Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Song of Solomon 8:6

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Rightly is [love] said to be "strong as death," either because no one overcomes it as no one overcomes death, or because in this life the measure of charity is unto death, as the Lord said: "Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Or, rather, because as death tears the soul away from the senses of the flesh, so charity tears it away from carnal passions.

Letter 167:11 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

And since you are worthy to be compared not now with humans but with heavenly beings, whose life you are living on earth, receive from the Lord the precepts you are to observe: "Set me as a signet upon your heart, and as a seal upon your arm." [Thus] clearer proofs of your prudence and actions may be set forth, in which Christ the figure of God may shine, who, equaling fully the nature of the Father, has expressed the whole which he took of the Father's Godhead. …

Concerning Virginity 1.9.48 ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

Concerning the love of which it is rightly said through Solomon: Love is strong as death, because indeed just as death kills the body, so the love of eternal life slays attachment to bodily things. For whomever it has perfectly absorbed, it renders outwardly insensible to earthly desires.

40 Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 11 ↗