases him; you have heard that he prefers the fragrance of your garments, that is, the sweet perfume of integrity, to all other perfumes. You have heard that you are an enclosed garden, full of the products of delightful fruit trees. Ask, therefore, for the Holy Spirit to breathe on you on your couch and to gather the fragrances of a holy mind and spiritual gifts. — Concerning Virginity 12:69

Ambrose of Milan: “Come hither from Lebanon. You shall pass and pass through.” This verse must be often repeated by us, that at least being called by the words of the Lord, she may follow if there be any who will not trust the words of man. We have not formed this power for ourselves, but have received it; this is the heavenly teaching of the mystic song. — Concerning Virginity 2.6.42

Jerome: “Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. You shall come and pass on from the beginning of faith, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.” Lebanon is, being interpreted, “whiteness.” Come then, fairest bride, concerning whom it is elsewhere said, “Who is she that comes up, all in white?” Pass on by way of this world, from the beginning of faith, and from Senir, which is by interpretation, “God of light,” as we read in the psalm: “Your word is a lantern unto my feet, and light unto my path,” and “from Hermon,” that is, “consecration,” and “flee from the lions’ dens, and the mountains of the leopards who cannot change their spots.” — Against Jovinianus 1.30

Robert of Tombelaine: Since it is written: “No one lives without sin, not even an infant whose life is of one day upon the earth” (Job 24:4, according to the Septuagint), what does it mean that the bride is said to be entirely beautiful, in whom no blemish is found? For elsewhere it is written: “The stars are not pure in his sight” (Job 25:5). And elsewhere: “In many things we all offend” (James 3:2). And the apostle John says: “If we say that we have no sin, the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). And likewise: “If we say that we do not sin, we lie, and do not practice the truth” (ibid. 6). But when the holy soul cleanses itself from daily sins through repentance, when it daily washes away minor sins with tears and guards itself from greater ones, although it sins frequently, nevertheless through constant repentance it continually preserves its purity. For this reason it is commanded elsewhere: “Let your garments always be white” (Ecclesiastes 9:8). And that saying: “The just man lives by faith” (Romans 1:17). For although as soon as he sins he strays from justice, yet since he always believes in him who justifies the ungodly, and continually bewails his sins under that faith, through constant washings he retains his righteousness. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Theodoret of Cyrus: We require prayer, in fact—attentive and earnest prayer—for our eyes to become like doves with the gift of spiritual sight, getting beyond the veil of the letter and distinguishing clearly the hidden mysteries. It is not possible by any other way, you see, to come to know the meaning of the divine Scripture, especially the Song of Songs, than having the very one who inspired those composers illuminate our vision by sending rays of grace and give a glimpse of the hidden sense. — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4

Song of Solomon 4:8

Cyril of Alexandria: This teaches us the bride’s place of origin, that she comes from the worship of idols. For Mount Lebanon is full of idols, whence you come, it says, hastening past through the law. Without knowing the law, you were taught the mystery of Christ. — FRAGMENTS IN THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4:8

Robert of Tombelaine: For Lebanon is interpreted as “whitening.” What then is understood by Lebanon if not baptism, in which holy Church is washed with water and is whitened from the blackness of sins through the Holy Spirit whom she receives and through faith in Christ? Whence it is written: “You will sprinkle me, Lord, with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed” (Psalms 50:9). From Lebanon, therefore, holy Church comes to the crown, because in Christ’s baptism she receives faith, under which by Christ’s grace she merits to be able to receive the reward. But what does it mean that “Come” is said three times, unless that whatever she works subsists in faith and in hope and in charity, so that fortified by these three virtues she may have the strength by which she does not grow weary on the way? For concerning faith it is said: “Cleansing their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9). And again: “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Concerning hope it is said: “None who hope in you, Lord, shall be confounded. For who has hoped in you and been forsaken?” (Sirach 2:11–12). Concerning charity it is said: “Charity covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). And again: “If I distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I hand over my body so that I burn, but have not charity, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). And the apostle John: “God is charity” (1 John 4:16). However, it can also be understood in another way that “Come” is said three times. For the holy bride comes to Christ while living in this world she works whatever good she can. She comes when at the hour of death the soul, that is the bride herself, is stripped from the flesh. She comes a third time when on the day of the last judgment she takes up the flesh again and enters the heavenly bridal chamber with Christ. There indeed she obtains the rewards of all her labors; there, with her enemies now utterly cast down and shut out, she is gloriously crowned. And therefore here it is said to her by way of promise: “You shall be crowned from the top of Amana, from the summit of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards.” — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Robert of Tombelaine: What is understood by Amana, Sanir, and Hermon, namely the names of mountains, if not the powerful of this age? The wealthier they are, the more exalted and stronger they appear to be among the weak. But from these mountains holy Church is crowned, because while she preaches the eternal kingdom, while by her own example she demonstrates that all things of the world are worthless, she bends even the powerful themselves to repentance, and prepares for herself a crown in the heavens for seeking them out. Thus indeed it happens that the humble cast down the proud, and the weak bring low the exalted. Therefore it is written: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low” (Isa. 40:4). But what does it mean that she is said to be crowned not only from the mountains but also from the peaks of the mountains, except what we see fulfilled — that already the most exalted persons themselves believe in Christ and obey His precepts through the preaching of the Church? For kings and emperors serve Christ, lay down their crowns, and through repentance seek pardon in the Church. If therefore by the peaks of the mountains we understand the highest persons, rightly by the dens of lions and the mountains of leopards are designated the various princes and ministers who serve cruelty and deceive by their cunning those whom they cannot harm by force. Leopards indeed always carry spots on their skin — by whom are signified any other than hypocrites or the quarrelsome? For in those who pursue credulity, demons recline as lions. In those, however, they build mountains as leopards, whom, while they permit them to mix certain virtues with their vices, they compel to seek the glory of praise for all their good deeds. These therefore truly imitate the variety of leopards, because while they pursue vices along with virtues, they are divided as if by dissimilarity of color on a mottled hide. But from the dens of lions and from the mountains of leopards the Church is crowned, because while through her preaching both the cruel are converted to piety and hypocrites to the unity of a humble life, for all these she will receive the reward she deserves. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:9

