Letters 1 part 37/55

I would count as worthless my own deep affection for Christ's confessors, if I would not rather pour out my very blood instead of ink, and offer my flesh instead of paper, to write to you and address you every single day, were that possible! And this is not because you are not firmly established of yourselves —

(for I know and am persuaded how great is the power given to you by God), but I do it in order to tend my own longing and to fulfill the debt of the commandment.

But the more secure reason is my imprisonment, since we have just now been transferred, as you have already heard, from the Anatolikon to the Thrakesion, to Smyrna; and also that I have not received copies for some time, and besides, that a single letter might well suffice for those contending in equal struggles.

Come then, my brothers, let us now also sing hymns of thanksgiving, because we have been deemed worthy to serve the living and true God, and moreover also to suffer for his sake — which is more glorious than all glory and more joyous than all joy.

For in what does your suffering consist? Is it not for the sake of Christ — confessing that Christ, having truly become man, is circumscribed in the flesh, that is, is depicted in images, and that the acceptance of the icon is a confirmation of his becoming man? And when this is abolished and rejected, it is clear that his becoming man is likewise abolished and rejected along with it.

But since the god of this age has blinded the minds of the iconoclasts, so that the light of his icon might not shine upon them, therefore, walking in darkness, they deny Christ by denying his icon, and they strive contentiously that all should be blinded together with them, persecuting, tormenting, imprisoning, and, so to speak, ever putting to death.

But they will not drag away those who have been confirmed and established in the unshakable truth; nor indeed have they escaped being refuted also by the foremost throne of the Church, as has indeed happened, and as you know.

And we already had certainty and sincerity even before the arrival of the Westerners; but it was increased all the more from this very fact, so that we might know that God, watching over our generation, watches over it in accord with the generations of old, and has brought before our eyes the testimony that the deniers of the icon have become estranged from him.

For if they are broken off from the foremost see and from the other three patriarchs, it is clear that they are broken off also from Christ, who is the head of those aforementioned.

And it is fitting to mourn and to grieve over them, but for us to rejoice greatly and exceedingly.

Let us, then, beloved, bear henceforth the afflictions of imprisonment, the trials still to be expected — this very thing: to die daily, to bear witness, to contend — until the time of peace should arrive, which the Lord has judged sufficient as a testing of those who confess and as a recompense for those who disobey.

Let each day pass into the next through patient endurance and eagerness; let the hand labor at whatever work; let the mouth sing psalms; let the body be brought into subjection; let the mind pay heed to itself, not opening a door to the passions — so that the prison may become spacious, gracious, sweet — a palace of Christ;

trust on the part of those outside toward you — men and women, both nuns and those living in the world;

since by the grace of God you are the light of Byzantium — not to say of the whole world.

But let us watch out for the devil, who sows tares among the wheat, and let us, with the sieve of the mind, welcome the faith but shake off attachments, lest the field of the soul be ravaged.

The great Paul also had women whom he loved dearly;

Apphia, Persis; and he exhorts Euodia, and he exhorts Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord, as women who labored with him, contended with him, and ministered to him.

And it is altogether necessary to have such women, but to have them as that man had them;

since he says concerning Priscilla and Aquila, 'who laid down their own necks for my life.'

Do you see the fervor of love, and the apostolic acceptance? So too, my brothers, let both us and you have and embrace those women who are established for us in the rank of such women, so that God may be glorified and we may give light, and not be muddied and thrown into confusion.

...that you three were reunited through the repentance of the wretched Leontius; and I, sinner that I am, glorified God both for his change of heart — if indeed it should last — and for your own contest;

because, like the three holy children from the fiery furnace, you too have come forth unharmed from the terrible prisons, having astonished the tyrant.

But still, my noble ones, continue to contend, and prepare yourselves to be tried even unto blood.

for such is the law of martyrdom.

Blessed also be your trainers, both those within and those without.

We, wretched as we are, have again been scourged, but we received it with thanksgiving, and we are well pleased still more, and yet again.

