“A virgin, a tree and a death were the symbols of our defeat.” – a Chrysostom quote?

A correspondent wrote to me, asking if I knew the source of the following patristic quote.  It is found in many places on the web, in longer or shorter versions, and attributed to Chrysostom, but with no further details.  Here is the fullest version I could find:

Have you seen the wonderful victory? Have you seen the splendid deeds of the Cross? Shall I tell you something still more marvellous? Learn in what way the victory was gained, and you will be even more astonished. For by the very means by which the devil had conquered, by these Christ conquered him; and taking up the weapons with which he had fought, he defeated him.

Listen to how it was done. A virgin, a tree and a death were the symbols of our defeat. The virgin was Eve: she had not yet known man; the tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the death was Adam’s penalty. But behold again a Virgin and a tree and a death, those symbols of defeat, become the symbols of his victory. For in place of Eve there is Mary; in place of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of the Cross; in place of the death of Adam, the death of Christ.

Do you see him defeated by the very things through which he had conquered? At the foot of the tree the devil overcame Adam; at the foot of the tree of the Cross Christ vanquished the devil. And that first tree sent men to Hades·, this second one calls back even those who had already gone down there. Again, the former tree concealed man already despoiled and stripped; the second tree shows a naked victor on high for all to see. And that earlier death condemned those who were born after it; the second death gives life again to those who were born before it. Who can tell the Lord’s mighty deeds? By death we were made immortal: these are the glorious deeds of the Cross.

Have you understood the victory? Have you grasped how it was wrought? Learn now, how this victory was gained without any sweat or toil of ours. No weapons of ours were stained with blood; our feet did not stand in the front line of battle; we suffered no wounds; witnessed no tumults; and yet we obtained the victory. The battle was the Lord’s, the crown is ours. Since then victory is ours, let us imitate the soldiers, and with joyful voices sing the songs of victory. Let us praise the Lord and say,

Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?

The Cross did all these wonderful things for us: the Cross is a war memorial erected against the demons, a sword against sin, the sword with which Christ slew the serpent.  The Cross is the Father’s will, the glory of the Only-begotten, the Spirit’s exultation, the beauty of the angels, the guardian of the Church. Paul glories in the Cross; it is the rampart of the saints, it is the light of the whole world.

My correspondent was unable to find a reference.

After much searching, I found an Opus Dei facebook post, which does give a reference:

FROM THE OFFICE OF READINGS, COMMON OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

To most of us, the words: “office of readings, common of the blessed Virgin Mary” are unintelligible jargon.  Nor does a google search help much.  The persistent will find this site about the “liturgy of the hours”, which is actually what is referred to.  The page has a useful guide to the jargon:

The “Liturgy of the Hours” (a.k.a. “The Divine Office” or “Breviary”) is the daily prayer of the universal Church, with different “hours” prayed at various times of the day and night. It is based primarily on the Psalms, but also incorporates other biblical texts, canticles, hymns, prayers, and even some non-biblical readings. The three “major hours” are Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and the Office of Readings (prayed at any time during the day). Other hours include “Daytime Prayer” and “Night Prayer.”

Basic Terminology:

• “Ordinary of the Liturgy of the Hours” – the overall structure of the various prayer times, from the Introductory Dialogue to the Final Prayer and Blessing, with various sequences of Hymns, Psalms, Canticles, Antiphons, Readings, Responses, and Prayers in between.
• “Four-Week Psalter” – the arrangement of the biblical Psalms and Canticles that is used on most days and weeks of the Liturgical Year.
• “Proper of Seasons” – texts used in the various “seasons” of the liturgical year: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and “Ordinary Time.”
• “Proper of Saints” – special texts used only on the more important feast days of the Lord Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, or other Saints.
• “Commons” – additional texts that could be used, mostly on an optional basis, on the feasts and memorials of lesser-known saints

This is rather an alien world, but that’s definitely very helpful.  A bit further on I find that the printed source volume(s) – necessary for reference in print – are:

Liturgy of the Hours. 4 vols. Catholic Book Publishing, 1990. (8160 pages; the official full set for USA)

Even more fortunately another page on the same site listed the “commons” readings here.  A search through this gave me:

John Chrysostom – On the grave and the cross 2 – 3.1646 & 4.1660 – Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday, alt.

Yes!  The third column is the volume/page number: vol. 3, page 1646, and vol. 4, page 1660.

So this is most likely the source of our translation, and its appearance in various forms on websites is easily explained from its liturgical use.

Unfortunately this mighty – and mighty expensive – volume cannot be downloaded in PDF form for free, as far as I can tell.  So I have not verified the above page numbers.

But there is often more than one way to attack these sorts of questions.  Before I found the Opus Dei reference, I tried a different search which gave interesting results.  Instead of just searching using the first line, I searched for the striking phrase, “A virgin, a tree and a death were the symbols of our defeat”. I saw that one of the results had “A virgin, the timber…” and I thought that this might perhaps be a more original version. That article is here, an article by Fr. Carlos Biestro, “The Enclosed Garden”, in: Mary at the Foot of the Cross – III: Mater Unitatis, (2002) pp.172-222; p.182.

Biestro’s footnote tells us that the source text is Chrysostom, De coemeterio et de cruce (On the grave and the cross), chapter 2, and the Greek text used is PG 49, col. 396 (the complete text is in columns 393-398, and it is also in the Savile edition vol. 5, pp.565-566).

This work  by Chrysostom has the reference number CPG 4337.  A search on the CPG number revealed quite a bit of scholarly activity, including a complete English translation:

David M. Friel, “Chrysostom’s Homily on the Word Koimeterion and on the Cross: A Translation and Commentary,” in: Vigiliae Christianae 76 (2021), pp.1-36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700720-12341486.  Also Academia here.

This 2021 translation is not the origin of the online quotations: that comes from the Liturgy of the Hours in the 1990 version.  The Friel translation gives the same material, with facing text, on pp.12-14, in chapter 2.  The rendering is more stilted and more literal.

Yet another English translation exists online, by John Sanidopoulos, at the Mystagogy Resource Centre: “Homily on the Name ‘Cemetery’ and on the Cross of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ” (29 April 2025).

I did not encounter any translations into other modern languages – Migne will have a modern Latin translation, of course -, but it is a fair assumption that they do exist.

So… the quotation is quite genuine.  But one could wish that more websites also indicated the source!