Letters 1 part 16/32

TO ASCHOLIUS, BISHOP OF THESSALONICA. With how much joy the letter of your Holiness has filled us, we ourselves could not easily demonstrate, our speech being too weak for the task; but you yourself ought to conjecture it within yourself, judging by the beauty of what you wrote.

For what did that letter lack? Did it not contain love toward the Lord? Did it not contain wonder at the martyrs, describing their manner and nature so vividly as to bring the events before our very eyes? Did it not contain the honor and affection you hold for us? Was there anything of the finest quality that one could name which it lacked? So that, when we received the letter in our hands and read it many times over, and perceived the grace of the Spirit welling up within it, we thought ourselves transported back to the ancient times, when the churches of God flourished, rooted in the faith, united in love, as in one body, with a single breath animating its many different members;

when the blood of the martyrs, watering the churches, nourished many times more contenders for godliness, as those who followed stripped for the contest, inspired by the zeal of those who had gone before.

Then we Christians kept peace with one another—that peace which the Lord left to us—of which not even a trace now remains among us, so ruthlessly have we driven it away from one another.

Nevertheless, our souls did return to that ancient blessedness, since a letter came to us from a distant land, blossoming with the beauty of love, and a martyr came to visit us from the barbarians beyond the Ister, himself proclaiming by his very presence the exactness of the faith practiced there.

Who could recount the joy of our souls at these things? What power of speech could be devised, able to declare clearly the disposition hidden within the depths of our hearts? Yet when we saw the athlete, we called blessed his trainer, who himself also will receive from the righteous Judge the crown of righteousness, having strengthened many for the contest on behalf of godliness.

And since you have also brought to our memory the blessed man Eutyches, and have honored our homeland as the one who provided the seeds of piety, you have gladdened us by the remembrance of old things, but you have grieved us by the reproach implicit in the things now seen.

For none of us is comparable to Eutyches in virtue, we who are so far from taming barbarians by the power of the Spirit and the working of His gifts, that even those who were once gentle have, through the excess of our sins, been made savage.

For we account to ourselves, and to our own sins, the cause of the heretics' dominion having been so widely poured out.

For scarcely any part of the inhabited world has yet escaped the conflagration arising from this heresy.

But your narratives tell of athletic endurance: bodies torn to shreds for the sake of godliness; barbarian fury held in contempt by hearts undaunted; the varied torments devised by the persecutors; the steadfast endurance of the contenders through every trial; the wood, the water, the instruments that brought the martyrs to their consummation.

But what of our own affairs? Love has grown cold.

Our afflictions are grievous, yet nowhere is there martyrdom, because those who do us harm bear the very same name as we do.

For these things, I beg you yourself to entreat the Lord, and to take along with you, into the prayer for the Church, all the noble athletes of Christ, so that, if indeed some time yet remains for the constitution of the world, and all things are not being driven together toward the opposite course, God, being reconciled to His own churches, may bring them back to their ancient peace.

TO ASCHOLIUS, BISHOP OF THESSALONICA. The holy God has fulfilled for us a long-standing prayer, having deemed us worthy to receive a letter from your true godliness.

For the greatest thing, and worthy of the greatest effort, would be to see you in person and to be seen by you, and to enjoy for ourselves, directly, the gifts of the Spirit that are in you.

But since the distance of place takes this away, along with the circumstances that particularly hold each of us fast, it is worthy of a second prayer that the soul be nourished, through continual letters, with the love that is in Christ.

This is precisely what has now come to pass for us, when we received into our hands the letter of your understanding.

For we became more than doubly refreshed by the enjoyment of what you had written.

For it was indeed possible to behold your very soul itself, shining through, as it were, through a kind of mirror formed by your words.

...are the glories of our fatherland.

For like some flourishing branch springing from a noble root, you have filled the land beyond our borders with spiritual fruits.

So that our homeland rightly exults in her own offshoots.

And when you were contending in the struggles for the faith, she glorified God, hearing that the good inheritance of the Fathers was being preserved in you.

And what of your present doings? By a new martyr who has flourished among the barbarians neighboring you, you have honored the land that bore you, like some grateful farmer who sends back the firstfruits of the harvest to those who provided the seed.

Truly, these gifts are fitting for an athlete of Christ;

a martyr of the truth, who has just now bound upon himself the crown of righteousness—whom we received with joy, and glorified God, who has now at last fulfilled the Gospel of His own Christ among all the nations.

