Letters 1 part 3/55

You shall not, out of attachment, keep a youth as a disciple in your cell, but you shall have your personal service performed by an unsuspected person, and by various brothers in turn.

You shall not acquire distinctive and costly clothing, apart from the priestly vestments, but you shall clothe and shoe yourself with humble garments, in imitation of the fathers.

You shall not live luxuriously, either in your own personal expenditure or in the receptions given to guests;

for this belongs to the portion of those who enjoy the pleasures of the present life.

You shall not treasure up gold in your monastery, but shall distribute whatever is in excess, of every kind, to the poor, with the gate of your courtyard open, just as the holy fathers also did.

You shall not keep hold, for yourself, of a secured position and of the administrative oversight, but let all your concern be devoted to the souls of the brothers;

but the gold and the necessary provisions you shall hand over to the steward, to the cellarer, and to whomever is appropriate in each office—you yourself clearly retaining authority over all and transferring, as you wish, each office to whatever person you choose, and receiving an account of each administration, according to what you have commanded.

You shall not do or act, in any matter, according to your own private judgment—neither in going forth, nor in selling and buying, nor in the reception or the dismissal of a brother, nor in the exchange of an office, nor in any other bodily matter—nor, indeed, even in matters of faults of the soul—without the counsel of those who excel in knowledge and reverence, one or two, or even three, or more, according to the matter at hand, just as has been enjoined in paternal fashion.

All these things, and whatever others you have received, may you keep and guard, that it may go well with you, and that you may prosper in the Lord all the days of your life;

For may the opposite be far from us both to say and to think.

second, and darkened in life -- not owing the debt that pertains to the episcopate (alas for my incapacity!), but the one that pertains to the monastic, that is, the abbatial condition: how, then, having led according to reason the flock entrusted to me unworthily, I might find God gracious on the day of my dread accounting.

But you have surely experienced this out of the utmost modesty;

for it is not right for me to suspect your high priesthood of testing my lack of learning.

I, then, fear the things of my own rank, O sacred head, and I am truly dizzy concerning the governance of souls -- how I might bring this smallest and rational little boat entrusted to me safely out of the much-troubled and ever-surging noetic sea into the harbor of salvation;

for this requires both a pure way of life and the attainment of sufficient knowledge, so that, steering as it were with two rudders, I might vigilantly and skillfully keep both myself and those who follow me unsubmerged by the waters of sin.

This, then, is my defense, wretched man that I am.

But since it is not altogether without danger to leave the command of your holiness unheeded, even though it exceeds my power to be disobedient -- especially since I received the injunction also from my own father -- trusting in the ready obedience owed to both, I address this to you, O most divine father, by way of a reminder: that the ship of your perfection is by far greater and more surpassing than my little skiff (I mean, the episcopal eminence compared to the abbatial dignity), and by so much the more, as you have been deemed worthy to rule over more people -- and these not all willing, perhaps, nor of one mind, nor of the same nature and rank, but both men and women, monastics and laypeople, rulers and ruled, married and unmarried, slaves and free, orphans and widows, rich and poor, the powerful and the oppressed, debtors and creditors, those who live delicately and those perishing of hunger, those of many possessions and the destitute, those clothed in soft garments and those clad in rags.

For these things, and more than these, do not appear in our life, but yours is filled with them.

and not even all your people are governed by a single care, nor do you know the faces and names of all, nor do you discern the manner of life of each, but different people differ greatly one from another;

for some, perhaps, are farmers, others sail the sea, others are shepherds, others are without occupation, others are employed as agents, and great is the account of the work seen in each case.

And over all these, how great and how heavy the toil, as I -- unreasoning as I am -- reckon it: how much the sweat, the struggle, the running, the exertion, the concern, the anxiety, the wasting of the flesh, the pain of the soul, the exhaustion of the mind.

Just as, then, the one who steers the ship in a great tempest and squall of the sea is wholly sober and unshakable, keeping an unsleeping eye (for it brings no small danger for inexperience and negligence to intrude even a little), so much more must the pilot of souls know the work of oversight with greater struggle and precision, lest he be plunged beneath the depths of destruction.

For this reason, as I think, most holy one, the great apostle cried out: 'Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?' And again, that 'I became to the Jews as a Jew, to those under the law as under the law, to those without law as without law -- not being without law, but under the law of Christ.'

'I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.'

Behold, thus also the canons and definitions of the episcopate according to him, just as our own divinely-inspired fathers themselves also declare.

