Saint Photios the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople
But once He had granted the usufruct and overlordship of all things in Paradise, He had to train the people he had entrusted with such great authority. He gave them a law, which was neither difficult to observe, nor extremely easy to keep in its totality. Through this they would gain either their reward or their condemnation. So He set aside one plant among all those which were flourishing there and issued the commandment that it was forbidden to eat of this one alone. But an evil beast and the principal of wickedness, using as his tool a serpent and directing towards the woman seductive and attractive words and casting all kinds of blasphemies at the Creator, convinced the woman- and, through her, her husband- to ignore the commandment and to eat of the fruit that they had been told to avoid. They did so, and, in that moment, broke the commandment and lost all the gifts, which is exactly what the Evil One had plotted for….