But be exhorted also to remember us, who love you, in your prayers, and to pray earnestly to the Lord on behalf of our souls, that we too may at last be counted worthy to begin serving God, according to the way of His commandments, which He gave us for salvation.

TO EUSEBIUS, BISHOP OF SAMOSATA. Our most reverend brother Eupraxius, who is in every way honored by us and counted among our genuine friends, has shown himself yet more honored and more genuine on account of his disposition toward you.

Blessed is he who has been deemed worthy to draw near to you.

But more blessed still is he who has set upon his sufferings for Christ and his labors for the truth such a crowning finish as few of those who fear God have attained.

For you did not display virtue untested, nor did you steer a right course and pilot the souls of others only in fair weather, but you were made manifest also in the hardships of trials, and have risen above your persecutors by nobly removing yourself from your native land.

Others possess their ancestral soil, but we possess the city above; and others, perhaps, our throne, but we possess Christ.

Such things we have disdained, and such things we have received in return!

For God will not forsake us to the end, nor will he look on while the right doctrine is persecuted, but according to the multitude of our sorrows his consolations will gladden us.

This, then, we both believe and pray for.

But do you, I beg you, pray earnestly for our humble self, and whenever occasion arises, do not delay to bless us by letter, and to cheer us by making known your own circumstances — which you have now been so good as to do.

TO EUSEBIUS, BISHOP OF SAMOSATA. Both by writing and by remembering us you gladden us, and, greater than this, by blessing us in your letters.

As for us, were we worthy of your sufferings and of your contest on behalf of Christ, we would pray to see your piety and to receive a model of endurance in sufferings.

But since we happen to be unworthy of this, being caught up in many afflictions and preoccupations, we do the next best thing: we greet your perfection, and we ask that you not grow weary of remembering us.

...having such kinship with God that he is able also to bring others into kinship with him, both by word and by example.

For I am persuaded that the Lord will deem you also worthy of the same portion, you who so well train him and stir up his zeal.

And what a gain it is to enjoy, in deep quietness, a man who has gained so much both from learning and from experience of affairs! So I am persuaded that you have now come to know how great this man is in understanding, because in the past his own mind was divided among many things, and you yourselves had no leisure from the affairs of life, so that you might be wholly devoted to the spiritual stream flowing forth from the man's pure heart.

But may the Lord grant that you also be a comfort to him, and that you yourselves have no need of the consolation of others.

This, then, I am persuaded concerning your hearts, judging both from my own brief experience of you, and from the great teaching of your good instructor, one day's company with whom is a sufficient provision for salvation.

TO GREGORY, FROM BASIL. You have undertaken a task both fair, gentle, and humane, in gathering together the captive band of the contemptuous Glycerius (for so we call him for the present), and in covering over, as far as was possible, our common disgrace.

This Glycerius, who now seems to you so pompous and solemn, was ordained by us deacon of the church at Venasa, so that he might both assist the presbyter and take care of the church's work.

For indeed, although the man is difficult in other respects, he is not without skill in practical, hands-on work.

But once he was established in office, he neglected the work as much as if it had not even begun.

But having gathered together wretched virgins on his own authority and self-assumed power — some running to him willingly (you know how ready the young are for such things), others unwillingly — he undertook to be their flock-leader, and having suddenly clothed himself with the name and guise of a patriarch, he grew pompous, having come to this not through any proper order and piety, but having taken up this as a livelihood, just as another might take up some other trade; and he has brought the whole church to the verge of upheaval, despising his own presbyter, a man venerable both in conduct and in age, despising also the bishop and us as though we were worth nothing, and constantly filling the city and the whole priesthood with uproar and disturbance.

And finally, when he was rebuked a little in words by us and by the chorepiscopus, so that he might not be despised (for he was also training the young men in the same recklessness), he devised a deed exceedingly audacious and inhuman.

Having plundered as many of the virgins as he could, and having watched for nightfall, he became a fugitive.

These things will seem quite terrible to you.

A synod was being held there, and, as was natural, a great crowd was streaming in from every side.

But he led forth, in opposition, his own troupe, followed by young men and dancing about, stirring up much dejection among the devout, but much laughter among the licentious and those readier of tongue.

The parents of the virgins, as I am informed, unable to bear the loss of their children and wishing to bring back the scattered ones, fell down, as was natural, with lamentations before their own daughters — and this admirable young man, together with his band of brigands, insults and dishonors them.

Let these things not appear tolerable to your piety;

for indeed the mockery falls upon all of us in common;

but above all, command him to return together with the virgins.