So do not be grieved at our humiliation, but rather rejoice, and pray that we may still have the strength to bear all things — both what is inflicted by those in authority, and what is brought upon us by the unseen warfare — together with brother Nicholas, who also greets you most warmly.

Remember my groanings.

{To my son Naukratios} I received your letter beyond my hope, yet still in hope, honored child;

beyond my hope, on the one hand, on account of the tightening of imprisonment by order of the emperor; yet still in hope, on the other hand, on account of the boundless goodness of the God who loves mankind, who orders well our affairs, sinners though we are, for your sake, you holy ones, even though men attempt to make our circumstances difficult to pass through.

And what shall I, wretched man, say or think, except that all my bones shall say, 'Lord, Lord, who is like unto you, delivering the poor man from the hand of those stronger than he'? This is my first cry, pitiable as I am, even though it comes from a Davidic song.

Second, that I was also relieved of anxious brooding when I read the letter, since I found your transfer of custody to be as you had described.

for I had learned beforehand only that you had been transferred to another custody.

Take courage, brother, and rejoice, for just as the sufferings of Christ abound toward you and toward those who are of one mind and one manner with you, so also do consolation and reward and glory abound.

And how else could the vessels of election have come to light, if the scandals were not present — God permitting it, showing those who cause them what sort of men they are, kept like tares for the burning of eternal fire, while testing those who endure temptations with patience, so that they might shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of heaven? So let not what happens each day astonish you — that one has been taken away, another is imprisoned and struck in one place, another exiled to a different place, and whatever else happens in this way or that;

for a little while later, the time of recompense will come.

I read what you sent (and having understood it, and given thanks to the Lord, I sent it back again) concerning Abba Ignatius;

Woe is me, that he has been caught, since the man is an especially dear friend.

But you have done well, in giving him, as he repents, the remedy;

Sufficient, my child, is what has been given by you; and I, wretched as I am, pray for his recovery, whose offerings I have also received.

As for brother Anatolios, I, humble as I am, feel compassion, since he too is a lover of the brethren.

For this reason I make bold and say:

Let another period of time also be lightened for him, so that, when the two years are completed, he may partake of the holy mysteries.

May the brothers who have fallen asleep — sons of light, made perfect through persecution for the sake of the Light — pray for us;

but those who have died otherwise are, according to my sins, pitiable in their departure, as you have said;

such also, and even more so, was Severianos.

Nevertheless, even from those who are perverse there comes good use for those who are skilled in argument; and let discourse be cast into inquiry, as often as it should arise, even from opponents, so that, through such testing, as by the rubbing together of stones, the fire of truth might leap forth.

And indeed, such is your proposition even now.

In certain narrative scenes icons have been found inscribed with 'Godhead,' 'Lordship,' 'Kingship.'

Clearly you mean this concerning the icon of Christ.

And how is this? Such expressions are commonly understood of the Trinity, not distinctly of one person.

For even if each person may be called both God and Lord, yet not simply also 'Godhead' and 'Lordship.'

For instance, 'I am the God of your father,' he says, not 'the Godhead.'

If then it is thus in theology, how much more in the economy does it make no sense to inscribe the icon of Christ 'Godhead' or 'Lordship.'

For he may be called God and Lord, or something of equivalent force to these (though even this only equivocally), but certainly not Godhead or Lordship.

As, for example, in the case of a painted man: he may be called 'man,' but not 'manhood'; and 'king' among those on earth, but not 'kingship.'

The inscription, then, as it seems to me, is mistaken.

For it circumscribes together also the Father and the Spirit, which is absurd.

So much, then, in summary.

But do you yourself pray more fervently for my humble self, and also for the brother, who also greets you most sincerely.

And until when will you not cease clothing us, beloved? May the Lord warm you in return in spirit.

What is lacking, the letter-bearer will report.

{To Irene the Patrician} Formerly, when there was the falling away, my letter to your honor was sorrowful, but now it is even greatly joyful because of your rising up again and the scourges upon your honored flesh for the confession of Christ.