[the bishop is] an imitation of Christ, upon whom those who follow him fix their gaze and shape their own life according to the gospel; known as an ever-shining luminary to those who fight by night against ignorance and sin; pouring down the word of teaching like rain upon those thirsting for the things of salvation; a supreme steward, who is destined to give account of the life of each in the time of recompense.

There is, then, nothing greater than closeness and love toward God, nor anything more richly rewarded than so great an oversight (as Christ himself says to the chief of the apostles: 'Peter, do you love me more than these? Feed my sheep'), nor anything more perilous and more destructive for those who embrace it unworthily.

But I myself know well, best of fathers, that as a good shepherd you have always laid down your soul on behalf of your sheep, facing danger beforehand for each and every one, not terrified by human threats, not shrinking back from the word of truth in the face of those who oppose you, but attending to the will of the only King;

besides these, rebuking with boldness, chastising with compassion, making peace and reconciling those at variance, distinguishing with good judgment the profane from the holy, the healthy from the diseased, lest what is near might catch its own sickness, turning back what has gone astray, strengthening what has grown weak, binding up what is broken.

How truly great, indeed, is your work!

the visitation of abbots, the judging of solitary monks, the ordination of priests and deacons and the oversight of the life of all these, protection of widows, aid to orphans, vindication of the oppressed, defense of those wronged, and, moreover, the maintenance of your own preeminence.

since, whenever there is nothing that harms or hinders piety, it is fitting for us too to be subject to every rule and authority, and to be friendly, if possible, toward all, through a generous and kindly welcome and forward courtesy.

For may it be far from your blessedness to speak of the things belonging to the opposite lot of evil shepherds -- such as those who shepherd the flock shamefully for gain, who reckon such an office an occasion for their own livelihood, both for the ease of the flesh and the enjoyment of desire, for the acquisition of flowing wealth and the possession of so very many plethra of land, of herds of slaves and multitudes of cattle -- and who therefore, in a human and not a divine manner, leap up to the height of this office, so as to raise the eyebrow against their inferiors and to sit haughtily in judgment over those of higher honor.

And I refrain from speaking of those who contend on equal terms even with tax-collectors' agents over perishing goods, yet do not stand firm for the dogmas of piety; or -- far worse than these -- of those who drag away and browbeat the possessions of their subordinates, and from this amass power and wealth.

For those to whom it was rather fitting to extend a hand, being poor -- these they do not refrain from gradually squeezing: whom shall they be likened to? To Peter and John, then, and to their followers, of whom it is said that silver and gold they did not possess, but the grace of the divine Spirit? Or to Simon the sorcerer, and Judas the betrayer, and Gehazi the lover of money, and the rest of the rich of this age? I mean those who consider only how things will go well for themselves in the present, who cater to the flesh, who fasten their heart upon gold and perhaps lend it at interest, or distribute it to the needy for their own increase, and hold it back for their own wishes, and use it partially for those who are unworthy or for their own kin.

[the shepherd's true task is] to save the whole flock from the death of sin, and thus, in the second place, also to provide the necessities of the present life through stewards and administrators.

But woe is me, for I have recounted these things against myself, describing out of my own passions faults that do not belong to others.

But you, O most venerable father, being pure of such things, may you -- I know well that you will -- drive away the noetic wolves from your Christ-sealed sheepfold by your sacred prayers; and may you lead and guide these sheep into the pastures of the virtues, nourishing and fattening them with the grass of your harmonious teaching and the water of your pure faith, and may you at all times offer up acceptable sacrifices through your rational and purified acts of worship to God.

But by your intercessions going before, may you also shepherd me, most wretched and manifold sinner that I am -- I beg and beseech.

And forgive me, if by my ignorance I have caused you to laugh at all;

save that it was not willingly, but constrained by your sacred and spiritual love -- or rather, by your command -- that I let myself down into this, not having spoken for any benefit of yours, but, as has been said, as a demonstration of my unfeigned obedience to you.

Farewell in the Lord, and continue to pray earnestly for us, who alone are sinners, O most holy father in all things.

{To Thomas, Twice-Consul} What greeting or what word of consolation could be found by us, humble as we are, for your lordship, in view of the griefs that beset it, O master? You have been made a stranger to the city that bore and nurtured you; you have been deprived of your greatest hearth; you have been stripped of your splendid rank -- and I will add, of your very substance; you have been separated from your friends, your familiars, your dearest children; you have been exiled here and there.

And as for the hardships of exile which afflict your body, unaccustomed as it is to them: lack of food, of drink, of baths, a desolation of any to converse with, an abundance of those who trample upon you and strike against you.

