Greek original · 206 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 1:1976–1:2181 (9659 verses in all)
ℹ️ This corpus has no verse-level morphological tagging. Lemmas come mainly from word-level tagging of other books in the same language (not from this verse), falling back to dictionary form-matching for the rest. Rare homographs can still be misread; verify against the original and a specialist lexicon where precision matters.
ℹ️ The Chinese and English alongside are this site's own translation, made directly from the original text on this page (not the CUV or the WEB, which follow the Masoretic Text and a different textual tradition).
For this reason, my dearly beloved child, He did not wish you to pass by unnoticed and hidden away in these days, but rather to be made manifest openly, like a pearl of piety, so that He might be glorified all the more — as also in some of your foremost brothers — on account of your steadfast heart.
It is indeed grievous (for how could it not be?) that you have been separated from the most God-beloved archbishop, since he no longer has anyone of virtue equal to yours for comfort and counsel;
for it is not the suffering itself, but the failure to endure sufferings for Christ's sake, that is most grievous and harmful to those who have understanding.
may the prayer of our blessed father and of the holy brothers overtake you, and above all the intercession of the holy Theotokos together with all the saints.
{To Timothy, my child} O good Timothy, I have always known you to be a lover of God, a lover of your father, well-disposed, of one mind with us, guileless, a keeper of the household, and deeply sympathetic toward our blessed father, toward me the sinner, and toward the most God-beloved archbishop.
for thus will you be well-pleasing to the Lord, and thus will you also render service to me the sinner — only go and reach him carefully and cautiously, and deliver also my letters.
{To Anatolios and Sabbatios, my children} This is the third letter of yours that I have received, my greatly longed-for and much-beloved children, from which I have learned much of your good disposition toward God and your regard for me the sinner;
for your writing so often, and making known to us our own household affairs, and moreover where and how the brothers scattered throughout that region are dwelling — which your earlier letter also made clear — is proof of your fervent love for your father and your burning zeal for God.
Are not these sufferings unworthy to be compared with the glory that is to come, for the sake of which our fathers, having toiled and sweated greatly, attained their crowns? You know this, that Nectarius, that ancient traitor, apostatized, acting worse than Judas;
for the one, having denied and betrayed the Lord of glory, hanged himself in remorse; but the other, of his own accord, likewise renounced Christ by his denial of His holy icon, and, without repentance, was destroying not only his own soul but that of many others as well, extorting from them written recantations of impiety.
Extend a hand to your brothers, and especially to the ten, in word and in deed, as far as you are able, so that you may make up for what is lacking on my part.
{To Peter of Nicaea} Though I often intended to write to your holiness, beloved and fatherly to me, I was hindered by my sins (for I shall blame nothing else up to this point); but now, having found an opportunity and a letter-carrier, I gladly address at last and greet your venerable and sacred person;
for although every single one who contends for the sake of piety is especially dear to my wretchedness, nevertheless a certain exceptional reverence attends me toward your paternal dignity.
which is a mark distinctive of your friendship and, so to speak, of your extraordinary renown, but is altogether foreign to my unworthiness, since even now I still tremble at the praise due to your godly wisdom.
For we the lowly ones, as upon some anchor amid this heresy that now tosses and would sink us, place our trust in your greatness, which steers and guides us by its God-strengthened steadfastness into safe and untroubled sailing.
And besides this, may you strengthen us with your prayers, anoint us with your exhortations, and persuade us that the Lord will not forever allow the rod of sinners to strike His Church;
and if that be delayed, may you persuade us to bear the delay with fortitude, which He, by the unsearchable judgments of His wisdom, knows in every way to bring upon us the lowly for our benefit.
for formerly, when grievous circumstances were introduced into the Church of God by those in power on account of my sins, we were so estranged from one another that the drama of our separation became known from east to west.
But now, since those troubles of that time have, by the nod of Providence, passed out of the way — even though, by its permission, worse things have now been kindled, evidently having taken their impulse from what preceded — alas, indeed, even for these present days, which one must suppose to be nothing other than the preludes to the coming of Antichrist.
Nevertheless, since by the grace of the most good God your holiness has been seen to be of one mind with us — or rather, in agreement with the truth — and has chosen the same steadfast stand of piety held by all the orthodox, and this in old age and with a zeal burning fervently (a thing both astonishing and praiseworthy), I, humble as I am, am now hastening back to our former love and communion;
For nothing, as the divine mouth says, is so powerful for concord as agreement concerning God, and nothing is so powerful for division as disagreement concerning Him.
Therefore, having stripped away the former things like some evil cloud, with great joy I now raise up for you, in the clear sky, the light of concord for the present, and I address you as my beloved father, and I come to you as one persecuted and confined for the sake of righteousness, crowning you with praises and magnifying with encomia your reverend gray hairs, your long-continued asceticism.
