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Translation
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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"And he knelt down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." To clear himself, and show that neither were his former words prompted by passion, he says, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge": wishing also even in this way to win them over. For to show that he forgave their wrath and rage in murdering him, and that his own soul was free from all passion, was the way to make his saying to be favorably received.
Theophylact of Ohrid
"Having knelt down, he cried out with a loud voice: Lord! do not charge them with this sin." He does not simply pray, he says, but with fervor, since God permitted his soul to remain in his body until that moment. Notice the voice and the excess of patience in suffering. By this he shows that what he had said to them before, he said not out of anger, but in order to put them in difficulty, to convict and reproach them.
Oecumenius
That his own death, when he prayed, would not place them into sin if their sin was forgiven, this is what he sought to be fitting. And we say, if they repented, it was forgiven. For even he who struck him with countless hands, and Paul who persecuted the Church, became protector of the Church. [SAINT CYRIL ON "FATHER, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMEND MY SPIRIT."]
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
And in the Acts of the Apostles, blessed Stephen prays for those by whom he is being stoned, because they had not as yet believed in Christ and were not contending against that universal grace.
Bede
But kneeling down, he cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." For himself indeed he prayed standing, for his enemies he knelt, because their greater iniquity demanded the greater remedy of supplication. And the wondrous virtue of the blessed martyr, who was so fervent with zeal that he openly reproached the guilt of their disbelief to those he was held by, so burned with love that even in death he prayed for those by whom he was killed.
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