Origin of the work:
1636 Leszno
Editions:
1663 Amsterdam
1893 Prague, J. A. Komenského Sebraná díla kazatelská II
Contents:
A collection of twenty-one Easter homilies by Comenius, containing an introductory homily, 15 sermons for Holy Week and finally a group of five sermons under the title “A history of the resurrection and ascension into heaven of Our Lord Jesus Christ”.
In the introduction Comenius declares that after the seven years that the scattering of the Unitas Fratrum took, he was requested to publish his sermons in print. This, however, was not possible, because he had lost them in the fire at Leszno. He therefore provides those crumbs that remain to him, specifically the sermons given in Leszno in 1636. In the introductory sermon he explains what the Passion is, why we like to hear it often, to open it up, and how it reveals to us the essence of its mysteries. The Passion is divided into 15 parts (i.e. homilies) depicting Christ’s suffering, from the meeting of the High Priests to discuss Christ’s death to His death and burial. Each of the following sermons contains a short introduction which is followed by a “textus”, i.e. an extract from Scripture and its explanation, a “forecasting”, i.e. Old Testament prophecy as a symbolic prediction of that which was to occur in the New Testament, the “mystery”, i.e. the mystic explanation of the text, and the “teaching”, setting out what this all means for the audience. The attached history contains sermons worked up in the same manner, and considering Christ’s rising from the dead and His ascension into heaven.
For further study, see also:
J. V. Novák & J. Hendrich, Jan Amos Komenský, jeho život a dílo. Prague 1932, pp261-162
Jan Kumpera, J. A. Komenský, poutník na rozhraní věků. Prague & Ostrava 1992, pp252-253