Chapter VII — On the joy of the nostrils

Of the other senses little need be said — not because they lack their own great pleasures, but because Scripture has not revealed what those pleasures will be. This much is well known to us: that the bodies of many of the blessed began, immediately after death, to breathe forth a most sweet odor, the like of which no one had ever perceived before. This St. Jerome testifies of the body of St. Hilarion (Life of St. Hilarion): for he affirms that, ten months after its burial, the body was found entire, as though it still lived, and so fragrant with odors that it was thought to have been anointed with ointments. The same does St. Gregory testify in his Dialogues of the body of St. Servulus the paralytic; his words are these: "When his soul departed, such a fragrance of odor was poured forth that all who were there present were filled with an inestimable sweetness" (bk. 4, ch. 14). And a little further on: "Until they gave his body over to burial, the fragrance of that odor did not depart from their nostrils." Nor are there wanting many other like examples, both ancient and recent. From which it may be gathered that if the bodies of the departed breathe a sweet odor after the soul's glorification, much more will living and glorified bodies breathe forth a holy and most sweet odor. To this may be added what the same St. Gregory relates of the living and most glorious body of our Lord; his words in the fourth book of the Dialogues and in a certain Homily on the Gospels are these: "Then the virgin Tarsilla, looking up, saw Jesus coming; and suddenly there was poured forth such a fragrance of wondrous odor that the very sweetness made known to all that the Author of sweetness had come thither" (bk. 4, ch. 16; Hom. 38). But if the glorified body of the Redeemer breathes an odor of such sweetness, it is altogether credible that all the bodies of the blessed in heaven will breathe a like sweetness of odor: for it is fitting that the members be conformed to their head, not only in brightness, but also in sweetness of odor. Let those, then, who delight in fragrances consider with what sweetness they are to be filled, when in that divine garden they shall draw into their glorified sense of smell the varied and most sweet odors of so many thousands of heavenly flowers breathing on every side.