For those who were once well-disposed toward you are perhaps now ungrateful, and friends and acquaintances, whether near or far, have turned their faces away from acknowledging, loving, and caring for you.

Beyond these, there is concern for the remaining servants left behind, and before these, for your finest children;

and the power to help them is not yours to give.

And amid these things you sit before the city, just as Israel of old, being led away to the Assyrians, sat by the rivers of Babylon;

'by which,' it says, 'we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.'

Your lot, then, is groaning and dejection and tears.

But since you possess the charism of knowledge and the gift of prudence, we do not think that you altogether collapse under these things, knowing that the life of man is a trial, as with the renowned Job -- whose sufferings your great experience cannot fail to know -- nor unaware of that other unstable course of the present life, which turns now this way, now that, on almost every day and hour;

for it resembles an ebb and flow, and flowers, and dreams, and whatever else, according to the divine sayings of the saints.

For let your honored soul consider how much has happened in the time since your removal -- some having fallen, others having been raised up; some having died, others having prospered, others having met with misfortune.

And there is no standing still in the unstable and easily-shifting course of our life.

And this again is true, that all we men are in exile, since through the first-formed man we were, as scripture says, removed from paradise and made to dwell in this death-bearing region, until he should 'bring my soul out of prison,' that we might sing 'to give thanks to your name,' passing over from sojourning into freedom.

So that men could not, strictly speaking, even exile their own kinsmen, since they themselves are exiles too.

since we are all inscribed as sojourners and strangers.

Such a remedy of comfort, such a consolation of encouragement, we ask and beseech for you: that you might bear patiently what has happened, and thankfully the griefs -- which we are persuaded you already possess.

For from what else shall we bear the burden? And then, that from this very thing we shall gain great things: through inactivity, the greater well-doing; through poverty, unfailing wealth; through dishonor, unspoiled glory.

And perhaps our ruling and pious emperors themselves will also, at some late hour, be moved to bring you back home and restore what is fitting.

For we know their love of mankind and their readiness to relent, which they exercise greatly in such matters.

But until you must remain there, may the Lord God comfort you with a comfort of endurance and of thanksgiving; and may he also persuade those same rulers to do for you what we have said above, and to restore you, so greatly longed for, to those who love you.

{On the Ministry to the Unprovided} Since man has been created according to the image and likeness of God, it is necessary for human nature, so far as attainable, to carry within itself, as an image, imitations of the archetype.

Since, then, the Divine extends the providence of its own goodness over all things, it would be just for what is human to imitate, as far as possible, the providential governance of ineffable wisdom.

Wherefore we also, the humble and least, having looked reverently toward the Divine and taken up a loving disposition toward those of our own kind, have submitted ourselves to this pious association, as is set forth below, making provision for the unprovided tabernacles -- that is, for those who have died and, on account of poverty or of sojourning abroad, have no way of being carried out and buried in this queen of cities.

Relying, then, upon this divine pattern, and each year, out of the gifts granted us by God, each one according to his own ability making a contribution toward the purchase of burial shrouds and the other things contributing to burial, we ordain the following in the Lord -- these things to be announced or reviewed periodically to each of those gathered together in the brotherhood.

When there is a dead man, that he be carried out with the proper burial garments and laid in the holy tombs appointed by us.

And moreover, throughout the year, at the beginning of the indiction and during the many days of the Pentecost season, that we celebrate in common the memorial services of all who have been buried, making at the same time, out of our common contribution, also a love-feast for bodily comfort -- yet not beyond the customary limits of sufficiency, lest by excessive wine or excessive food we turn the memorial services being performed into a mockery;

but rather, offering up doxology with reverence to the God who has deemed us worthy to perform this holy rite, thus proceeding to the need of the table, while the document is already being read aloud, so that even in our very food we might pursue what is pleasing to the Lord, distributing what is left over in abundance to the poor; idle words having no place at the feast, nor jesting, much less, I should say, games -- since reason does not permit even the ordinary Christian to engage in such things.

But if it should also be necessary to speak, let it be of those things that befit Christians: that we guard against oaths, that we have love for one another, that we bring forth truth from our mouth, that we flee from deceit and envy, that we hold fast to well-doing as far as we are able, that we visit those in prisons and those who are sick, that we attend to the readings and to the seating of honor in the churches, that we go before one another in showing honor, and especially the priests of God and the monastics, that we pursue hospitality, that we abstain altogether from fornication and drunkenness, that we hold fast to the orthodox faith, that we flee communion with heretics.