Bede: You have wounded my heart, my sister, etc. This statement can be understood simply, as he might have wished to express the greatness of the love he has toward the Church through the remembrance of the wounded heart. He rightly calls her his sister and bride, because he has joined her to himself with the bond of the heavenly bedchamber, and because he himself deigned to become a man and naturally exist as her brother. It can also be according to what Isaiah said: But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our transgressions (Isaiah 53). He then subsequently explains what is the chief cause of receiving this wound, saying: — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Bede: In one of your eyes, etc. We have already said that in the eyes of the Church, either her spiritual senses or those who are able to see and demonstrate her spiritualities, the teachers are understood: furthermore, in the hair, the multitude of people, who, although they cannot reach the height of that discourse in which the Lord says: If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me (Matthew 19), nonetheless they tend towards heavenly things by the way of good actions, of which He previously said: If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself (Ibid.). But there, while the eyes and the hairs are described in the plural number, indicating a multitude either of leaders or listeners; here, in one of the eyes, the unity of the teachers or of the spiritual knowledge, which they teach, is commended, of which it is written: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Ephesians 4). Also, in one strand of the neck, the unity of those who are accustomed to adhere to spiritual teachers with pious devotion is praised, covering them with reverential services, just as hairs cover the neck: for even in the neck of the Church the same teachers were shown above. Luke designates this unity of hair when he says: The multitude of believers were of one heart and one soul (Acts 4); nor did any say that anything of what they possessed was their own, but they had all things in common (Ibid.). What the neck, to which this same hair was attached, might do, he subsequently intimates, saying: With great power, the apostles gave testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord (Acts 6). He says, therefore: You have wounded my heart, my sister, my bride, you have wounded my heart in one of your eyes and in one strand of your neck. As if to say plainly, Indeed the whole form of your body, which spreads far and wide throughout the world, O Catholic Church, appears beautiful and spotless to me; but this is what remarkably arouses me above others to love you, because you are proven to have the unity of the same faith and love, both in your illustrious faithful and in your subjects. This is what led me to endure the wound of death in your behalf. Because I desired you to strive for unity in all your members, both in the greater and lesser, and the stronger and the more moderate, so that with one and undivided mind you may strive for that life in which the unity of true peace and glory reigns. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Cyril of Alexandria: Truly you inflamed us with desire for you by one word of confession, which you rightly possessed, seeing with your interior eyes. For you made a confession by your necklace. These things were said to the bride by friends of the bridegroom, that is, by angelic powers. For, since the power of the visual faculty is twofold, one sees the truth and another wanders astray after vanity. Because the pure eye of the bride is opened only toward the nature of the good but the other is idle, therefore the friends give praise only to one eye, calling her “sister” on account of their kinship with respect to freedom from passion but calling her “bride” on account of her marriage to the Word. Because he says that your eye is one, therefore, insofar as it beholds one thing, likewise is your soul one, insofar as it is not divided into many dispositions. And your necklace is perfect, given that you imposed the divine yoke upon yourself, for this necklace is surely the yoke of the Lord. For this reason, we confess that you created a heart for us by your wondrous dowry, which is to say that our souls and minds were brought to the contemplation of the light through you. For in you we contemplate the sun of justice as though in a mirror. — FRAGMENTS IN THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4:9

Jerome: Flee, he says, from the lions’ dens, flee from the pride of devils, that when you have been consecrated to me, I may be able to say unto you, “You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.” What he says is something like this—I do not reject marriage: you have a second eye, the left, which I have given to you on account of the weakness of those who cannot see the right. But I am pleased with the right eye of virginity, and if it is blinded, the whole body is in darkness. And that we might not think he had in view carnal love and bodily marriage, he at once excludes this meaning by saying, “You have ravished my heart, my bride, my sister.” The name sister excludes all suspicion of unhallowed love. “How fair are your breasts with wine,” those breasts concerning which he had said above, my beloved is mine, and I am his: “between my breasts shall he lie,” that is, in the princely portion of the heart where the Word of God has its lodging. — Against Jovinianus 1.30

Jerome: You should not grieve that you are destitute of those bodily eyes which ants, flies and creeping things have as well as do people. Rather you should rejoice that you possess that eye of which it is said in the Song of Songs, “You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes.” This is the eye with which God is seen and to which Moses refers when he says, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight.” — LETTER 76.2

Robert of Tombelaine: By the eyes of the bride, the preachers of the holy Church are designated, as has been said; by the hair, the multitude of the people is figured; by the neck, moreover, the joining of the holy head and body is shown, which is understood as the faith of the Church. For through this faith the head and body are joined, since each person clings to Christ all the more tenaciously, the more faithful he is held to be in good conduct. Therefore the bridegroom is wounded by one of the eyes and by one hair of the bride’s neck, because indeed he is afflicted even to the death of the cross, so that the unity of preachers and people in the Church might be confirmed. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:10

Ambrose of Milan: Christ, then, feeds his church with these sacraments, by means of which the substance of the soul is strengthened, and seeing the continual progress of her grace, he rightly says to her, “How comely are your breasts, my sister, my spouse, how comely they are made by wine, and the smell of your garments is above all spices. A dropping honeycomb are your lips, my spouse, honey and milk are under your tongue, and the smell of your garments is as the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed.” By which he signifies that the mystery ought to remain sealed up with you, that it be not violated by the deeds of an evil life, and pollution of chastity, that it be not made known to you, for whom it is not fitting, nor by garrulous talkativeness it be spread abroad among unbelievers. Your guardianship of the faith ought therefore to be good, that integrity of life and silence may endure unblemished. — On the Mysteries 9:55

Ambrose of Milan: “A garden enclosed,” says He, “is My sister, My spouse, a garden enclosed, a sealed fountain.” Christ says this to the Church, which he desires to be a virgin, without spot, without a wrinkle. A fertile garden is virginity, which can bear many fruits of good odour. A garden enclosed, because it is everywhere shut in by the wall of chastity. A sealed fountain, because virginity is the source and origin of modesty, having to keep inviolate the seal of purity, in which source the image of God is reflected, since the purity of simplicity agrees also with chastity of the body. — Epistle 63.36

Ambrose of Milan: Therefore, beware that the strength of your mind is not weakened by a certain union of bodily pleasure, and that everything dissolves into its embrace, and it opens the fountain, which ought to be closed and sealed by the study of intention and the consideration of reason. For a garden is closed, a fountain is sealed. For when the strength of the mind is dissolved, the senses pour forth a bodily pleasure excessively pernicious, and rush into a desire full of serious danger; which, if it had remained under the vigilant custody of a vivid mind, it would have restrained. — On Isaac and the Soul 1.2

Ambrose of Milan: In gardens of this kind the water of the pure fountain shines, reflecting the features of the image of God, lest its streams mingled with mud from the wallowing places of spiritual wild beasts should be polluted. For this reason, too, that modesty of virgins fenced in by the wall of the Spirit is enclosed lest it should lie open to be plundered. And so as a garden inaccessible from without smells of the violet, is scented with the olive and is resplendent with the rose, that religion may increase in the vine, peace in the olive and the modesty of consecrated virginity in the rose. — Concerning Virginity 1.9.45