For he might obtain some measure of humane treatment, should he return bearing your letters;

but if not, at least send the virgins back to their mother, the Church.

But if not even that, at least do not permit those who wish to be free to be tyrannized over, but direct them to return to us; otherwise we bear witness to you, as also before God and men, that these things are not done rightly, nor according to the ordinances of the Church.

As for Glycerius, if he should return with understanding and fitting steadiness, this would be best;

but if not, let him be relieved of his ministry.

TO GLYCERIUS. How long will you rage madly and take evil counsel concerning yourself, stirring us up and bringing shame upon the common order of monks? Return, then, trusting in God and in us, whose loving-kindness we imitate.

For even if we rebuked you as a father, yet we will also forgive as a father.

This is our message to you, since many others intercede for you, and before all others your own presbyter, whose grey hairs and tender-heartedness we revere.

But if you remove yourself far from us, you have certainly already fallen from your rank, and you will fall also from God, together with your members and your robe, by which you are leading the young women not to God, but into the abyss.

TO GREGORY, MY COMPANION. I wrote to you also recently concerning Glycerius and the virgins.

But they have not returned even to this day; they are still delaying, I know not from where or how.

For I would not condemn you of this, as though you were doing it to slander us, or because you yourself have some grievance against us, or because you are indulging others.

Let them come, then, fearing nothing;

be yourself the guarantor of this.

For indeed we grieve when members are cut off, even if they were rightly cut off.

But should they resist, the burden falls upon others, and we are absolved.

TO SOPHRONIUS, BISHOP. We have no need to write how much you have gladdened us by your letter.

For you may surely conjecture it from the very words with which you wrote, being such as they are.

For you have shown us, through your letter, the first fruit of the Spirit, love.

And what could be more precious to us than this in the present state of the times, when, because iniquity has been multiplied, the love of many has grown cold? For nothing is now so rare as the meeting of a spiritual brother, and a peaceable word, and spiritual communion — which, having found in your perfection, we gave abundant thanks to the Lord, praying also to share fully in the joy that is in you.

For if your letters are such as this, what must an actual meeting be like? And if from so far away you so captivate us, how valuable will you prove when you appear before us close at hand? Know well that, were it not for the throng of countless preoccupations and these unavoidable constraints in which we are bound, I myself would have hastened to your perfection.

And yet this old infirmity of my body is a great hindrance to my movements; nevertheless, I would not have reckoned it an obstacle, for the sake of the benefit that was to be expected.

...the report of honored brothers and fellow-presbyters — to be deemed worthy to meet such a one is truly to return to the ancient blessedness of the Churches, when few were those diseased with contentious speculations, but all were at peace, being unashamed workers of the commandments, serving the Lord through a simple and uncomplicated confession, and guarding inviolate and unelaborated the faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And indeed, whether writing or keeping silent, we have but one task: to guard in our hearts the memory of your good order, and to pray to the Lord to grant you to complete the course of the good conduct of life which you have chosen.

For truly it is no small struggle, having made profession, to bring forth accordingly what follows.

For to choose the manner of life according to the Gospel belongs to anyone;

but decorum in dress, guardedness in encounters with men, contentment in food, and simplicity in the possession of necessary things — [these belong to few].

All these things, though when simply stated they seem small, we have found in actual truth to require great struggle to be rightly accomplished.

And indeed also perfection in humility — neither to remember the distinction of one's ancestors, nor, if there is by nature in us any advantage of body or of soul, to be puffed up by it, nor to make the outward opinions held of us an occasion for pride and conceit — these belong to the evangelical life: vigor in self-control, diligence in prayers, compassion in brotherly love, fellowship toward those in need, lowliness of mind, contrition of heart, soundness of faith, evenness in gravity, never lacking the thought of that fearful and inescapable tribunal, toward which we all press forward, yet which very few remember, and very few are anxious about its outcome.

TO ELEUTHERA. Although I greatly desired to write continually to your nobility, I have always restrained myself, lest I should seem to stir up trials for you on account of those who are hostilely disposed toward us and who, as I hear, carry their enmity so far as to pry into whether anyone anywhere receives a letter from us.

But since you yourself, doing well, initiated the correspondence and wrote to us what was needful, communicating the matters concerning your soul, I was moved to write back — at once making amends for what was lacking in the past, and also responding to what was written by your nobility.

...is the soul that turns over, night and day, no other care than how, on that great day on which all creation shall stand around the Judge, rendering account of its deeds, she too may be able lightly to lay down the account of her life.

