Letters 1 part 15/55

Why? Because you have always shown yourself to be our benefactor, a mighty friend, a faithful friend.

And what is the mark of a faithful friend? That the one who loves should lay down his soul for the one he loves.

Look at yourself, then, and consider whether you have not become exactly this toward our humble self, toward the most God-beloved archbishop, and toward the benefit of our brothers who happen to come to you.

Considering each of your benefactions, we both love and bless you; we pray for you and pray exceedingly, presenting to you Christ as the one who repays rewards — he who promised to give a reward even for a cup of cold water, let alone for such great things as these.

May you then be preserved for us for a long time, in health, prospering, cheerful, and indeed also thinking rightly concerning the blameless faith.

{To Leo, a friend} I, the humble one, have not forgotten your love, O good friend, seeing that at every season you have shown the marks of friendship toward us, not shrinking even from the very hour of our trial.

For I know you, I know how, when all our friends and neighbors withdrew, you yourself, out of fear of God and out of longing, were present by night, bringing gifts, embracing us in farewell, imploring, sharing in our sorrow, inquiring about the safeguards for your own precious soul, all the while full of eagerness.

For these reasons I inscribe a brief letter, expressing my heartfelt thanks also for the hospitality shown to the brothers who come there for ministry just now, when there is terror on every side.

He will repay you with gifts from himself, and will deliver you from the abominable communion of the icon-fighters, and will save you into his heavenly kingdom.

{To Hypatius} I received your note, brother, and since you have pressed my humble self, by the mercy of God, who overlooks every sin, may the penance be forgiven you.

Partake, therefore, henceforth of the holy things, taking care not to fall again into the same offenses, lest the judgment become merciless toward us forever — not even sparing those who, after treatment and swift absolution, were restored to soundness.

God will forgive you, brother, your sins.

Pray for us sinners.

{Untitled} The treasure of piety ought not to lie exposed in plain view.

For it would be plundered by the marauders of impiety, even against its own will.

Fittingly, then, it has henceforth been apportioned by God for the enrichment of orthodoxy in the Church of God.

Such is your glory, O best of fathers to me, and mightiest and most longed-for of the right-thinking!

Grievous are the things laid upon you (how could they not be?) — the loss of house, deprivation of friends, separation from children, and not a few other things besides that inflict pain, in proportion to that very eminence of standing which you especially possessed.

But take courage, O most understanding one, for you have been made known as a champion of piety — great in earthly rank, greater in heavenly dignity, renowned in worldly usefulness, more renowned still in monastic contemplation.

I hold you always before the eyes of my soul; I embrace you with the kisses of my heart; I pray, sinner though I am, that you may be well in body and be enfolded in the hand of God in all things.

This too, my lord, may you not cease to do for your child, greeting Kalogeros, if it be possible.

But if not, then at least greet my lord, the man of God — I mean the spatharios.

{To Isidore of Byzantium} You remember me always, O good friend, but my God will remember you in return.

I consider it a small thing to receive a heavy purse from the mighty in power, compared with what is sent from your God-beloved honor, even should it amount to but a single obol.

And yet the very things sent were themselves great, and beyond my deserving.

In return for which, may the Lord grant you every sufficiency of life, keeping you free from the heresy of the Christ-fighters.

Farewell in the Lord, you who are in every way revered by me.

{To George the innkeeper} I learn that your blessed dwelling has become a lodging for our brothers.

And great is this grace always, but especially now, when nearly every house of friends has been shut to us out of human fear.

But the fear of God presents your door as open to us; entering it as sinners, we proclaim to you the peace that comes from the Lord, blessing you and praising you as being a house of God.

May your portion be with Abraham, who gave hospitality to angels; may every good thing, both spiritual and visible, be multiplied to you; may you rejoice both in this present age and in the age to come.

But then, together with this virtue of yours, let there also be, guarding you, abstention from communion with those who side with heresy against Christ, the Theotokos, and every saint.