And may the practice of these things become for us the source of many good things.

Assenting to and following these divine covenants, we have given ourselves, as to the Lord, to this association (for he says:

'Whoever has done it to one of these least brothers of mine, has done it to me') -- nullifying nothing of what is laid down, nor neglecting it; so that if ever any of the brothers should be found either overlooking a dead person lying there and not reporting it to the one who holds first place in the brotherhood, or uttering at the meals things that are not permitted, and doing unholy things, so as thereby to provoke God to anger, he shall be subjected to a penance by the one presiding: abstinence from wine for three days, or the payment of one silver coin, and only then to ask for improvement going forward.

In addition to these things, we shall also observe this: that whenever the common death should befall one of our brothers, all should gather together in the same place and carry out his funeral procession and burial, so that from this too our good association may be praised, to the glory and praise of our God who gives such great gifts.

In faith, then, and in fear, having subscribed ourselves to this document, we have also signed our own names together with the amount of our contribution, awaiting the reward for this our least offering in the age to come, from the rewarder, the righteous judge of all, Jesus Christ, our Lord and God.

{To Ignatius, Abbot} Before all else, I pay the debt of greeting to your paternal holiness (would that I truly could!), and then I shall report the cause of this letter.

A rational sheep of ours, brother So-and-so, having been enticed by the many-schemed cunning of the soul-destroying wolf, was driven out from our humble flock, and, as has become known to us, was received into the monastery of your holiness.

Now if, having received him, it immediately admonished him toward return, pointing out to him the deception and the ruin he had suffered, and then, having improved him, sent him back to our humble house, there is nothing unfitting in this; rather, it is what befits it, even as we have been enjoined by the holy fathers.

But since so much time has galloped by and there has been no resolution anywhere, I wish to ask in what manner your God-loving self is retaining my disciple.

Was it done in ignorance? But she ought to have sent away, with full knowledge, the one she had not tonsured herself.

Or was it done knowingly? Then the harm is very great.

For she knows what the divine and great Basil ordains: that whoever leaps away from union with his own brothers is to be received in no community whatsoever.

For how could monasteries hold together at all, if this principle above all were not observed? For if among the schoolteachers of this world it is not possible to accept into one's classes a boy previously entrusted to another school—or if a teacher does this, all the teachers, assembling together, impose upon him a punitive fine—how much more in our case, most holy father, who hold the churches of God and guide souls in imitation of our first Teacher and Shepherd, Jesus Christ? I know, then, that you are filled with wisdom and knowledge, but I beg you to recognize the impropriety of what is being done, especially since you yourself excel above others and carry great weight in the sacred brotherhood.

Or do you not know, most holy one, that it is harmful even to your own flock to join to it a sheep belonging to another master? Since, then, the evil is by common consent so great, we entreat that, as soon as you receive our humble letter, you hand him over to our brothers sent for this very purpose, so that they may lead him back to his own flock, together with the church property he appropriated for himself.

But if the brother proves disobedient, may you be willing to drive him at once from his sacred flock.

But just as it is not lawful for anyone at all to release one whom your Holiness has bound as your own disciple (for this is an act of lawlessness, and by common vote of the whole Church incurs a like condemnation), so in every way your Holiness ought not to intrude upon our authority either—an authority which the Lord has given to us, unworthy as we are, not for destruction but for the building up of souls.

For this reason, we beg you, by all means to hand over our spiritual child to the brothers, and to pray unceasingly for us sinners.

{To Theodoulos the Stylite} Though I have had, from a long time until now, the desire to come and receive your holy prayers, most holy father of mine, no way was ever given me to do so—assuredly because of my sins—just as is the case even now.

Therefore I have been compelled to send our brother Kalogeros, to make up for the absence of my lowliness.

since we too shall come to venerate your precious footsteps, God granting a good journey.

Forgive me, father, for what I am about to say, since it is spoken in simplicity, out of sincere love, and out of my longing that your manner of life remain blameless.

Certain persons, knowing that I am your genuine child, of one mind with you, and your friend, and being themselves also outstanding friends of yours, hinted to me that your Holiness is acting contrary to what is fitting.

And when I took this ill and objected, and cited in reply the greatest achievements of your lofty way of life, they kept pressing me further on the matter.

and they laid the blame on certain words and actions.

And, to mention one instance, they said that you had depicted angels, and had shown them crucified in the window-lights in the same form as Christ, and that you had portrayed Christ himself and the angels as aged men.