Now I venerate you as a confessor of Christ, I praise you as a guardian of orthodoxy, rejoicing with you and exulting together with you in your struggles for the good, since, according to the Apostle, the greatest of the gifts is to suffer for Christ's sake.
But nevertheless I am confident that you can do all things in Christ who strengthens you, unto the victory of orthodoxy, unto the boast of me a sinner and of those who love you equally, or rather of the whole Church of God, unto your eternal crown of righteousness.
{To Gregory, a layman} Your abundant and fervent service and attendance upon the brethren in prison has made you, O man of God, an exile, a fugitive, a wanderer.
In truth you have contended, you have suffered hardship, you have been spent, you have been buffeted, you have been sought out, and indeed you have even been seized, even if not completely; your reward is great, equal to that of those held in custody—indeed even greater.
{To Anna, an abbess} What news, on hearing it concerning your honored self, did I receive with such great joy as learning that you are now confined for the sake of our Lord and God? O wise among women!
Even if it is painful bodily, yet it is a cause of spiritual exultation, provided you do not look to the things that are seen, which are temporary, but to the things that are unseen and heavenly.
Do not be terrified of the emperor, if you must come face to face with him, just as the martyrs were not terrified; nor of the stripping of the body and blows, if this too should come to pass.
{To Leo the patrician} If you yourself do not grow weary in doing good to my lowliness out of compassionate love for mankind, shall I then bear not to give an account, even in word, to your good soul? O your compassionate disposition!
You seem to me, O lord, like an ever-flowing spring refreshing me from thirst both sensible and intelligible, or rather like a paradise filled with all manner of beautiful fruits, from which it is granted me to enjoy the things desired.
which is indeed worthy of wonder, that neither time nor manner of affliction, nor occasion of trial, nor the seizure of possessions through malice, nor anything else, small or great, has ever blunted the fullness of your goodness.
And yet we see that even among parents natural affection is not always preserved entirely, but sometimes it wanes, or even changes into enmity, according to whatever circumstance.
For what could I, a poor man, repay, but my neglected prayer? I ask, then, that my good God, in place of my lowliness, keep watch over you for your complete salvation, and especially against the raging Christ-fighting heresy.
{To Irene the patrician} Even though I do not receive letters from your honored self, O lady, I will not cease, whenever I happen to find a faithful letter-carrier, to write to you as to my spiritual mother;
for how could I not call you so, seeing you suffer for Christ's sake, torn away from your husband, cast out from home, city, kinsfolk, friends, and confined in some remote place? And I do not yet mention the notable acts of your other good works, accomplished long ago in past times, since even those done to me, a sinner, still continue to be done.
Let the meek hear and rejoice, that a senatorial woman has raised up the crown of confession of Christ; let East and West hear that even now the golden race of blessed women, from whom Thecla and Febronia sprang, has arisen again.
Where, then, are the rest of the mothers? Where are those who hold the highest ranks? One out of all, and before all, you have excelled; you have dealt the devil a mortal blow.
But since it is not the one who has already begun the good work who is to be blessed, but the one who brings the good undertaking to completion, I beseech you, my venerable lady, brace your spirit for the end of the struggle, leaving your own life behind as a written record of a glorious life for those who come after.
for if he were present, you would not now find yourself in the state you are in—with your mother, indeed, but also a martyr; with your father, yet rather with the one who is above and immortal, no longer as in the flesh, but beyond the flesh.
{To Moschos, a layman} Many are your good deeds, most God-beloved lord, which you have not only worked upon us, the lowly ones, but continue still to work (what have you not sent to console us? what have you not dispatched?), among which are also the very many and delightful things you have sent now.
And who is the one to repay you, but the good God? Through what you do, you have shown your love to be unchangeable, you have manifested the flashes of your purpose darting forth.
For though I am removed from you by so great a distance, I nevertheless enjoy your good gifts—after the brothers who come to you also give you trouble;
some of them, as I have heard, were even nursed in sickness at your Abraham-like and blessed hearth, because it is a lodging-place for many monks and a nursery for orphans.
May all good things be multiplied to you, both spiritually and bodily; may you be kept safe for me, unharmed in bodily health, and indeed in soul, through having no communion with the Christ-opposing heretics.
and this is of providence, that through your confession too the Church of God may be propped up and made firm against the earthquake of impiety that has overtaken her.
these things used to be sounded in our ears by our own fathers, who knew by experience what had happened then; but now they present themselves to us lowly ones too, and are exceedingly grievous.
but extend your intercessory right hand also to me, weak and sinful as I am, that we may bear with joy all that Christ may grant us to suffer for his sake, not fearing, as God has commanded, those who are able to kill the body, but rather him who has power to cast both body and soul into the unquenchable fire of Gehenna.
for as your honor knows, with the heresy raging and us having been removed far away through exile, it is rare to find a letter-carrier, and especially a trustworthy one.
I long, then, to learn of your fatherhood's affairs: where you are, how you fare, whether you remain there, and how you have been treated by the lawless.