And well done, well done, most courageous among women, for you have made your recovery from defeat more glorious than the defeat itself, gladdening God and the angels and the most pious of men.

And you are truly, truly noble, coming forth from the rising of the sun.

You are a lover of God and a lover of virtue, you are a slayer of the passions and an enemy of worldly adornment.

How praiseworthy is your name, and how widely spoken of is your testimony!

What is this? You took up the gospel sword as a soldier of Christ, in ecstasy you cut off the ties of the body, you were severed from a bowing head, an only-branch daughter, you bade farewell to the imperial city, to your illustrious lineage, to your surpassing friends, to your most splendid household, to your most exalted rank, to your multitude of servants throughout the land, to your possessions of every kind, and to the other things which it is not easy for me to relate, and taking up the cross-bearing life you were exiled far away, as I have learned, on an island.

Blessed are you, and blessed is the fruit of your martyrdom.

And whence comes to you all this good, this great renown, this greatest praise, but from the achievements you had previously accomplished, from your abundant intercession and prayer, from your surpassing love of doing good and your love for monastics? The fruits were not destroyed, even if for a little they were shaken; the adversary serpent did not break down your tower of virtue, even though he bit it.

The envy of those who mocked has been repelled; the babble of those who reproached has fallen.

Christ has conquered in you and through you, O most beautiful woman, O lover of martyrs, and thirdly, O my mother!

For I call you this in the Spirit, as a fellow-contestant, and closer than those bonds of kinship known from the flesh.

For thus the Spirit knows how to join together those who are conceived of it.

I know your toils, I know the soul's exhausting struggles, all that you, having broken away from the world, will endure.

Great is your reward in the heavens.

You are called the bride of Christ, even though from a husband, a fellow-citizen of the righteous and the saints, if indeed we remain in the divine confessions until the end.

But now I exhort and earnestly urge you to bear with patience the exile and the deprivation of all things, contemplating the things of heaven, knowing that what is on earth is a plaything, swift to pass away.

With you is the guardian angel of your life, Christ himself, who said:

'I and the Father will come and make our dwelling with him.'

Take care of yourself, embracing a more comforting regimen.

For now is not so much a time for asceticism as it was before.

And finally, pray for me the sinner, that I may fit my life to my words.

{To Euphemia the Recluse} Even if we fail to write to your honor more frequently, yet we have not forgotten to remember her in the Lord, on account of the fellowship of purpose and the generosity of resolve, which is sufficiently known.

As I learn, from your earliest age you chose the cross-bearing life, and moreover the enclosed way of living.

And how great is your praise, O bride of Christ!

Hasten, my lady, hasten to serve your bridegroom.

O betrothed one, separate yourself from every attachment, holding your whole heart and whole soul and whole mind lovingly disposed toward your own bridegroom.

If this is so in the case of what is corruptible and fleeting, how much more then in the case of what is incorruptible and immortal? So too must we (this word applies to all in common) be disposed toward the Lord and Master, and never grow weary of longing for him, and in this be set apart from every pleasure and corrupting attachment, since he too is lovingly disposed toward us and is, as it were, beside himself with boundless love.

For was it not for your sake that he, being God, took on the form of a servant—the very form which the iconoclasts now dishonor? Did he not become poor, though he was rich? Did he not endure all the grievous things—insults, spittings, blows, scourgings, the cross and death? So ought every soul to be disposed, as though the sufferings were for herself alone—though indeed they were for all—and to cherish and love him, and to desire equally to suffer in return.

And even if perhaps she is not permitted to undergo these things in actuality, yet her intention is accepted as if it were a deed, since the good God is so generous.

I say these things not as though you did not already have them ringing in your ears, but as one united in soul with you in the Lord.

{To Theophilus of Ephesus} Having lent you a letter, I was eagerly awaiting to receive the debt of love in return, but since I have not received it, I am glad to lend again.

For the loan is exceedingly sweet to me, namely, to converse with your sacred head, which suffers for Christ, or rather, is crowned and adorned through confession.