Gregory of Nyssa: Because a seal protects the inviolability of whatever it guards, it scares off thieves; everything not stolen remains unharmed for the master. Praise of the bride in the Song would then testify to her excellence in virtue because her mind remains safe from enemies and is guarded for her Lord in purity and tranquility. Purity seals this fountain while the radiance and transparency of the bride’s heart is unclouded by no mire of evil thoughts. — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 9

Pacian of Barcelona: We know, too, that since it is “the well of living water” and “a fountain enclosed,” it is defiled with no filth from a heretical abyss; that it is also a garden and filled with herbs great and small alike, some of little value, some precious; and that it is also the eight souls from the ark. — LETTER 3:21

Peter Chrysologus: He so departed from the abode of the womb that the virginal door did not open, and what is sung in the Canticle of Canticles was fulfilled: “My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.” — SERMON 145

Robert of Tombelaine: What is more fittingly understood by the breasts in this place than the very love of God and neighbor, about which we spoke above? Through these the holy mind nourishes all its senses in love, while it is bound to its God by the tenacity of charity, and freely bestows upon its neighbors whatever benefit it has, whenever it is permitted. How much the bridegroom loves these breasts of the bride, he openly shows in the repetition of praise. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Robert of Tombelaine: What we said above concerning the breasts of the bridegroom, we consider can also be understood here when he speaks of the bride. ‘And the fragrance of your ointments is above all spices.’ By ointments, indeed, are understood those very virtues which arise from charity. For even the reprobate sometimes possess spices with which they give off fragrance, because they possess certain virtues and perform good works; but because they live without charity, nothing they do is pleasing in the sight of God. Hence at the judgment, when they shall say: ‘Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ (Matt. 7:22), it shall be answered to them: ‘I never knew you; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’ Rightly, therefore, the ointments of the Church are said to give off fragrance above all spices, because even though the works of the reprobate sometimes please men, those which holy Church prepares from charity give off fragrance in the divine nostrils without ceasing. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Theodoret of Cyrus: He calls her “a garden,” not as though bearing a single fruit of piety and virtue, but as one producing many and varied fruits; and “locked” as though sealed off and proof against intrigue.… She is also “a fountain sealed.” She is not available to everyone but to those thought worthy of these streams; the Lord in the sacred Gospels also says of this fountain, “Whoever drinks of the water I shall give will not thirst forever, and instead there will be in them a spring of living water gushing up to life eternal.” Properly, then, he refers to her as “a fountain sealed” for not being available to everyone but to those thought worthy. The divine sacraments, after all, are available not to the uninitiated but to the initiated, not to those wallowing in iniquity after initiation but to those living an exact life or purified through repentance. — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4

Theodoret of Cyrus: “Your lips distill a honeycomb, bride; honey and milk are under your tongue.” Here it refers to the teachers of the church, offering religious teaching and, as it were, carrying honeycomb of bees on its lips, and distilling drops of honey, containing not only honey but also milk, and providing to each the appropriate nourishment, both suited to the infants and adapted to the mature. Now, honeycombs borne on the lips of the teachers are the divine Scriptures, which contain bees that make honeycombs and produce honey, the sacred prophets and apostles. These latter fly about the meadows of the Holy Spirit, as it were constructing the honeycombs of the divine Scriptures, filling them with the honey of doctrine and dispatching them to us for our benefit. The letter resembles the honeycomb, while the sense hidden in it resembles the honey; the lips of pious teachers release the drops of this honey. Also, milk flowing from their tongue reaches those in need of milk. — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4

Theodoret of Cyrus: “Fragrance of your garments like the fragrance of frankincense.” We said before that the bridegroom himself became her garment, and blessed Paul confirms it in the words, “All of you who were baptized into Christ put on Christ.” Now, the bridegroom is both God eternal and was born a man from the holy Virgin in the last days. While remaining what he was, he took as well what is ours, and clothed the bride who was formerly left naked—hence his saying to her, “fragrance of your garments like the fragrance of frankincense.” She is clothed with Christ, who is both God and man. Now, “frankincense” is a symbol of the true doctrine of God, since under the norms of the old law it was offered to God. — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4