{To my child Naucratius} Since the good God was pleased to let us see brother Adrian, we thought it a fitting occasion, my beloved child, to greet you, and through you the rest of your brothers, who are also our children.

And how do things stand with us? By your prayers, we have been restored.

The dwelling here is good, the quiet is pleasant, and God is near — but so too is our enemy the devil, who is present everywhere to tempt.

I beseech you, do not forget to remember me in your prayers, that I may be kept safe together with the brothers with whom I dwell, who also send their greetings.

But indeed I also exhort you to remain steadfast in faith and hope, and by no means to lose heart amid the present afflictions.

For the Lord is near to those who endure for him.

And you, my child, as my very soul and strength, lend yourself to our brothers wherever they may be found, in whatever way you are able and whenever need calls.

For it was surely for this very reason arranged by God that you should be unhindered in your movements.

For know that it is fitting both for you to send men here, and also for you yourself to come at some time — only take care to do so discreetly, so as not to be recognized by certain more simple brothers.

Adrian knows when he came in, and how.

We are in need of nothing except books.

And if the commentary on the Gospel according to John by my father according to the flesh exists, send it on to me along with the others I mentioned.

May God guard you, my child, as the apple of his eye.

{To the same} I, the humble one, gave thanks to the Lord upon seeing brother Proterius, having been anxious about his safe deliverance.

And I know that this is from the Lord, who, overlooking my sins for the benefit of the brothers, prospers his coming in and going out, and makes him pass through, as it were, the midst of fire unburned.

And such too are the things now reported — some good, and others otherwise.

In the former case there is joy and thanksgiving, especially because even women show manly courage against the devil; in the latter, there is grief and sighing.

For how could the falls of brothers not grieve us — and all the more, in proportion as this people-deceiving heresy prospers? But nevertheless it is necessary to bear it, remaining unchanged in the love of Christ.

And even should things grow ever harsher for Christians, again and again — as indeed is likely — this secures us well.

But I do not know how you have advanced in guarding yourself against your consort; forgive me now, brother, for speaking and not keeping silent, for I have great need of a people to address — this word to those estranged from the faith, that word to those of one accord with us.

But I, wretched one, am grieved every time, gripped by fear of God's judgment, because I do not send letters, even though I receive none myself.

For this is a work of the love of God; whereas to be silent, and for each to look only to himself as a safe course, not only lacks the love of one's neighbor, but also works corruption of soul in the one who acts so.

For this reason I take a somewhat middle course, and this too with counsel and in consultation with those who are with me, being exact only to the extent that I not provoke God to anger nor fall away from the truth before the assault of God's enemies — considering also this: how much I ought to contend against others, and finding it threefold, while perhaps not even fulfilling the single, simple measure.

Since it is also written, that of him to whom much was entrusted, much more will be required.

Nevertheless, write, my child, and be watchful over yourself.

For I do not take it hard; rather, I would only be pointing out to you again what is needful.

And may the God of my father look upon all that we do and may accomplish, that it may be well-pleasing to him.

Farewell, and may you be kept safe, my most beloved child.

{To the same} In my letter to our brother the archbishop I have already lamented at length the death of my blessed Kalogeros; beloved child, I have nothing now to say except that God has taken a chosen vessel from among us.

To recount his virtue is a task fit for prayer, not for the present occasion, especially since the letter-carrier is in haste and I myself am worn out with grief.

For I want you to know, child, that grief has touched my heart deeply, and I have poured out painful tears, though I did not even see his falling asleep.

But again I soon took heart, giving much thanks to my good God that, though separated from him for His sake, I had the privilege of both him who fell blessedly asleep and of you.

He, then, having fought the good fight, as all know, and having borne off at the end, as a crown woven by God, the beatitude of the persecution endured for the Lord's sake (for I forbear to recount things of old), has departed this life to join our blessed father together with the brothers of renowned memory, deemed worthy — I make bold to say — of an angelic standing and rest.

But for us now, child, the struggle is not to be left behind by our good fathers.