For the mind, in beholding God and things divine, does not see with the eyes with which the world sees; the worldly mind supposes that things which decay and perish partake of the lot of the good, knowing badly and being deceived, while the other mind judges blessed that alone which does not define well-being here, but which is stored up for the age to come, unto the joy of boundless gladness.

Thus, beholding the affairs of your holiness, I, wretched as I am, rejoice and rejoice together with you, thrice-beloved one.

You disdained earthly glory, you chose together with Christ the lowly and despised things, or rather affliction and distress, blows and exiles.

How blessed are your deeds, how praiseworthy your sufferings—proclaimed abroad in East and West, inscribed in the heavens, gladdening the angels, delighting the confessors and martyrs, branding the demons and the iconoclasts who are like-minded and like-mannered with them!

Rightly, then, do I rejoice together with you, father of fathers.

But I ask you also to entreat on behalf of me, wretched in all things, that I may not fall short of standing in the footsteps that follow after you.

{To Naucratius, my child} We have been late in writing to you, beloved child, but here too persecution rages, with blows, chains, and prisons, since he who holds us in his power breathes forth wrath and threat, and seizes and punishes the pious wherever they are found, here and there.

Indeed, when he set out for the City (for he now resides there), he did not hesitate to say that he would request from the emperor an imperial officer to accompany him, in order by all means to behead or even cut out the tongue.

I do not know, indeed, whether the matter will come to its fulfillment.

Wherefore we have already made our farewells, conjecturing this also from the malice of the man and the concurrence of the bishops there.

Since, as they say, they are present, so that some such thing might be accomplished.

But the attendant, becoming fearful and trembling (for he had also been strongly threatened beforehand by the arch-impious one himself, that if he were found guilty of even the slightest thing, he would no longer live), was utterly afraid to provide us with paper and ink.

Then there came also as a hindrance such a report—that you yourself had been taken from the prison—but rather that, on account of some impious act, the bishop of Sardis (which one is not stated) had been beheaded.

From both, then, came our hesitation.

Nevertheless, we the humble ones have been deemed worthy again to raise our voice into your ears, making known to you that we are well in body—and may it be said also in spirit—through your holy prayers together with those of my blessed father.

You have indicated in your letter—what shall I say, and what shall I speak, except that, according to the harshness of the heresy, the bitter persecution follows accordingly? For what do you wish to see, since Christ is denied through the outrage done to his holy icon? Is it not blood being poured out and flesh being cut, afflictions and distresses, chains and prisons and every other kind of maltreatment, is it not vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, of whom the man you mentioned is one? And you will yet see, brother, still more terrible things, as the heresy continues long in time.

But blessed are those who endure, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Already the choirs of confessors and martyrs exult and rejoice, receiving some through a blessed death, and anointing others invisibly through their visitations.

And why do I speak of martyrs? Christ himself, who is being borne witness to, rejoices and contends together with each and every one of those who confess.

For if it were not so, those who bear present circumstances would not bear them nobly, women would not be showing manly courage after the pattern of the holy women of old, laymen and senatorial women would not be stripping themselves for the contests, maidens would not be scorning the sight of impious men, public prisons would not everywhere be filled, and desert mountains and glens and caves would not be full of those who have fled for the Lord's sake, and, to put it briefly, the news would not be sounded abroad throughout the whole world under heaven.

So that it must be believed manifestly that Christ has been persecuted, so that one must hope together and be eager, that everyone who truly believes will bear whatever punishment there may be, with Christ and together with Christ.

Such are our accounts.

Let the meek hear and rejoice; let East and West hear the things happening in Byzantium and give praise.

Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more.

Here is the contest of an athlete, here blood flows, watering the Church of Christ beyond the watering of the paradise in Eden.

As I live, says the Lord, those who glorify me I will glorify, and he who despises me shall be dishonored.