Song of Solomon 4:11

Bede: A dripping honeycomb, your lips, bride. A honeycomb is honey in the wax; but honey in the wax is the spiritual sense of divine words in the letter, which is rightly called a dripping honeycomb: for a honeycomb drips when it has more honey than those wax cells can hold, because thus indeed is the fertility of the holy Scriptures, that a verse which is usually written in a short line, if carefully examined and expressed, is found to fill many pages with how much inner sweetness of spiritual understanding it contains. To give one example, the Psalmist says: Praise the Lord, Jerusalem (Psalms 147); which according to the letter indeed exhorts the citizens of that city, in which was God’s temple, to offer praises to Him. But according to allegory, Jerusalem is the Church of Christ spread throughout the world; again according to tropology, that is, the moral sense, any holy soul is rightly called Jerusalem; also according to anagoge, that is, the understanding leading to higher things, Jerusalem is the habitation of the heavenly homeland, which consists of holy angels and men. It fits all appropriately, though many distinctions, that Jerusalem means vision of peace, which is commanded to praise the Lord: for no single holy soul can offer as many praises to God as the Church throughout the world; nor is the universal Church itself as perfect while wandering on earth away from the Lord, as it reigns blessed in the presence of its Lord in heaven; nor can the peace of the saints, which is meanwhile in the hope of seeing God and being delivered from evil, be equated to the vision of that peace which they have in reality, who, delivered from all evils, enjoy the highest good. Therefore, a honeycomb, not only full of honey but also dripping, are the lips of the bride, when the teachers of the Church, either in legal figures, or in prophetic sayings, or in the very words of the Lord, or in mystical deeds, demonstrate the manifold abundance of interior sweetness that exists, and prepare from them the sweetest and most wholesome mental feasts for His faithful members, that is, good listeners. Nor is it contradictory that the lips of the bride are earlier compared to ribbons and now to a honeycomb, since the latter delights by satisfying the throat, the former constrains by binding the hair; the latter refreshes inside, the former ties outside. For the same teachers are both ribbons in their salutary precepts and honeycomb in their heavenly promises: ribbons, when they restrain us from the flow of carnal pleasures; honeycomb, when they promise us the gifts of heavenly joys. Likewise, they are ribbons in those things which openly teach what must be done or avoided; honeycomb in those things that, having been done or spoken typically, reveal what mystery of salvation they hold within. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Bede: Honey and milk are under your tongue. In milk is the instruction of the little ones, in honey the doctrine suited for those who are more advanced is signified. The Apostle teaches about milk, when, reproaching some who had fallen from the faith, he says: And you have become such as need milk, not solid food. He teaches about wisdom with honey, when he says: Just as one who eats much honey, it is not good for him, so he who is a seeker of majesty will be overwhelmed by it (Prov. XXV). He does not forbid eating honey, but eating too much, because we are not altogether forbidden from searching the majesty of God, especially since it is sung in the praise of the righteous themselves: They will speak of the glory of your majesty and of your wondrous works (Psalm CXLIV); but we are called back from attempting those things which exceed our measure. Hence, he also says elsewhere about lovers of heavenly wisdom: If you have found honey, eat what is sufficient for you, lest being filled you vomit it up (Prov. XXV). It is fitting, however, that honey and milk are recalled under the tongue: for he has the word of God on his tongue when he speaks it; he has it under his tongue when he meditates diligently in his heart on what ought to be spoken; he has honey and milk under his tongue when he rightly knows to discern what should be spoken to beginners, what to those who are advancing; and also to those who are perfect in knowledge and charity. And these things themselves, when the appropriate time comes, he dispenses through the ministry of his tongue according to the capacity of the listeners. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Bede: And the scent of your garments, etc. The garments of the Church are its works, as attested by John, who speaking of her future blessedness, says: “The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready, and it was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure” (Rev. XIX). For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And blessed Job: “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a diadem” (Job XXIX). Moreover, as often stated, in incense are signified the supernal desires of the just and the soaring fervor of frequent prayers. Hence rightly the scent of the bride’s garments is compared to the scent of incense, because all that the holy Church works for the Lord, render the office of prayers for her; nor otherwise could that apostolic dictum, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. V), be fulfilled, unless all that we devoutly do, commends us devoutly like intercession to our Creator. For neither the Apostle himself nor any of the saints could always devote time to prayer to the exclusion of sleep, food, or other necessities of this life; but because the just continually perform what is just, through this the just pray without ceasing, and never cease from prayer unless they fall into sin. Therefore, the scent of their garments smells like the scent of incense, because the fame of the good works they do ascends in the divine judgement like prayers. This verse harmonizes with what was said above: “And the scent of your ointments surpasses all aromatics”; for in that instance, by the name of ointments is shown the infusion of the Holy Spirit, which enlightens the hearts of the faithful and prepares them for spiritual battle; here, by the term garments, are shown the outward deeds of the just. Hence, with a beautiful distinction, the works done through humans are compared to the scent of incense; but the gifts bestowed by divine largesse exceed the mode of comparison, as the scent of the Church’s ointments is said to transcend all aromatics. Since mention of incense is often made in this song, and what it typologically signifies is known, it is fitting to instruct the ignorant a little about the nature of this aromatic. It is a tree of Arabia, similar in bark and leaf to the laurel, emitting sap like that of almonds, which is collected twice a year, in autumn and spring. But in the autumnal collection, the trees are prepared by cutting their bark in the intense heat of summer, and the rich foam that springs forth solidifies when collected on the smooth surface of palm bark, and what remains on the tree is scraped off with iron, thus it appears bark-like. This is the purest and whitest incense. The second harvest truly, the same winter, with bark incised. This exits red, nor is it considered comparable to the former, and of the young tree it is whiter, but of the old more fragrant. That which depends on the roundness of the droplet, we call male; but the drop beaten out by a blow, we call manna. The region producing incense is called Sarvia, which the Greeks say signifies mystery, impassable everywhere by rocks, and from the right carried up by inaccessible sea cliffs; a single narrow path extends the length of the forests for one hundred thousand paces, or, as others say, eighty; the width is half. High hills rise, and trees spontaneously grow and descend into the plains. It is agreed that the land is clayey, with rare and nitrous springs. These things, as we have found in ancient books, have been briefly said about the nature and location of incense. Almost all of these, if anyone diligently attends, suitably align with the virtues of the saints, especially because the region in which it is born is called mystery: for the trees spontaneously grow, appropriately fitting those whose supreme virtue is not compelled by laws or edicts, but is usually wonderful due to voluntary offering, as the Lord says: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have; and the rest (Matt. XIX). When the trees are incised, the tear of the incense flows, what does it indicate but the compunction of the humble heart, from which pure prayer, sweetened with tears, is usually generated? That it has rare but nitrous springs, it suits those from whose belly, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water flow, that is, the gifts of spiritual doctrine emanate (John. VII), also suitable for cleansing the minds of neighbors. For nitre is usually very suitable for healing infirmities and for washing away impurities. That the region is surrounded on all sides by the fortification of cliffs and rocks, agrees with the merits of those about whom the Lord speaks through a parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, and surrounded it with a hedge (Matt. XXI). For the Lord planted the Church, establishing it with the precepts of life, and surrounded it with the hedge of His protection, safeguarding it everywhere so that it cannot be exterminated by evil spirits or men. Moreover, after the Lord individually praised each member of the Church in detail, he likewise lastly commended with worthy praise the ointments with which it was entirely anointed. For none of its members, whether small or great, are not consecrated by the spiritual infusion of this anointment; for whoever lacks this, is not in the body of the Church. He also praised its garments, that is, its works of justice, for with these its entire body is adorned. For no one in it merits eternal life unless clothed in just works, which either he did; or, if he was an infant, others did in him and for him. But because it seemed slow to the supreme lover to praise the members of his spouse individually, it seemed little to liken each precious thing to each of her parts, he praises her entirely, and simultaneously compares her to many great things, subjoining: — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Robert of Tombelaine: The preachers of the Church are rightly said to be the lips of the bride, because through them she speaks to the peoples, and through them the little ones are instructed in the faith, since through them the hidden things of divine Scripture, as if secrets of the heart, are made manifest. Now in a honeycomb, the honey lies hidden and the wax is seen. Rightly, therefore, the lips of the bride are called a honeycomb, because when great wisdom is held in the frailty of the flesh, honey is, as it were, hidden in wax. But when any one of the elect preaches, when he reveals heavenly joys to those who do not know them, then the honeycomb drips, because he makes manifest to his hearers through the frailty of the mouth how great a sweetness of wisdom lies hidden in the heart. Whence it is written: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels” (1 Cor. 4:7). Therefore it is added: “Honey and milk are under your tongue.” To be sure, false preachers carry honey on their tongue which they do not have under their tongue, because they sometimes preach heavenly joys as though they were genuine, while they themselves desire earthly goods with all their longings. But the holy mind displays honey on its tongue, because it shows the sweetness of wisdom by speaking, and by preaching truthfully, it refreshes its hearers as if with the sweetness of honey. It bears milk, because with teaching suited to them it nourishes all the little ones in the Church. But all these things it reserves for itself under its tongue, because it carries its inner sweetness constantly within. For while it casts aside earthly things, while it rejects the bitterness of vices, it feeds itself in its interior senses on the sweetness of wisdom, from which it gathers strength, so that as it advances toward eternal things, it cannot grow weary in the labor of the journey. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Robert of Tombelaine: To whom it is well said: “And the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of frankincense.” What is designated by these garments, if not holy works, by which the shame of preceding evils is covered, lest it be seen? For hence it is written: “Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (Rev. 16:15). Frankincense, moreover, is placed by signification for prayer, as it is written: “Let my prayer ascend like incense in your sight” (Ps. 141:2). The holy soul therefore, in this world, performs as many good works as it can, and while working well, stretches itself toward eternal things with holy desire and intention; nor does it do any good except with that intention, that it might at some time be able to arrive at the heavenly things which it loves. Rightly therefore the fragrance of its garments is said to be like that of frankincense, because in all its works it prays, while with the intention of arriving there, it performs whatever good works it can. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:12