Therefore let us stand firm, steered by their prayers, and may God in His goodness guide us to their harbor.

I saw the good Gaianos and was refreshed, having asked and heard all that I sought to learn.

I was grieved to learn that you were again worn down by grief over the death.

And give careful heed to your own well-being, especially concerning the other matters you rightly reported.

{To the same} You anticipate everything, my child, all through God's granting success.

For at the same time as the letter, the imperial official also arrived, reporting to us what he had been asked, and indeed also what he had been instructed by the emperor.

And this was it: 'If you find that he has taught anyone, or that he says he intends to teach, beat him with a hundred strokes of the lash.'

The man said even this with shame, also begging pardon for speaking of it.

But I replied that here, where I am confined, I have no one to converse with except perhaps the birds, and, simply put, as I have already made known through the man who exiled me and likewise through the lord Leo.

But he declined to report it so.

So I told him that this is how I stand, and that I am ready to be stripped for the beating.

With this I dismissed the man.

I rejoiced that the archbishop and the brothers were released.

I intended to write to him, but on account of the trial I refrained.

Make this excuse to him, then.

For indeed, as though under trial, he confined himself to that very place.

And I know that he is grieved, as the imperial official also told me, but such is how the Lord has ordered it.

Greet him sincerely and entreat him to pray for my lowliness, and likewise the brothers and children with him, especially the protopresbyter and Abbot Timothy.

You yourself also labor as far as you are able, and let those with Abbot Tithoes labor as well, to give him rest, regarding him just as you would regard me.

And that you may know: to the lord Isaac I wrote nothing else than that God grant him the reward of his visitation, since he alone wrote to me; and pray that I may please God even for a single day.

Whether then for this reason or for another, for Christ's sake I can say this: that I am ready for scourges, even though in every way I flee the trial, out of regard for my own weakness, and for your sake and that of those who would carry it out.

In this manner, then, do you also continue, especially in your service toward me, both writing and sending, insofar as you discern it to be the will of God.

With this, all things are desirable to me, even should the ruler threaten fire, even the sword, even beasts, even anything whatsoever.

Not that I am strong (for I am weaker than a spider), but because God wills every Christian to be so disposed; and yet what has happened, happened providentially.

For the guards took precautions, and both the elder who is here and the monk went out.

We have God, and your prayers.

At a suitable time let me know where the brothers have been scattered, and whether the ten and the seven received the letters, and whether it is possible to send to the ten as we said.

Those who are with me greet you warmly.

{To the same} Truly, child, I was troubled by the delay, but because winter was upon us, I was not indignant.

But now, having received both your letter and the brother together, and having learned from both what was sought, I gave thanks to the Lord, who was pleased that our good brother and father — the archbishop, I mean — should be exiled for the truth's sake, together with the rest of the brothers and fathers.

You weary yourselves in ceaseless talk about the expected transfer, but nothing is without its reward.

Accept it lovingly in the Lord, whenever He so commands.

It is good that only the brother Proterius should sail to the city, in fair weather, so that, even if no one else does, at least those to whom I have just written may receive the letters.

Even if he does not come here, he has our humble prayer.

We have given him instructions concerning everything.

Let him be watchful how he enters at the gate, how he delivers the letters, not walking about carelessly as if it were nothing.

May the Lord, then, shelter him through the prayer of our father.

Concerning the assistant steward, should he come, you reminded me, child.

As we too perceive it to be good, so we act.

If again you should learn anything concerning the fathers, write to us at a suitable time.

And for now do not be in haste, unless something is necessary, to send anything, since the season is wintry.

When brother Timothy sets out, let me know, so that he may take letters.

May God shelter you, child, in all things.

The brothers greet you — the four and the thirty — from us.

{To the same} You did well, my God-beloved child, in sending the brother as a good messenger.

Rejoicing both at the sight of him and at his message, we gave thanks to the Lord.

But you seemed to think that, once we had learned by living voice, we would have no need of a written letter.

