Ambrose of Milan : And you, O widow, find those who will pray for you. If as a true widow and desolate you hope in God, continue constant in supplications. Persist in prayers. Treat your body as dying daily, that by dying you may live again. Avoid pleasures, that you, too, being sick, may be healed. — Concerning Widows 9.56 Augustine of Hippo : In like manner, the apostle said in words already quoted, "She that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day;" and the Lord, when exhorting men to pray always and not to faint, made mention of a widow, who, by persevering importunity, persuaded a judge to attend to her cause, though he was an unjust and wicked man, and one who neither feared God nor regarded man. How incumbent it is on widows to go beyond others in devoting time to prayer may be plainly enough seen from the fact that from among them are taken the examples set forth as an exhortation to all to earnestness in prayer. Now what makes this work specially suitable to widows but their bereaved and desolate condition? Whosoever, then, understands that he is in this world bereaved and desolate as long as he is a pilgrim absent from his Lord, is careful to commit his widowhood, so to speak, to his God as his shield in continual and most fervent prayer. — LETTERS 130.16.29-30 Cassiodorus : The church is called Christ's widow, because she is stripped of all worldly help and places her hope solely in the Lord. Like a widow, she suffers the shameful actions of evil men, the most cruel plunderings of the wicked. Like a woman deprived of a husband's aid, she always grieves and is always worn out, yet she enjoys the unchanging steadfastness of a most chaste mind.… She is called a widow because she is bereft of worldly protection and has placed her hope in her heavenly Bridegroom, who has transformed her swarthiness into beauty, her error into uprightness, her cruelty into devotion and her frailty into total constancy. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 131.15 Jerome : A widow who has ceased to have a husband to please, and who in the apostle's language is a widow indeed, needs nothing more earnestly than perseverance. Remembering past enjoyments, she knows what gave her pleasure and what she has now lost. By rigid fasting and vigils she must quench the fiery darts of the devil. — LETTERS 54.7 John Chrysostom : "But she," he says, "that is a widow indeed, and desolate, hath her hope set on God." (1 Tim. v. 5) To whom is this said? To those who have no children, because they are more highly approved, and have a greater opportunity of pleasing God, because all their chains are loosened to them. There is no one to hold them fast, no one to compel them to drag their chains after them. Thou art separated from thy husband, but art united to God. Thou hast not a fellow-servant for thy associate, but thou hast thy Lord. When thou prayest, tell me, dost thou not converse with God? When thou readest, hear Him conversing with thee. And what does He say to thee? Much kinder words than thy husband. For though indeed thy husband should flatter thee, the honor is not great, for he is thy fellow-servant. But when the Lord flatters the slave, then is the courtship great. How then does He court us? Hear by what means he does it. "Come," He says, "unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. xi. 28) And again through the Prophet He calls, saying, "Will a woman forget to have compassion on the offspring of her womb? But even if a woman should forget, yet will I not forget thee, saith the Lord." (Isa. xlix. 15, Sept) Of how great a love are these words? Seest thou the conversation of God with thee? — HOMILIES ON 1 THESSALONIANS 6 John Chrysostom : "Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." She who being a widow has not made choice of a worldly life, is a widow indeed; she who trusts in God as she ought, and continues instant in prayer night and day, is a widow indeed. Not that she, who has children, is not a widow indeed. For he commends her who brings up children as she ought. But if any one has not children, he means, she is desolate, and her he consoles, saying, that she is most truly a widow, who has lost not only the consolation of a husband, but that arising from children, yet she has God in the place of all. She is not the worse for not having children, but He fills up her need with consolation, in that she is without children. What he says amounts to this. Grieve not, when it is said that a widow ought to bring up children, as if, because thou hast no children thy worth were on that account inferior. Thou art a widow indeed, whereas she who liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. — Homily on 1 Timothy 13 Oecumenius : But the widow who is truly alone has hoped in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But the one who lives in luxury has died while still living. But the widow who is truly alone. Since Paul ordered that those who are truly widows to be honored, he now says what kind of women are truly widows, characterizing them in an explanation. He says she is isolated, both from children and from descendants. has hoped in God and continues in supplications and prayers. Therefore, this is the true widow, who hopes in God and waits with prayers. For since she is abandoned of human help, it is reasonable that she turns to God. But the one who lives in luxury has died while still living. For many choose widowhood in order to act with greater authority in things that are not proper, Paul says: "But the one who lives in luxury," that is, the one living in indulgence, "though living, has died." How? For life seems to be the life now. The eternal life has been lost. Therefore, she has died through sin, as far as eternal life is concerned. — COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY