Who then proclaimed it, and
caused it to be spread abroad? It was the power of Him who is speaking these
words. And while of countless kings and generals the noble exploits even of
those whose memorials remain have sunk into silence; and having overthrown cities,
and encompassed them with walls, and set up trophies, and enslaved many
nations, they are not known so much as by hearsay, nor by name, though they
have both set up statues, and established laws; yet that a woman who was a
harlot poured out oil in the house of some leper, in the presence of ten men,
this all men celebrate throughout the world; and so great a time has passed,
and yet the memory of that which was done hath not faded away, but alike
Persians and Indians, Scythians and Thracians, and Sarmatians, and the race of
the Moors, and they that dwell in the British Islands, spread abroad that which
was done secretly in a house by a woman that had been a harlot. (John
Chrysostom, The Gospel of St. Matthew, Homily 80.2)