Do you also record — whoever you may be, zealous for the Lord — these new deeds, or rather these God-wrought testimonies, so that those who come after may see that God is truly among us, and that the seed of the righteous lives, and that the golden race of martyrs bears Christ within it, against which the gates of Hades have not prevailed nor shall prevail, as the promise of the One who cannot lie declares.

'It is hard for you,' he says, 'to kick against the goads,' and it cannot be otherwise.

I, wretched as I am, address these words to you; but you, O sacred child, give me your prayers in return.

Greet your fellow confessors by name, and your fellow disciples — and not only these, but, if you are able, all the other elect of God as well, those chosen out from myriads, the luminaries in the world, the vessels of mercy, those useful to God, those beloved of the Trinity — by whose prayers may we too, unworthy as we are, be saved.

He who is with me greets you along with all of them.

{To my son Nicholas} Since you are eager to learn, brother Nicholas, from what four grounds the truth concerning the venerable icon of Christ is established, know that it is from natural doctrine, from ancient history, from the words of the saints, and from the pronouncement of a council.

How is it from natural doctrine? Because it is the nature of a body to fall under touch and color, and what falls under touch and color is circumscribable, that is, capable of being depicted in an image;

and such is the body of Christ, just as ours also is — tangible and possessed of color.

And as many as touched him were healed.

The appearance of his face became different.

Therefore he is depicted in an image according to the character of his body, without suffering any diminishment of the uncircumscribability of his divinity — just as I too, though circumscribed in body, am not thereby of necessity also circumscribed in my invisible soul;

nor, because my body is circumscribed while my soul is uncircumscribed, am I, being one, thereby cut into two.

So much the more, then, does Christ not undergo any cutting or division on account of being depicted according to his bodily character.

How is it from ancient history? Because the world under heaven, from the very ascension of Christ onward, shows his venerable icon painted in the sacred churches;

a witness more trustworthy than hearsay. How is it from the words of the saints? Because in one place Peter, the chief of the apostles, says:

'Bring out the icon of our Lord Jesus Christ and imprint it upon the little tower, so that the peoples may see what form the Son of God assumed;'

and in another place the Great Basil declares:

'Let Christ, the judge of the contests, also be painted upon the panel.'

With these all the saints, clearly, are of one mind.

How is it from the pronouncement of a council? Because the council that assembled after the Sixth Ecumenical Council declares the following:

'We decree, therefore, that from now on, instead of the ancient lamb, the icon of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be set up.'

But if the iconoclasts should also claim to establish their own doctrine on these same four grounds, let them show, first, on the first point, how this is so.

Do they say that his body is such as the truth has shown, or not? If it is such, then, even unwillingly, they will be compelled to agree that Christ can be depicted in an image;

but if it is not such, it remains for them of necessity to say that it is untouchable and colorless;

for between these there is no middle ground, just as there is none between the material and the immaterial, or the visible and the invisible.

But to say that Christ assumed such a body belongs to the Manichaeans, who babble that the saving dispensation of Christ took place in mere semblance and appearance.

On the second point: even if they themselves keep silent about the truth, the very stones will cry out that under the sun the icon of Christ has shone forth on every side.

On the third point: those who set themselves against the chief apostle Peter and the Great Basil are altogether strangers to the fold of Christ.

On the fourth point: the so-called council held by them at Blachernae against the icon of Christ is far later in time than the council which assembled after the Sixth in favor of the icon of Christ;

and the council after the Sixth is accepted by the five patriarchs, while the Blachernae council is anathematized by the four as an enemy of Christ.

Furthermore, the Second Council of Nicaea, being of one mind with the council after the Sixth, is welcomed by the five, while the council now assembled to confirm the Blachernae decree against the icon of Christ is, like that one, rejected with abhorrence.

This, then, is a brief statement of the truth and a refutation of its opponents.

