“The golden bells alternating with the pomegranates represent the brilliance of good works. They are the two pursuits through which virtue is acquired, namely, faith toward the divine and conscience toward life. The great Paul adds these pomegranates and bells to Timothy’s garment, saying that he should have faith and a good conscience. So let faith sound forth pure and loud in the preaching of the holy Trinity and let life imitate the nature of the pomegranate’s fruit. Because it is covered with a hard and sour rind, its outside is inedible, but the inside is a pleasant sight with its many neatly ordered seeds and it becomes even sweeter when it is tasted. The philosophical life, although outwardly austere and unpleasant, is yet full of good hopes when it ripens. For when our Gardener opens the pomegranate of life at the proper time and manifests the hidden beauty, then those who partake of their own fruit will enjoy the sweetness. For somewhere the divine Apostle says that any punishment is most painful at the time, and far from pleasant (that is the first contact with the pomegranate): but later, in those on whom it has been used, it bears fruit in peace and goodness. This is the sweetness of the nourishment inside.”

~St. Gregory of Nyssa