Augustine of Hippo: This account can be even better read as an allegory of the church, prophetical of what was to happen in the future. Thus the garden is the church itself, as we can see from the Canticle of Canticles; the four rivers are the four Gospels; the fruit-bearing trees are the saints, as the fruits are their works; and the tree of life is, of course, the Saint of saints, Christ. — City of God 13.21

Augustine of Hippo: Taking all these things, therefore, into consideration, I think that I am not rash in saying that there are some in the house of God after such a fashion as not to be themselves the very house of God, which is said to be built upon a rock. [The church] is called the one dove, which is styled the beauteous bride without spot or wrinkle, and a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, a well of living water, an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits. [This] house also received the keys, and the power of binding and loosing. — ON BAPTISM 7:51.99

Augustine of Hippo: I think that we have sufficiently shown, both from the canon of Scripture and from the letters of Cyprian himself. [Thus] bad people, while by no means converted to a better mind, can have, and confer, and receive baptism, of whom it is most clear that they do not belong to the holy church of God, though they seem to be within it. [But] they are covetous, robbers, usurers, envious, evil thinkers, and the like; while [the church] is one dove, modest and chaste, a bride without spot or wrinkle, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, with all similar properties that are attributed to her. — ON BAPTISM 6:3.5

Bede: A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, etc. The garden is the Church, which produces various sprouts of spiritual works, which are subsequently listed under various names of spices. It is a fountain that overflows with saving doctrine, by which it waters the minds of its faithful, as if they were herb beds of spices, which it had prepared spread out. Hence it is written: A deep water, words from the mouth of a man, and an overflowing torrent, the fountain of wisdom (Prov. XX). Therefore, the Apostle says: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase (I Cor. III). I planted, as if in the Lord’s garden, the spices of virtues; Apollos watered, as if from the sealed fountain of heavenly doctrine; but the Lord, as his workers, helped, lest they labor in vain. But this garden is enclosed, because the Church, fortified with the protection of its Lord and Redeemer, persists lest it should ever be violated by the invasion of impious ones, either of unbelieving men or unclean spirits, and delayed in the bearing of heavenly fruits by being trampled upon in all directions. This fountain is sealed, because the word of faith, which is in the Gospel, protected by seals, can never be disturbed by any attack of the erring. For there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Ephes. IV). Whoever attempts to break this seal of the living fountain errs, and cannot profane the fountain of life; but rather kills himself in this, while the impious thrust themselves forward; like the example of the Egyptian army, which was drowned in the mystical Red Sea baptism, whereby the people of God were saved, when they presumptuously entered into sacred things not by believing, but by pursuing. And because the same holy Church, which is designated by the name of the sacred irrigated garden, was first indeed located in the small sod of Judea, but was soon greatly amplified throughout the whole world, it is rightly added: — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Cyril of Alexandria: [This garden] is closed to the world but opened to the heavenly bridegroom. And the fountain where we are anointed after baptism was sealed by the Holy Spirit. — FRAGMENTS IN THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4:12

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite: Wherefore the divine and spiritually perceived Oracles are likened to dew, and water, and to milk, and wine, and honey; on account of their life-producing power, as in water; and growth-giving, as in milk; and reviving, as in wine; and both purifying and preserving, as in honey. For these things, the Divine Wisdom gives to those approaching it, and furnishes and fills to overflowing, a stream of ungrudging and unfailing good cheer. — Letter IX to Titus, Section IV

Richard Challoner: A garden enclosed: Figuratively the church is enclosed, containing only the faithful. A fountain sealed up: That none can drink of its waters, that is, the graces and spiritual benefits of the holy sacraments, but those who are within its walls.

Robert of Tombelaine: The garden represents holy Church, because when she brings forth many peoples in faith, she sends out beautiful flowers like good soil. This garden is rightly said to be enclosed, because it is fortified on every side by the wall of charity, lest any reprobate enter within the number of the elect. Each holy soul is also understood to be an enclosed garden, because when she hides her good works by the intention of eternal life, when she utterly despises human praises, she surrounds herself with that good intention, lest the ancient enemy be able to break in to seize what is within. She is also called a fountain, because when she continually thinks on heavenly things, when she always gathers the knowledge of the Scriptures into the belly of memory, the holy mind does not cease to produce living waters within herself, which she is able to offer to thirsting neighbors so that they may be refreshed. Whence it is written, the Lord saying: “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life” (John 4:13). And elsewhere: “He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly” (John 7:38). But why is that fountain said to be sealed, unless because spiritual understanding is hidden from unworthy minds? For to the unfaithful man it is said by the Lord: “The Spirit breathes where He wills, and you hear His voice, and you do not know whence He comes or where He goes” (John 3:8). And again it is written: “The light of Your countenance is sealed upon us, O Lord” (Psalms 4:7). For what is there called a sealed light is without doubt here declared to be a sealed fountain. For the Holy Spirit both illuminates and bedews the mind He fills, and bedewing illuminates it: so that from His light it may see what to desire, and from His dew it may refresh itself, lest it grow weary. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:13

Ambrose of Milan: And about mystical wells it remains for us, which we also find in the Song of Songs, as Scripture says: A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and flowing down from Lebanon. For if you pursue the depth of mysteries, the well appears to you as if the mystical wisdom is located in the profound: but if you desire to draw from the abundance of charity, which is greater and richer than faith and hope, then the fountain is for you. For charity is overflowing, so that you can both draw it near and water your garden with its abundant spiritual fruits. — On Isaac and the Soul 4.26