And though I inquired much further about this, I was unable to make any reply to them.

For they kept saying that something strange and foreign to the tradition of the Church had been done, and that the matter was certainly not of God but of the Adversary, since in so many years, and among so many God-bearing and holy Fathers, this peculiarity had never been exemplified.

For as to whatever is now newly introduced, even if it comes from an angel, the Apostle warns us not to accept it, saying somewhere: 'Even if we ourselves, or an angel, preach a gospel' (I would add, or hand down a tradition) 'contrary to what we preached, let him be anathema.'

What, then, my holy father, am I to say in reply to this? I have nothing.

And being held fast by perplexity, I was compelled to write to you, so that we might free ourselves from all harm in the eyes of those who bring this accusation in word, and as it were on behalf of the whole Church.

And, for God's sake, receive me as your child, laboring on your behalf, counting your glory as my own glory, and unwilling to hear any blemish spoken of you in anything, since you truly live a blameless life.

Enlighten, guide, listen, give heed, take notice, and free from all discord those who behold your lofty life.

{To the Emperor Nicephorus} Our good God, caring for His own Church, was destined to set your Piety over the rule of the Christians in this present generation, so that not only might the secular government, being ill-disposed, be well ordered, but also that the leadership of the Church, wherever it was deficient, might be set aright, and a new lump, as it were, be formed in both.

This your Christ-loving majesty has, by His grace, already accomplished in the one part, and may it accomplish it yet further, being strengthened by favors from on high.

And this would come about, after God and with God, as a gift bestowed by you, through the lawful and well-pleasing election of the one who is to hold the office of high priest.

Since, then, you have also sought to learn from us—sinners and unworthy as we are—what seems to us, as though standing before the Lord who is to hold us to account, concerning that of which we shall have to speak on the day of judgment, the matter stands thus:

We do not know, nor are we acquainted with, any particular man—not that those who shine in life and word have failed to appear (for there are indeed such, manifest both to God and to men, though not to the same degree, and above all to your own luminous soul)—but since the reasoning and the longing of your Majesty seeks such a man: one able with a perfect heart to seek out the ordinances of God; one who has been advanced by degree and rank, little by little, to a higher station; one tested in every respect, who, from what he himself has suffered, would be able to help those who are being tested.

And what need is there to say much to you, who know well, and who from your own standing and advancement can picture so great a man? He ought to shine forth before the many, as the sun among the stars.

Since, then, we do not see such a man, we do not venture to cast a vote.

This, then, we submit, as a reminder, with restraint and reverence—though it is surely not unknown to your greatly experienced and divinely gifted intelligence—that, receiving nominations from the bishops, from the abbots, from the stylites, from the recluses, and then from the clergy, and taking from among those who have been proposed the men who excel the others in understanding, prudence, and manner of life (for let even the stylites come down, and let the recluses come forth, since the matter sought concerns the common good), you may judge and compare them, and together with them declare the more worthy man.

And blessed would you be—indeed thrice blessed—if you should accomplish this whole thing, our Christ-imitating sovereigns.

And in this your kingdom will be all the more strengthened, and your name will be magnified from generation to generation, and the years of your reign will also be increased.

Since God has given Christians these two gifts, the priesthood and the kingship, through which the things of earth are tended, and through which they are adorned, as in heaven.

Whichever of the two, then, is unworthily disposed, the whole necessarily shares in the danger.

So then, if you wish to establish the greatest goods for your kingdom, and through your kingdom for all Christians, let the Church also receive her own president in a measure equal, as far as possible, to the virtue of your reign, so that heavenly things may rejoice and earthly things may sing.

May the hand of God, in whom your heart also is, be for your guidance and the revealing of what is better.

And from her you will receive, in return for the labors, cares, and concerns you have expended for this work, the kingdom that has no successor.

{To John, Spatharios} Having heard that your Lordship has performed a certain divine deed, we have marveled at your truly great faith, O man of God.

For they say that the one who instructed you did so that you might use the sacred icon of the great martyr Demetrius in place of a sponsor, and thus complete the illumination of your God-protected child.

'Not even in Israel have I found such faith'—I think Christ uttered this not only then to the centurion, but also now to you, who rival him in faith.

That man, then, obtained what he sought; you too have attained what you trusted for.

There, the divine command took the place of bodily presence; here, the bodily image takes the place of the prototype.

But to profane ears and unbelieving souls, these things are unacceptable as incredible—especially to the icon-fighters—whereas to your piety the clear tokens and examples have been made manifest.