For the one who sets that day and hour before his eyes, and always meditates on his defense before the tribunal that admits no false pleading, such a one will sin either not at all, or altogether very little, because our sinning comes about through the absence of fear.

But for those in whom the expectation of the things threatened is vivid and present, the fear that dwells within will give such persons no occasion to fall into unwilled actions or thoughts.

Remember God, therefore, and keep his fear in your heart, and bring all into the fellowship of prayers.

For great also is the help of those who are able to move God to compassion.

And do not cease from doing these things.

For indeed, while we live this life in the flesh, prayer is a good helper to us, and, when we depart from here, a lasting provision for the age to come.

But just as concern is a good thing, so again despondency, and despair, and being ill-disposed toward hope of salvation, are among the things that harm the soul.

Trust, then, in the goodness of God, and await his help, knowing that if we turn to him rightly and sincerely, not only will he not cast us off utterly, but even while we are still uttering the words of our prayer he will say:

TO MAGNINIANUS, COUNT. Recently your honor wrote to me about other matters, and also plainly bade me write something concerning the faith.

But I admire your zeal in this matter, and I pray God that the choice of good things may abide in you unfailingly, and that you may ever advance and be made perfect both in knowledge and in good works.

Yet it seems to me that you are being deafened by the talk of certain idle people there, who, to slander us, say certain things, thinking thereby to establish themselves, if they should falsely accuse us of the most shameful deeds.

For time past has already exposed them, and experience, as it proceeds, will expose them still more.

But we exhort those who have set their hope on Christ to seek out nothing beyond the ancient faith, but as we believe, so also to be baptized, and as we are baptized, so also to give glory; and let it suffice us to confess those names which we received from Holy Scripture, and to avoid innovation in these matters.

For our salvation lies not in the invention of appellations, but in the sound confession concerning the Godhead in which we have believed.

TO AMPHILOCHIUS, BISHOP OF ICONIUM. May the holy God grant that, while you are in sound health, free from all business, and prospering in everything according to your mind, this letter of ours may reach your hands, so that our exhortation may not be in vain — the exhortation by which we now beg you to appear in our city, that the festival which it is our Church's custom to hold yearly in honor of the martyrs may thereby become more solemn.

For be assured, most honored and truly most longed-for one, that our people here, having had experience of many things, cling to nothing so much as to your presence — such a sting of longing love have you left behind from that brief meeting.

...that God may be glorified, the people gladdened, the martyrs honored, and we the elders may obtain from a true son the service that is our due — deign, without delay, to make the crossing to us, and to arrive before the days of the assembly begin, so that we may have leisure to meet one another and be mutually comforted through the fellowship of spiritual gifts.

The day is the fifth of September.

Being in health and good cheer in the Lord, and praying earnestly for me, may you be preserved to me and to the Church of God, by the grace of the Lord.

TO SOPHRONIUS, MASTER. It is not easy to enumerate all those who have been benefited through us by your great mind, so many do we know ourselves to have done good to by means of your mighty hand, which the Lord has granted us as an ally in the greatest of times.

For it possesses no small aid — that which comes from justice;

which, unless the present time should do it harm, will very easily be shown clearly and incontrovertibly.

TO ABURGIUS. I know that I have often commended many to your honor, and have proved sufficiently useful, in the greatest of times, to those who were oppressed.

Yet I do not know that I have ever before sent to your excellency anyone more honored by me, nor one contending for greater interests, than my most beloved son Eusebius, who now delivers this letter to you from us.

He himself, should occasion arise, will relate to your reverence what sort of affair he is entangled in.

But what it is fitting for us to say is this:

that the man not be swept away, nor — simply because many have been shown to be guilty of the most grievous deeds — should he too suffer something from the suspicion cast on the many, but rather that he obtain a trial, and that his life be brought to examination.

For thus, most easily, the calumny will be exposed for what it is, and the man, having obtained the most just protection, will become a perpetual herald of the benefits conferred upon him by your clemency.

That you are both a lover of freedom and a lover of mankind — both the nobility of your nature and your fellow-feeling toward all — these sufficiently instruct us;

so that, being entreated by us, you might stand by him as he contends in a lawsuit — a suit contemptible so far as truth is concerned, yet full of anguish otherwise, because of the weight of the calumny.

For it would prove a great turn toward his salvation, if you should deign to utter some word of kindness on his behalf — first of all showing favor to justice itself, and then also showing favor, in this too, to us your especial friends, with the customary honor and grace.