Bede: Your branches are a paradise of pomegranates, etc. Because the early Church, which was at Jerusalem, produced many people for God from water and the Spirit, it is rightly said that the sacred garden, assisted by the irrigation of the divine fountain, emitted a paradise, not of any kind of trees, but of pomegranates with the fruits of apples. The pomegranates, which bloom with a blood-red color, signify the triumphs of those in the Church who, after the general washing of the sealing fountain, are also baptized with their own blood. However, the fruits of the apples indicate the works of general virtues, or those who perform the works of virtues: although among the pomegranates, which this garden is first said to emit from itself, the whole assembly of the baptized can rightly be accepted, because undoubtedly the regenerating fountain is dedicated to the mystery of the Lord’s passion. For as many of us as were baptized in Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death. For we were buried with Him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ rose from the dead by the glory of God, we also might walk in newness of life (Rom. VI). However, after the many pomegranates, follow the fruits of apples and spices, worthy of such a beginning, because after the ascent of the fountain sprinkled with His precious blood, through which we become the children of God, it necessarily follows that the fragrant fertility of virtues, with which the grace of our regeneration is adorned and always grows, comes. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Cyprian: But that the Church is one, the Holy Spirit declares in the Song of Songs, saying, in the person of Christ, “My dove, my undefiled, is one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her.” Concerning which also He says again, “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring sealed up, a well of living water.” But if the spouse of Christ, which is the Church, is a garden enclosed; a thing that is closed up cannot lie open to strangers and profane persons. And if it is a fountain sealed, he who, being placed without has no access to the spring, can neither drink thence nor be sealed. And the well also of living water, if it is one and the same within, he who is placed without cannot be quickened and sanctified from that water of which it is only granted to those who are within to make any use, or to drink. — Epistle LXXV:2

Cyril of Jerusalem: The place of his burial was a garden.… What is he going to say who was buried in the garden? “I gather my myrrh, and my spices”; and again, “Myrrh and aloes with all the finest spices.” These were the tokens of his burial, and in the Gospels it is said, “The women came to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared,” and “there also came Nicodemus, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes.” — Catechetical Lecture 14:11

Cyril of Jerusalem: Now who is the “fountain sealed,” or who is signified by the “wellspring of living water”? It is the Savior himself, of whom it is written: “For with you is the fountain of life.” — Catechetical Lecture 14:5

Gregory of Nyssa: When the Word raises his bride to such a point through her ascents, he leads her even further, saying that her garments have the scent of frankincense. Scripture testifies that Christ is clothed with this frankincense. The end of a virtuous life is participation in God, for frankincense manifests the divinity. The soul is not always led by the Word to what is higher by means of honey and milk, but after having been compared with the scent of frankincense, the garden becomes an image of paradise. It is not loosely guarded as with our first parents, but protected from every side by recollection of the bridegroom’s command. — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 9

Gregory of Nyssa: In order that we may know the plants that the Word cultivates in believers, the Song calls the trees he planted “pomegranates.” These issue from the bride’s mouth. The pomegranate is difficult for a thief to grasp because of its thorny branches, and its fruit is surrounded and protected by a rind bitter and harsh to the taste. Once the pomegranate ripens in its own good time, and once the rind is peeled off and the inside revealed, it is sweet and appealing to the sight much like honey to the taste; its juice tastes like wine and affords much pleasure to the palate. I think that the issues from the bride’s mouth [are] a “garden of pomegranates” present in the souls of those listening to her. We must heed her words and not become soft by indulgence and enjoyment of this present life. Rather we should choose a life that has become toughened by continence. Thus virtue’s fruit is inaccessible to thieves and is protected by the bitter covering of self-control. Surrounded by a solemn, austere way of life, it wards off as though by spiny thorns those who approach the fruit with evil intent. — HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 9

Robert of Tombelaine: What does holy Church send forth, if not holy words together with holy works, by which she begets and nourishes her children? When she leads some all the way to martyrdom and instructs others in holy conduct — sending the former, red with the blood of martyrdom, to the eternal homeland, while presenting the latter, living in holy works, to their neighbors as an example of holiness — what else does she send forth but pomegranates and the fruits of fruit trees? For pomegranates contain a multitude of seeds beneath a red rind, while the fruits of fruit trees hold within themselves the sweetness of refreshment. Just so, when martyrs labor under the fire of tribulation, when they do not hesitate to pour out their blood outwardly for Christ, they gather inwardly within their minds a multitude of virtues. Likewise, all the saints who live in the peace of the Church bear the fruits of fruit trees, because when they do holy works, they provide examples to their neighbors, by the display of which those who wish may refresh themselves. For however many saints there are in the Church, whether they burn with the fire of suffering or grow up quietly in the peace of the Church, they do not cease, while they live, to build up within themselves the fragrance of holy virtues like a paradise of sweetness and delights. Scripture reveals the abundance of this paradise when, under the voice of the bridegroom, it designates various virtues by the names of trees. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Theodoret of Cyrus: “Pomegranate” is to be taken figuratively as love, since countless seeds are contained together within the one skin, pressed together without squeezing or ruining one another, remaining fresh unless one of the seeds in the middle goes bad. You can also gain a different insight from the sections in the middle: we see many ranks also among the saved, one of virgins, one of ascetics, one of those drawing the yoke of marriage, and of the affluent, one of those living a life of poverty, one of slaves in love with godliness, one of masters exercising lordship lawfully. The pomegranate, too, then, has walled off compartments, as it were, separating its seeds into certain divisions. This is the reason he compares the presents of the bride to “an orchard of pomegranates.” — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4

Theodoret of Cyrus: [This garden] also contains “a spring” and “a well of water alive and babbling from Lebanon.” It contains not only the gospel teaching that flows openly but also the “well” of the law, which is “a well of water alive” that also holds hidden streams that babble, emit a sound and flow from Lebanon. The way of life according to the law blossomed in Jerusalem, which is figuratively called Lebanon, but this well changed direction toward the Lord’s bride, the church, and though hidden, it flows with a babble and irrigates the orchard of the church. — COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4

Song of Solomon 4:14

Robert of Tombelaine: For what is designated by these diverse species of spices, if not the fragrance and progress of holy virtues, which is found in the saints? From these species, indeed, royal ointments are prepared; from these, healings of bodies are obtained. Rightly, therefore, they designate the virtues of souls, which, when gathered and compounded, both the good fragrance of reputation goes forth, and fitting health is restored to sick souls. But still the praise of the Church is repeated by the Bridegroom. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:15

