Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Esther 4:16
There are 5 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 449, footnote 6 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Sec. III.—On Feast Days and Fast Days (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3155 (In-Text, Margin)
... reasonable to rejoice for the gift of God, and to fast after that relaxation: for both Moses and Elijah fasted forty days, and Daniel for “three weeks of days did not eat desirable bread, and flesh and wine did not enter into his mouth.” And blessed Hannah, when she asked for Samuel, said: “I have not drunk wine nor strong drink, and I pour out my soul before the Lord.” And the Ninevites, when they fasted three days and three nights, escaped the execution of wrath. And Esther, and Mordecai, and Judith,[Esther 4:16] by fasting, escaped the insurrection of the ungodly Holofernes and Haman. And David says: “My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh faileth for want of oil.” Do you therefore fast, and ask your petitions of God. We enjoin you to fast ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 597, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
The Preacher Should Commence His Discourse with Prayer to God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2023 (In-Text, Margin)
63. But whether a man is going to address the people or to dictate what others will deliver or read to the people, he ought to pray God to put into his mouth a suitable discourse. For if Queen Esther prayed, when she was about to speak to the king touching the temporal welfare of her race, that God would put fit words into her mouth,[Esther 4:16] how much more ought he to pray for the same blessing who labors in word and doctrine for the eternal welfare of men? Those, again, who are to deliver what others compose for them ought, before they receive their discourse, to pray for those who are preparing it; and when they have received it, they ought to pray both that they ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 516, footnote 6 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)
The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)
Festal Letters. (HTML)
For 332. Easter-day vii Pharmuthi, iv Non. Apr.; Æra Dioclet. 48; Coss. Fabius Pacatianus, Mæcilius Hilarianus; Præfect, Hyginus; Indict. v. (HTML)
... food, let us seek to silence our fleshly lusts. For by these means we shall have strength to overcome our adversaries, like blessed Judith, when having first exercised herself in fastings and prayers, she overcame the enemies, and killed Olophernes. And blessed Esther, when destruction was about to come on all her race, and the nation of Israel was ready to perish, defeated the fury of the tyrant by no other means than by fasting and prayer to God, and changed the ruin of her people into safety[Esther 4:16]. Now as those days are considered feasts for Israel, so also in old time feasts were appointed when an enemy was slain, or a conspiracy against the people broken up, and Israel delivered. Therefore blessed Moses of old time ordained the great feast ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 87, footnote 6 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XXI. Esther in danger of her life followed the grace of virtue; nay, even a heathen king did so, when death was threatened to a man most friendly to him. For friendship must ever be combined with virtue, as the examples of Jonathan and Ahimelech show. (HTML)
123. Why did Queen Esther[Esther 4:16] expose herself to death and not fear the wrath of a fierce king? Was it not to save her people from death, an act both seemly and virtuous? The king of Persia himself also, though fierce and proud, yet thought it seemly to show honour to the man who had given information about a plot which had been laid against himself, to save a free people from slavery, to snatch them from death, and not to spare him who had pressed on such unseemly plans. So finally he handed over to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 461, footnote 3 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)
Epistle LXIII: To the Church at Vercellæ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3685 (In-Text, Margin)
... by the luxurious banquet of Holophernes, carried off the triumph of which men’s arms despaired, solely in right of her temperance; delivered her country from occupation and slew the leader of the expedition with her own hands. A clear proof both that his luxury had enervated that warrior, terrible to the nations, and that temperance made this woman stronger than men. In this case it was not in her sex that nature was surpassed, but she overcame by her diet. Esther by her fasts moved a proud king.[Esther 4:16] Anna, who for eighty-four years in her widowhood had served God with fasts and prayers day and night in the temple, recognized Christ, Whom John, the master of abstinence, and as it were a new angel on earth, announced.