TO SOPHRONIUS, MASTER, ON BEHALF OF EUMATHIUS. Having met a man of good repute who was undergoing an unbearable misfortune, I was pained at heart.

For how could I fail to grieve — being a man myself — with a free man who, beyond his deserts, is entangled in troubles? And deliberating how I might be of use to him, I found one solution to the difficulty besetting him: that I should make it known to your excellency.

It is yours, then, henceforth, to extend to him also that zeal which you have shown toward many, with us as witness.

The matter will be made known to you by the petition he has submitted to the Emperors, which I beg you to take in hand, and to assist the man in whatever is possible.

For indeed you are showing favor to a Christian, and a man of noble birth, one who carries with him abundant reason for respect.

And if we add that we too receive great favor through the kindness shown to him, then, even though what concerns us may otherwise be small, yet to your reverence — who always deigns to keep our affairs in mind — what is granted to us will appear no small thing.

TO OTREIUS, BISHOP OF MELITENE. I know that the departure of the most God-beloved bishop Eusebius grieves your piety as deeply as it grieves us ourselves.

Since, then, we both stand in need of consolation, let us become a comfort to one another.

Do you write to us of the news from Samosata, and we in turn will report to you whatever we learn from Thrace.

For it brings me no small relief from present griefs to know the steadfastness of the people, and it brings to your goodness instruction concerning the circumstances in which our common father now finds himself.

Indeed, even now I am not able to convey it by letter, but I have sent to you the very man who knows accurately and can tell you in what state he left him and how he is bearing what has befallen him.

Pray, then, both for him and for us, that the Lord may soon bring about deliverance from these dreadful things.

TO PAULINUS, PRESBYTER. As much as we grieve when we consider the desolation of the Church, so much do we count you blessed for having attained to this measure of contest — which may the Lord grant you to endure with patience, so that you may receive the great reward for the faithful stewardship and the noble steadfastness you have shown for the name of Christ.

TO THE MAGISTRATES OF SAMOSATA. When I consider that the trial has now spread over the whole world, and that the greatest cities of Syria have suffered sufferings equal to yours, yet that nowhere else is the town council so approved and so distinguished in good works as yours is now renowned for its zeal in good works, I come close to feeling gratitude for what has been ordained.

For if this affliction had not occurred, your worth would not have been made manifest.

So it seems that what the furnace is to gold, this affliction endured for the hope in God is to those who lay claim to any virtue.

...the shepherd of the Church — when the Lord grants him again to appear upon his own throne — one relating one thing, another another, of the deeds accomplished by you on behalf of the Church of God, and on the great day of the Lord each receiving recompense in proportion to his labors, from the God who gives so bountifully.

Remember us, then, and write to us as often as may be possible, and you will act justly, repaying us in like measure, and at the same time you will greatly gladden us, by sending through your letters clear tokens of your voice, so sweet to us.

TO EUSTATHIUS, BISHOP OF IMMERIA. I know that bereavement is a gloomy and troublesome thing, since it brings desolation upon those who lack leaders.

For this reason I suppose that your piety too, being grieved by what has happened, does not write to us, and at the same time is now occupied with more pressing business —

running about among the flocks of Christ because of the uprising of enemies on every side.

But since conversation with those of like mind is a comfort for every grief, deign, as often as it is possible for you, to write to us, so that you yourself may find rest in speaking to us, and may comfort us by sharing your words with us.

This too we ourselves will be eager to do, as often as circumstances allow us.

Pray, then, yourself, and urge the whole brotherhood earnestly to entreat the Lord, that he may at last show us deliverance from the despondency that grips us.

And this I conjecture, not because I myself am worthy of any kindly remembrance, but because your soul abounds in the riches of love.

Nevertheless, so far as you are able, make use of whatever occasions present themselves to write to us, so that we too may take greater heart in learning of your affairs, and may find occasion to inform you likewise of ours.

For this is the manner of conversation for those so greatly separated in body — that which is carried on through letters — of which let us not deprive one another, so far as circumstances permit.

TO ANTIPATER, GOVERNOR. How good philosophy is — among other things, in that it does not even permit its nurslings to be treated with costly medicine, but the very same thing serves it both as relish and as sufficient for health.

For your appetite, grown weary, as I have heard, you revived with cabbages pickled in vinegar — foods which I formerly disliked, both because of the proverb, and because they were a reminder of the poverty we were both nursed in.