And yet not even by word of mouth did you give us an answer concerning what we asked — whether it is possible to write to the exiled bishops, and whether it is good to compose verses in iambic meter against the Iconoclasts — not so much for the benefit of others as for my own, so as to divert and draw my mind away from untoward thoughts.

Write, then, whenever anyone comes, even if nothing else, at least that you are well and that the brothers are safe.

For I desire your brief greeting more than the long discourses of others.

For where else do I breathe, if not in you, my heart? It is necessary that my Proterius be sent again into the city, for the discernment of our brothers' affairs, carrying also, as I think best, a letter of yours to those around Abbot Gregory, to anoint them unto strength (for it is fitting that others should do this, how much more we ourselves —

yet I for now have held back, out of fear of the inquiry) — and to those at the Studios, words of encouragement by word of mouth, and how I am praying for them and am in anguish over them.

Christ is with us, even should we walk in the midst of the shadow of death.

What do you mean by telling me that certain people are coming here? Whomever you send, I will see; who they are, I do not ask.

See, both through brother Adrian and through the transport ship, whom you should send and when.

It is clear that it is both necessary and must be done of necessity.

As for yourself, for now be content, and let it be as the Lord prospers.

Read, keep occupied with work, pray fervently.

I greet my Callistus.

Those with me greet you.

{To the same} From your first and second letter I rejoiced, my child, and rejoiced exceedingly — at the steadfastness of your soul, the unwavering firmness of your faith, and your endurance and readiness of spirit toward whatever may come.

And thanks be to the Lord, who fortifies and confirms you in His fear.

In His providence the Lord has ordered it that until now you should remain free from custody, so that the necessary services might be fulfilled.

I also saw the good Gaïanos, and my soul was nourished by his exposition on the ten.

One thing grieved me: concerning the two brothers formerly from Pelekete, that they were not administered to as our members and brothers.

But, if it is possible, let them be provided for as much as the love of God requires.

I have received everything, including what was now sent.

I was refreshed by the parchments, by everything whatsoever;

May the Lord grant you rest in return, my child, in his kingdom.

You grow weary awaiting the heretics, but this too is for your testing.

Help the brother Tithoios; be moved with compunction (since it is written, 'Let brothers be useful to you in times of need'), and greet him also from me.

I exhort both him and that one that, just as you labor in all things, so also toward your brother Abba Peter you show fitting disposition, and give him what is needed as far as possible;

for he informed me that you left him without provision.

Above all, and as you bid, greet from us the brother Dometianos and the assistant steward;

and tell him that I received his letters.

May God forgive you in all things;

Christ be with you all.

{To the same} I saw the brother Silvanus together with Dorotheos, by the good pleasure of Christ, my beloved child;

I spoke of good pleasure, since they have not come for evil nor at an untimely moment — although I am unworthy — having come to their father, and at such a time.

I saw them in safety, just as they came, being brought together with me in some inconspicuous way;

and I charged them not to blab about this meeting anywhere carelessly; and I sent them off in peace, having found Silvanus as I had longed for.

Receive him too in brotherly fashion, as he comes to you together with the good Dorotheos out of his own impulse and purpose, loving you very much and revering you;

for, as you have heard, he did not falsify his first arrival to you — though he offers an excuse by word of mouth.

I had freedom from care, since he was in all humility.

And how the archbishop departed, I learned through him and was put at ease, and likewise concerning our brothers still held in custody.

Now I seek to learn also concerning brother Proterios, whether indeed he has departed, fearing on account of the winter.

Therefore, when someone comes at the appointed time, make known to me all things; and may the Lord be with your spirit.

{To Joseph, brother and archbishop} I give thanks to my God that you continue in good health;

for this good news I received through your honored letters.

For who am I, the wretched one, to hear such things from your God-loving holiness — things which it is rather I who ought to sing to you, on account of your admirable virtue? For among bishops you have truly praised the Lord, not only recently, when certain of your fellow-rank also rose up together with you toward the heights of truth, but indeed long ago as well, one might say from the very starting-line of your presidency, at a time when many shepherds — though the word is harsh — played the fool, not having sought the Lord; and this amid prisons, isolations, constraints, hardships, toils, tears, and, so to speak, the stranglings of ill-treatment.