Bede: Fountain of gardens, well of living waters, etc. The fountain of gardens is born among others in the enclosed garden of the Lord, because the heavenly doctrine has proceeded into the world from the primitive Church, which would generate many churches for the Lord, that is, spiritual gardens. To which fountain it is rightly inferred, the well of living waters which is a fountain, except that a well is always at a height, whereas a fountain, being always submerged in height, can also be at the highest peak of the land. Therefore, one and the same doctrine of the Church is the fountain of gardens, because it produces spiritual fruits in those whom it instructs, and it is the well of living waters: indeed a well, because it is not open to everyone; not placed conspicuously, but stored uniquely in the heart of the saints through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Hence no one from the beginning of this age knew it. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But to us, he says, God has revealed it through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2). However, of living waters, because of the divine and heavenly words, which always proceed unfailingly from the hidden treasures of divine grace and lead to life, whoever they wash and irrigate. For living waters are usually called those that eternally flow from a spring source, in contrast to those which are either collected in cisterns by the abundance of rains, or in ponds or which, by the melting of snow, flow temporarily with great force in torrents, but dry up when clear weather returns. To these, rightly, is compared the brief and swollen boastfulness of worldly doctrine, which often seems to pour out infinite and profound rivers of eloquence and learning in various ways; but all these soon dry up as if they had never been when the Sun of righteousness and the summer of evangelical clarity shine. Of these, the Lord Himself complains through the prophet, saying: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water (Jer. 2). And Isaiah: Behold, the Lord will ascend on a light cloud and will enter Egypt; and a little later: And the water will dry up from the sea, and the river will be desolate and dry up (Is. 19). He says, a well of living waters, which flow swiftly from Lebanon. He speaks of Lebanon, of the very Church, which is both white and high through life. For Lebanon is interpreted as whiteness; and it pours out to its listeners, as if beneath its fields, the streams of saving wisdom: as the Lord also says in the Gospel: Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his belly; and the evangelist adds as an explanation: Now he said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive (John 7). For rivers of living water flow from the belly of him who believes, when from the heart of the faithful flow the streams of holy preaching. Which flow, he says, swiftly from Lebanon: he rightly added swiftly, to not only signify the descent to us of living waters but also to show the unassailable power of the things coming. For as no one can restrain the outpouring rivers from a high mountain, so the flow of the apostolic word, because it proceeded from a heavenly source, because it was divinely urged to run, could be overcome by no struggle of opposing powers and could not be deflected from its path; rather souls would first give way than cease from the irrigation of vital doctrine. What is that in the Psalm, “The stream of the river makes glad the city of God” (Psalms 45). Rightly does it gladden the Church, which not only receives from the Lord a stream of living waters, but also the same stream comes with such force of heavenly grace that it cannot be obstructed by any obstacle of contrary power. The well of living waters can also not inappropriately be taken as a sign for those who, whatever earthly thought they find in their heart, customarily draw it out, and strive to bring it forth with devout confession and cast it away: that by the merit of chastity and humility, they may prepare within their hearts a dwelling-place fit for God, and make a path for the living waters, that is, heavenly gifts, through the veins of hidden inspiration by their diligent cleansing: following the example of the blessed patriarch Isaac, who, when hindered by the Philistines, was accustomed to dig wells useful to himself and his own, which they, out of jealousy, tried to obstruct. He diligently purified these wells by his diligent labor and persisted in digging until the living water responded to him from the depths. Such indeed is our contest with evil spirits, as they strive to cloud the water of wisdom in us or, if they can, to completely exclude it, by casting the rubble of vices into our senses. But we, on the other hand, with diligent industry and frequent prayers and watchings, should strive to expel these temptations they have injected into us in order that we may be capable of invisible gifts. But since the Lord called His garden enclosed, watered by a living fountain, planted with fragrant scents and trees, since He declared it to be irrigated with the waters of wisdom, and to have wells for the hidden mysteries, and living waters for the eternity of goods to which they lead for drinking, since He asserted that these waters flow with a persistent and absolutely invincible force, it remained that once everything was firmly and orderly arranged, the adversaries were by no means denied some access for tempting, but rather it was shown that they could in no way be hurt by torrents coming from here and there; indeed, the more it was tested by the blasts of adversities, the more the internal sweetness of its fruits would be revealed. Hence, now, from the voice of the Lord Himself it is added: — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Cyril of Alexandria: Virtues are signified by the perfumes and the trees of Lebanon are the prophets. Myrrh and aloes, finally, demonstrate that the buried Christ communed with the saints who preceded him, for, descending to hades, he led them out. — FRAGMENTS IN THE COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS 4:15

Robert of Tombelaine: Rightly in the sendings forth, she is described as a fountain of gardens and a well of living waters. For what is designated by the fountain and the well, if not Holy Scripture? Which so generates the water of wisdom that it both always refreshes those who drink and yet does not cease to flow. It is fittingly said to belong to gardens, because Holy Scripture belongs especially to those in whose minds the seeds of virtues spring up. But we must ask why Scripture is called both a fountain and a well at the same time, since a fountain appears on the surface, while a well, lying hidden in the depths, exercises all who seek it with greater labor. But it should be known that divine Scripture, being clear in certain passages and presenting itself as obscure in others, is sometimes drunk easily as it is found, like a fountain, and sometimes requires great searching in order to be grasped once found. That the understanding of Holy Scripture is designated by water is shown elsewhere when it is said by the divine voice concerning the reprobate: I will send upon them a thirst for water and a hunger for bread (Amos 8:11). And through Isaiah it is said: The Lord will take away from Jerusalem and Judah every support of bread and every support of water (Isaiah 3:1). Here it should be noted that the support of bread is taken away first, and afterward the support of water. For when the weighty sayings of Scripture are not sought out so as to be obeyed, the mind gradually falls away from knowledge, so that at some point even easy things are not grasped by the understanding. But these waters are fittingly said to flow from Lebanon with force, for Lebanon, as has been said, is interpreted as “whitening.” In baptism indeed we are whitened, when, the blackness of sins having been removed, we are reformed to the purity of new life. From Lebanon, therefore, the waters of the well flow with force, because in baptism all the elect receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which, being illuminated, they understand the meaning of Sacred Scripture. This knowledge of Holy Scripture flows with such force that when it touches the elect, it removes them from love of this life and carries all who cling to it across to eternal joys by the power of its rushing. For this is why it is written in the Psalm: The rushing of the river makes glad the city of God (Psalms 45:5). For the rushing of the river makes glad the city of God, when through the gift of the Holy Spirit the wisdom of Scripture, flooding in powerfully, gladdens the holy Church, or the mind of anyone who receives it, by its infusion. At the coming of this Spirit, the malignant spirit is rebuked. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4

Song of Solomon 4:16

Ambrose of Milan: For this reason, too, the church, guarding the depth of the heavenly mysteries, repels the furious storms of wind, and calls to it the sweetness of the grace of spring, and knowing that its garden cannot displease Christ, invites the bridegroom, saying, “Arise, O north wind, and come, you south; blow upon my garden, and let my ointments flow down. Let my brother come down to his garden and eat the fruit of his trees.” For it has good trees and fruitful, which have dipped their roots in the water of the sacred spring, and with fresh growth have shot forth into good fruits, so as now not to be cut with the axe of the prophet, but to abound with the fruitfulness of the gospel. — On the Mysteries 9:56

