Fathers

Song of Solomon 1

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The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine. Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is oil poured out, therefore the virgins love you. Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! They are right to love you. I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like Kedar’s tents, like Solomon’s curtains. Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard. Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; for why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions? If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents. I have compared you, my love, to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots. Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make you earrings of gold, with studs of silver. While the king sat at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance. My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh, that lies between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi. Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves. Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; and our couch is verdant. The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are firs.

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What the Fathers say

Song of Solomon 1:5

Western Saints

Ambrose of Milan

It is written, "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God." In this is signified the appearance of holy church, who says in the Song of Solomon, "I am black and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem": black through sin, comely through grace; black by natural condition, comely through redemption, or certainly, black with the dust of her labors. So it is black while fighting but comely when it is crowned with the ornaments of victory.

On the Holy Spirit 2.10.112 ↗

Jerome

Born, in the first instance, of such parentage we are naturally black. Even when we have repented, so long as we have not scaled the heights of virtue, we may still say, "I am black but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem." … "For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be" not as is there said, "of one flesh" but "of one spirit." Your bridegroom is not haughty or disdainful; he has "married an Ethiopian woman." When once you desire the wisdom of the true Solomon and …

Letter 22.1 ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

We know that in the beginnings of the Church, when the grace of our Redeemer had been preached, some believed and others did not believe; but those who believed were despised by the unbelievers, and having suffered a kind of persecution, were judged to have departed, as it were, into the way of the Gentiles. Whence the Church in those same persons cries out against those who were not converted: "I am black, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem." I am black indeed by your judgment, but beautiful through the illumination of grace. …

Commentary on the Song of Songs, Chapter 1 ↗