Your boasts are apostolic, your contests equal to those of the fathers;

And if I too have something of such things, yet the smallness of my rank and the enormity of my sins cover it and do not allow it to appear.

Nevertheless, your achievements are my boast, thrice-longed-for brother, crown of the fathers.

Rather, therefore, cease from praising and pray, that my humble soul may be established in the fear of God, and against the unseen and visible enemies, accompanied also by the supplication of our blessed father;

For indeed I am fearful concerning my own state, brother, so long as I am in this tent [of the body].

But if I do have some confidence, this too is by hope in God, who through his infinite goodness brings even the despaired-of into the light.

I was greatly cheered that the good Athanasios is with you, both for this and for the comfort he affords in the hospitality of your exile.

As for the state of things here, the good Silvanus, having witnessed them with his own eyes, will relate them to you, and not only these things, but also whatever it would be superfluous to write by letter.

If then the Lord still reserves for us to see one another in the flesh, that is the work of his own command;

but if not, then may you, O father, intercede that we may be seen together with our father — or rather with our fathers and brothers together — in blessed vision one by another, and be seen graciously by God, for whose sake is the present separation and warfare.

The brother Nicholas, who alone has been left to me, does obeisance as a servant.

Vouchsafe to greet those who are with your holiness, especially the good Athanasios.

{To Euthymios of Sardis} I am now writing to your beatitude for the second time;

but alas for my sin;

for the report brings tears, that the pair of former letter-carriers, on arriving toward your place of exile, was drowned — which crushed my humble soul not a little.

Nevertheless, since they were sons of obedience, and were apostles of such a ministry, and thirdly, since there is but one truly pitiable death — that of sin, even should it overtake one upon a bed — I bore it with thanksgiving, setting aside my grief.

Therefore, in my first letter also, I offered up to your God-loving self the beatitude that is your due;

for indeed it is worthy to be called blessed, having contended above all others and having spoken boldly among the hierarchs, and this even without having had the opportunity for confidence on account of the recency of your see.

Yet, holding your see by the power of truth, you have surpassed almost all those who hold thrones, having carried off the crown of confession.

The same things I now address to your sacred head, crowning it not with a gold-encrusted diadem (since the victory is not according to the flesh), but with words woven by God;

Rejoice, then, and be glad, O wondrous one, still bearing and completing the double-course of exile, so that at the finish-line of your departure you may run back crowned into the heavens;

and before that, may it be granted me to behold you, in a time of peace, shining resplendent upon your see.

For as to how our church is now troubled and set ablaze, it would take much to tell, on account of the manifold forms of impiety —

— concerning the icons; sacred shrines have lost their comeliness, almost every soul has bowed the knee, having handed over written renunciations to the impious;

few are those who hold fast, and even these are being tested as by fire through their afflictions.

Among the bishops, the bishop of Smyrna has fallen, and the bishop of Cherson; among the abbots, the one of Chrysopolis, the one of Dios, the one of Chora, and almost all those in the City.

Those of Bithynia stand firm, by the grace of Christ.

Pray, father, that they, together with us lowly ones, may be strengthened unto the end.

No one from the order of laymen is standing firm, except Peximenites, who, having also been beaten, has been exiled;

among the clergy, the wondrous Gregory, surnamed Kentrokoukouros; and indeed among the abbesses, up to six, are being kept guarded in monasteries.

Let me come to the necessary matter of your command.

What is it, O father, that you have enjoined upon me — a thing beyond me both in rank and in view of the present necessity? Namely, that I should, as it were secretly, greet the genuine ones.

Fear is upon all, and especially upon me the sinner, lest something become manifest to the ruler.

For indeed I have been transferred in exile among the Anatolics, and the Caesar's wrath against me the wretched one is not slight, having been kindled rather by denunciations — he commanding me to keep silent and not teach, while I, the miserable one, refused and answered back rather defiantly.