'If the light that is in you,' it says, 'is darkness, how great is that darkness! And if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted?' — this I say, wailing and convulsed with anguish.
but may the good God keep you contending and laboring, to the great benefit of his Church, to the glory of Byzantium, to the renown of monastics; and also praying for me, a sinner and his child, that I may remain safe, following you, my holy fathers.
{To the two brothers, the Grammarians} My letter has no strength to console a grieving soul, such as is yours — you, my venerable fathers — grieving from the experience and the guarding torment of those who do evil.
But nevertheless, since speaking and hearing bring some relief, I thought it well on both accounts to write to you now also, showing you the disposition present in me — that it is utterly marked by love toward your dignity, and that I am not a little anxious for your protection, reckoning for what reason you alone, among the others, are being held there under the hands of a lawless man, who makes the devout servants of the Lord live in dire straits.
O the longsuffering of God, who wholly forbears to prevent what is being done, so that the proof of the sufferers' faith in him may be shown more precious than gold, and that a way to repentance may be opened for the doers of evil — or else that the sentence for their sins may be filled up.
You suffer, I know, my fathers, bitter and unbearable things (for how could it be otherwise?), having as your persecutor one so terrible, exceeding all in impiety, and not having, as many of those who contend do, your own countrymen and acquaintances nearby, which is known to console the afflicted greatly.
What then shall we say to this? That which is clearly sung to you from apostolic lips: 'The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.'
But thanks be to Christ, who has strengthened you to overlook everything for the sake of one thing alone — not to act impiously — which will become for you renown of soul, human glory, a boast of virtue, and every kind of good thing.
Let us bear, then, brother, this guard endured for the Lord's sake, the affliction, the distress, in exchange for which eternal gladness will dawn for you, and life without end.
{To the Wax-Merchant} In these days a mere greeting and simple address to those exiled for Christ's sake is a great sign of friendship and piety; but that gifts should also be sent is a sign of very great longing and divine zeal.
Such is my beloved master toward my lowliness, and your dispatches are sweet, kindlings of light, such tokens of the purity of your soul and of the far-shining orthodoxy of your mind.
For now, as you see, the Church's affairs are in night and storm — a storm that drowns not bodies, for that would not yet be the terrible thing, but rather immortal souls that are being shipwrecked.
Guard yourself, therefore, beloved, being piloted orthodoxly, unsubmerged by the heretical waves, stretching your eye up to heaven, from whence we also await as Savior the Lord of glory — whom those who do the same as the Jews dare to dishonor through the dishonoring of his holy image.
This is our small address, in return for the love due to your beloved honored self, together with our sinful prayer, since we have no other gift of recompense.
You see, my friend, what the present circumstances are like — what a fire is burning up the Church of God, clearly kindled from the tinder that preceded it.
The flame of adultery has consumed us; the missile of the adulterous union has devoured us — I mean the persecutions and imprisonments, the punishments, exiles, and turmoils that arose because of it; and I might not unreasonably add also those things that came before, concerning the Simonians and on account of the Simonians (for the Church of God does not know how to vindicate her own cause by scourges, exiles, and imprisonments), and then, in addition to these, the things that happened because of the Paulicians and against the Paulicians.
But nevertheless, since all these things came to pass, there has come forth along with them, as from the recesses of Hades, also the culmination of evils — this Christ-fighting heresy — bent on destroying everyone.
O, O what dreadful things! We too may say: 'There is at this time neither sacrifice, nor offering, nor incense, nor place to bring an offering before you and find mercy.'
Wherefore I entreat your God-loving self to guard against communion with the godless heretics, and to extend a hand, as far as possible, to those who are perishing, and indeed also to the pious — which is your habitual practice always, in deed and in word — since what is at risk concerns the immortal soul.
{To Politianus the Domestikos} Truly, in deed and word, you are a genuine friend of our lowliness, judging from the things you have done for our brothers, my lord;
For what did you not do, and how much did you not give of yourself, showing mercy to them, sympathizing, discreetly leading them out, encouraging them, rousing their eagerness, making now this and now that clear, bringing things together, summarizing, playing a role for their sake, and all but risking danger beforehand on their account? But was it any of the other neighbors who did this? By no means;
for those men are friends of tables, not friends of Christ, since they are either themselves inclined to heresy or follow the heretics in a friendly manner.
For this reason, as I learn, you also keep yourself from communion with the lawless; and may you still be kept by the Lord, together with your most excellent spouse and most noble children;
Being at a loss, then, on two counts, as to whence I might repay you the debt — from nowhere but from God, who takes to himself the benefactions shown to one's neighbor. This is in addition to the many favors that have gone before.
And what of this, that even after the affliction caused you by those who through folly became indebted to you, you did not grow weary of showing kindness to the brothers? Those around Abba Hypatius came in, and you anticipated them with mercy.
For if you minister to us in carnal things, it is not unfitting that you should also share with us in spiritual things, according to the apostolic teaching.