Ambrose of Milan: Recognize also the voice of the church inviting us when it says, “Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, blow through my garden and let my ointments flow forth. Let my brother come down into his garden and eat the fruit of his apple trees.” For knowing even then, O holy church, that from these also you would have fruitful works, you promised to your anointed one the fruit from such as these. It was you who first said that you were brought into the king’s chamber, loving [Christ’s] breasts above wine. For you loved him who loved you, you sought him who nourished you, and you despised dangers for religion’s sake. — On the Death of Satyrus 2.118

Ambrose of Milan: Having thus learned where to seek out Christ, learn now how to merit that he may be seeking you. Arouse the Holy Spirit by saying, “Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, and let its fragrance be wafted abroad. Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its choicest fruits.” The garden of the Word is the affection of a flourishing soul, and its fruit is the produce of virtue. — Concerning Virginity 9:54

Aponius: By exalting the kingdom of the north above all kingdoms of the world, therefore, Almighty God commands what is [now] the kingdom of the Romans to arise. By inspiring prophets from the south, by revealing his Christ through a Virgin, whom the prophets of the south had celebrated as proceeding from a dense and intact body (as the prophet Habakkuk said, “God will come from the south,” that is, the Word of the Father, and “the holy one from a mountain shadowy and dense,” which refers to the assumed humanity), paradise begins to be redolent with fragrances of the deaths of the martyrs, precious and wonderful aromas, and to give great praise to the Lord, the King of heaven, and to all the heavenly host, as the prophet predicted: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” — EXPOSITION OF SONG OF SONGS 7:49

Bede: “Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind,” etc. For in the north or south, He signifies the tempests of frequent temptations with which the Church was to be buffeted, so that it might become known how much spiritual grace and internal strength it possessed. If we consider any difference between the names of the north and south, one being cold and the other a warm wind, it can not unreasonably be taken as the severity of the intimidating world in the north and the blandishments of deception in the south: for by this twofold assault the garden of the Lord is proved to be tempted, as He Himself shows when explaining the parable of the good seed: “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that hears the word, and anon with joy receives it; yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while: for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful” (Luke 8). Now, when the Lord seems to say in an imperative tone: “Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, blow upon my garden,” He does not command the wicked to do evil, but allows them to use their free will as they wish. He can also make good things from their evil actions as He wills and render them, with unbiased judgment, the torments they have deserved for their evil deeds. The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart to afflict His people (Exodus X); but shortly after, having freed those who were afflicted, He punished eternally the one who had afflicted them. Concerning the head of all sinful men, He says of the blessed Job: “Behold, he is in your hand” (Job I); and when he went out and struck him with the greatest blow, does it not seem to you that he said to the very turbulent and harsh winds: “Blow upon my garden, and let its spices flow out”? For the spices flowed out from the garden shaken by the winds, when the holy man was struck by adversities and scattered the wonderful fragrance of his virtue far and wide. Hearing that the Church must be tested by the blasts of temptations, it in no way contradicts the providence and arrangement of its Beloved; rather, so that it may not be overcome by adversities and not corrupted by prosperity, it seeks His help in all things, who brings forth the winds from His treasuries; and as the blessed Job says: “Who made weight for the winds” (Job XXVIII): which in other words means: “Who does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear” (I Cor. X). XVII. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Bede: “Let my beloved come into his garden,” etc. Let the Lord come into His Church, so that He may keep it spotless and always fruitful with the crop of faith. He who promised to remain with me until the end of the world, then more graciously shows me the presence of His coming when He sees me being assailed by greater temptations from enemies, and may He kindly grant that He Himself is my beloved above all. For I trust that as long as I can truly say: “I will love You, O Lord, my strength” (Psalm XVII); and: “He will deliver me from my mighty enemies, and will set me on high above the heights of the heavenly kingdom” (ibid.). And let Him eat the fruit of His apples; and let Him gladly look upon and gratefully accept the works of His saints, according to what He Himself said to His disciples about the Samaritans who would believe in Him: “I have food to eat that you do not know of” (John IV); which He made clear when He said about the calling of the Gentiles: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (John VI). “Lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are already white for harvest. And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life” (John IV). On the contrary, when He was hungry and sought fruit on the Jewish fig tree and did not find any, He condemned it to perpetual barrenness. For He made this figuratively, signifying that although He desired the salvation of the Synagogue, since it despised the fruit of salvation, it deserved to be punished with the vengeance of eternal faithlessness. It can be specially taken as the voice of the perfect members of the Church, that is, those who remember to serve God with sincere and fixed intention. “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apples”; as if they were openly saying, “O that the Lord would come quickly, that He, being gracious, may repay us the reward for our pious devotion!” And as we have always cared to love Him and to render the fruit of righteousness which He has given, so may He show us the happiest recompense of His love by receiving us unto Himself. While it is fitting for all saints to say this at all times, how much more when they see the state of the present Church shaken by the storms of temptations! To their desire, He Himself gratefully responding at once by His voice, testifies that He has already done what was asked. — Commentary on the Song of Songs

Hippolytus of Rome: Arise, O north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out (Canticles iv. 16). As Joseph was delighted with these spices, he is designated the King’s son by God; as the Virgin Mary was anointed with them, she conceived the Word: then new secrets, and new truth, and a new kingdom, and also great and inexplicable mysteries, are made manifest. — Fragments from Commentaries on Various Books of Scripture - On the Song of Songs

Robert of Tombelaine: For what is designated by the North wind, which constricts with cold and makes things numb, if not the unclean spirit, who, while he possesses all the reprobate, makes them numb to good work? By the South wind, truly, that is, the warm wind, the Holy Spirit is figured: who, when He touches the minds of the elect, releases them from all numbness and makes them fervent, so that they eagerly perform all good things. For hence it is said: “Turn again, O Lord, our captivity, as a torrent in the South” (Psalms 125:4). Let the North wind arise, then, and let the South wind come and blow through the garden of the Bridegroom, and let its spices flow; that is, let the evil spirit depart from the Church or from each soul, and let the Holy Spirit come. Who, coming, may pour the fire of charity into their thoughts, and, having poured Himself in, may release them from the numbness of negligence. When He does this, the spices flow; because when, with the Holy Spirit arriving, the heart that had previously been numb rouses itself to works, soon the fragrance of holy activity spreads sweetly through all the neighbors, so that all who hear may kindle themselves to the same things, and, with the South wind blowing, that is, with the Holy Spirit pouring Himself in, they may send forth the odors of virtues, so that everywhere the holy garden may bloom, and after the flower may produce fragrant and refreshing fruit. — Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 4