On account of these things there were beatings — though I have kept these hidden, out of respect for the reverence due the one who struck me — and the plundering of those who serve me, of the little books which they had.

How then, amid these circumstances, I could undertake anything of what was enjoined, I am at a loss;

forgive my lowliness, even though the matter is a blessed one.

And I do not even yet mention that the crushing affliction of famine is equal both there and here.

Nevertheless, taking courage regarding one person, I have written;

whether the letter accomplishes anything, its dispatch will show.

For the rest, pray for your child, that he may walk in the footsteps of your holiness.

{To Patrikios} Considering myself a debtor to your greatly glorious high-mindedness, I have now decided to greet you, the longed-for one, not by mere word of mouth, but by letter.

For even if the present time does not allow me to divulge a secret to others, yet it does not prevent me from doing so to you, my own.

For you are to me both masters and kin by blood; hence also comes my affection — and not so much from family descent as from a spirit of virtue.

Since I have other kinsmen as well, but they are not so dear to me that I should write to them in the same way.

I pray for you, sinner though I am, for things salvific, and indeed for the health of soul and body.

I say this on account of the present heresy and soul-destroying delusion, that you, my God-fearing lord, and your whole household as well, may be kept unharmed.

For the wrath of the Lord has begun from insolent Byzantium, inasmuch as she has long been accustomed to reject the things that pertain to the Lord.

And already the fire is consuming things everywhere.

Blessed is he who understands, and remains unburned.

For if Christ became poor and needy for our sake, how are the properties of that poverty not present in him — namely, color, tangibility, body — the very things from which, and in which, circumscription consists?

Therefore, O man of God, those who do not confess that he was circumscribed cast off the saving economy of the Word, and what is now happening is the prelude to the coming of Antichrist.

But woe to you, Byzantium! For judgment has begun from you as well, and in you the evils shall find their end, when your sins are filled up.

These things I write out of longing and grief to your Greatness, who already knows the greater matters.

{To my child Athanasios} I write to you now, my child, in a way I would not have wished — and you know the reason.

Woe is me, wretched man! Alas for me, miserable one! What has befallen our two brothers!

To me, though both are beloved — for they are true children — yet even so, his own brother is the more cherished.

Why? Because he is a man of God, full of faith and truth, a son of obedience, a child of light, a man greatly beloved, an unfeigned subject, a subduer of the passions, indeed a zealot, and indeed an eager traveler on the road of the commandments, loving exceedingly his father in the spirit and being loved by him in equal measure, detached from the flesh and joined to God, useful to all and chosen by all.

Do you think I am flattering the man? No — the truth exceeds even this.

It shook my mind, it crushed my heart; I wept bitter tears, I was overwhelmed with a grief such as I have never known — not on account of their falling asleep in death, but because it happened in such a place, fearing lest my own order be the cause of it (for he was obeying gladly, ready out of faith to walk into fire and suffer no harm), yet still because I had never at all intended to send them forth on their journey in the winter.

But I was persuaded to let them go, since the steward had already made their journey ready.

Yet I did not remain, my child, in mourning; but raising up my reasoning, and considering that there is only one evil death — that of sin — and that it is not the place but the manner of death that matters, I gave thanks to the Lord for what had happened, surrendering the whole matter to his unfathomable judgments of providence.

who, before the foundation of the world, in his beneficence allotted to each one both the time and the place of his end.

In this, take heart also yourself, my ever-beloved brother, ranking them together with Zosimas and the wondrous Gaianos, brothers equal in spirit as they were in body.

May I, unworthy as I am, share in their portion.

Pray for me unceasingly, that I may be saved, beloved child.

{To my child Naukratios} Even when no occasion for letters happens to arise, I love to converse with you — how much more, then, when one is found? So through your letters, my child, I received good news of good things.

For it is glad tidings to me that my true brother and archbishop is being exiled for Christ's sake, and my other fathers and brothers as well.