{To my son Naucratius} Sacred Scripture says:

'A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and much weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted;'

But I, wretched as I am, adapting that saying, might fittingly say instead:

Glad tidings of joy have been sounded to us by your honored self, at which it is fitting for not this city or that alone to leap for joy, but almost the whole world under heaven — because the Lord has cast down, not Sihon king of the Amorites, nor Og king of Bashan, petty kings oppressing but a small portion of the world, but the newly-appeared great dragon who was ravaging much of the inhabited world, the crooked serpent hissing blasphemies, the abomination of desolation, the vessel of wrath, the son of Tabeel — not to say 'Kaballinos' — the descendant of Ahab, the very model of Julian, the fullness of the evil one, the insulter of Christ, the enemy of the Theotokos, the adversary of all the saints.

For since he persecuted and destroyed their venerable images, it is clear that he proved himself utterly their enemy and persecutor.

Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth exult; let the mountains drip sweetness and the hills righteousness.

The enemy has fallen, he who struck us down has been broken.

The mouth that spoke unjust things has been stopped up; the hand of Absalom has been restrained; the hard-hearted Pharaoh is gone.

And I do not yet have the time or the occasion to set forth the things worthy of report concerning that most wicked dragon.

But this I would add to what has been said: that the apostate ought, in the manner you have written, to have his life torn away —

that a sword should pass through the throat that belched forth godless words; that a mortal blow should pierce the shoulder that quivered with insolence against Christ; that, in place of the righteous blood he poured out, unjust blood should be poured out from him; that, instead of the cutting and scourging of limbs and backs he inflicted, his god-hated limbs should be cut off; that, instead of a holy death, an unholy death should be his lot; and that, instead of the purple robe, this dishonored offspring should be clothed in rags.

And it is not that I rejoice over the fall of the impious man — for indeed I groan and weep — that I make sport of the manner of his death, but because the evil man will perish evilly, as the sentence of the One who cannot lie declares, and everyone who acts insolently against God shall receive here also in like measure what he has done;

for I am not yet speaking of the future and final fire, by which every impious and lawless man shall be tested.

What, then, is needed in view of this? There is need of a new Josiah, or, if you will, of some Jovian, or another such man —

who, being zealous for the Lord, might make haste to set right what has been thrown down, to join together what has been divided, to render to God the things that are God's — that is to say, to restore the icon of Christ, of the Theotokos, and of each of the saints;

not that the icon of Christ has ever truly fallen — far be it — but that we, who have fallen through impiety, might be raised up.

Such is what we sinners pray that our most pious and God-appointed emperor may both appear to be and truly be.

And if it be so, it is best, and shall be praised forever;

but if, on account of my sins, it should not be so, nevertheless let us at least be so in the confession of Christ, not neglecting his holy commandment, nor cowering before anything, nor fearing anything else before God, even as God himself guarantees.

Point these things out to your fellow confessors, and greet them also on our behalf, since you know them to be friends and pious men.

May we be counted worthy also to come to converse face to face;

but if this is not the Lord's will, then, my brother, make use of letters, seeing me thereby and being seen by me.

Your brother Nicholas warmly greets you.

{To the Emperor Michael, Autocrator} It is right that, especially at the present time, praise should be prepared from the mouths of all who have been persecuted — first of all to Christ the King of all, and then to your God-appointed majesty, through whom we who were bound have received release, we who were imprisoned have received freedom, we who were worn down have received consolation, we who were wounded have received health, we who were hidden away have received boldness of speech, and we who were exiled have received return.

And indeed I believe I judge rightly in supposing that the suffering endured beforehand by your majesty was a type of Christ's, so that, having done a like deed in a like manner, your majesty too might say, together with Christ and after the manner of Christ, to those in bonds:

'Come out,' and to those in darkness:

'Show yourselves.' And blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has raised up for us a horn of salvation, the new David, the second Josiah, the king of the reign of peace, who by continually doing shall do what is pleasing to God, who shall raise up what has fallen, join together what has been rent apart, bind it up and heal it, and, to speak prophetically, raise it up on the third day;

since, O emperor who imitates Christ, those who died beforehand in the heresy have departed to a portion of perdition, having denied Christ by their denial of his icon, even though they are called Christians.