Letters 1 part 4/55

For what is impossible for God to grant to those who believe? And how is it not the case that in the icon the one depicted is seen, and is believed to be present, under the same name? For 'the honor given to the icon,' says the Great Basil, 'passes over to the prototype.'

So then, clearly, it was the martyr himself who, through his own icon, received the infant, inasmuch as you have believed accordingly.

But how great is the glory of your greatness, that you have acquired as your co-parent, as it is called, so great a one—not some chance ruler or potentate; one might say not even the man who wears the diadem!

For the one you have found is greater and higher than any of these.

For he is the mightiest of the martyrs, the most far-resounding of wonder-workers, the genuine friend of Christ, the fellow citizen of the angels, who has been able, and still is able, to do such great and so many things under heaven, that his fame is proclaimed by the trumpet of his miracles from one end of the earth to the other.

Truly blessed are you, most pious man, in that you have obtained so great a sponsor; and thrice blessed is your offspring, having as his receiver at baptism one so great in renown and power.

But may we see your son, who also bears the name of Saint Demetrius, if you should consent to come with him, so that, embracing him as the saint's son, we too, sinners though we are, may address him with fitting words, and may have the story to pass on to others as well.

For good things ought not to be passed over in silence, but should be set before others as clear examples of pious faith.

{To Stavrakios, Spatharios} The reason for our humble absence we have already stated, and there is no need to offer any further defense.

But how shall we begin, or what power might be found for the suffering that has befallen your honored souls? For just as a physician, coming to a hard-to-cure disease, is at a loss how to apply his treatment, so we are dizzy with uncertainty how to offer a word of consolation for your most grievous affliction.

O what a calamity! O what a misfortune!

Gone from you is a beautiful and comely child, he who first loosed his mother's birth-pangs, through whom the name of 'parents' came to be yours, the beginning of the succession of your line, the root of your child-bearing, the young shoot of a rational offspring, the, as it were, first-blooming rose of your paternal fruit-bearing.

And what could I say to set forth the beauty of your offspring? Or that the child grew and advanced in stature and understanding, and the grace of God was upon him, as much as even we, from a little contact, have experienced? How then could such and so great a loss, cut off by death's sword—cut, one might say, from your very loins—fail to work inconsolable grief in your hearts? Or who would not lament and grieve together over one of his own members being severed by the sword, as in your case? Fathers too would rightly groan, beholding the loss of so fair a child; mothers too would rightly wail, looking upon the excision of so lovely a part of their own flesh.

For truly a member of yours has been cut off; your flesh has been excised.

The pain is great; the healing remedy is hard to find.

Dejection is upon the household, anguish upon the servants, grief upon the relatives, and even more, before all these, upon the grandfather, Lord Patrikios, and the grandmother, Lady the Protospatharea.

On every side there is calamity and deep sorrow.

But come now, good sir, you who abound in understanding, who are wise in prudence, who have gathered great knowledge over many years, heal yourself, cure yourself.

Thus it was too with those who begot the ones who begot us, and with those still above them.

And reasoning, tracing backward, will arrive at the very beginning, and, coming down again, will reach the consummation of this whole universe.

And there is none who shall live, as it is written, and not see death.

This present life is a certain appointed service and a day's business, and soon a return to one's own home—I mean, the passing over from things here to things there.

Patriarchs—and they have passed away; prophets—and they have departed; fathers and mothers—and they have perished; brothers, friends, and kinsfolk—and they have run their course and gone.

And what of kings? What of satraps? What of rulers? What of every age and every race of man? Have not all gone beneath the earth, and will not all who have sprung from earth go there a little later as well? But here is what is truly sought: that, having lived out well the things of this life and having conducted our citizenship according to the will of God our Maker, we may find our appearance before that most fearsome tribunal in the world to come free of condemnation.

And this your child has surely and firmly found and attained.

For blessed, it is said, is he among those born of women who lives but a short life, and whom the Lord has chosen and taken to Himself in his earliest years, not having tasted the bitter sins of this present life.

The lord Soterichos has gone forth and departed, true to his name, in salvation, deemed worthy of the sound of those who keep festival, of inexpressible exultation, of being numbered among the holy infants who rest in the bosom of Abraham, no longer enslaved to corruption and flesh, but abiding in eternity.

From this we wish you to take the grounds of your consolation, from this your comfort.

Become a craftsman of good cheer and a healer, not only of yourself but also of the lady, the spatharea, who has special need of much medical care and comfort on account of her intense grief over the little one, and then also of the rest of your household.

so that you may be shown to be instructed in divine things and governed by the law of God, and knowing where he who has departed has gone (and especially in the case of your own sweet child) — that it is not into death nor into nonbeing, but into eternal life and into God who made all things — and so that you may be set forth to the fathers and to all your acquaintances gathered at the funeral as a good example, bearing with self-control and thanksgiving the loss of children and not resisting the commands of God.

{To the community of the people of Antisarchos} We have received a letter from your honored community concerning our disciple, who fled long ago and was received in those parts — I know not how — with ignorance and impiety, and has set up for himself, in a certain cave, not a monastery but a den of thieves of the passions, asking that we grant him release.

Marcian, our disciple, until he returns to his own monastery — in which he made, with God as witness, the covenants of his renunciation of the world — remains bound, condemned, and unworthy of communion, according to the divinely commanded canons which he himself subscribed.

For the threat that hangs over him is not from us, but from the God-inspired fathers.

Him, then, if indeed you love his salvation, admonish to return once more to his own home; and should he repent and come back, we are ready to receive him with fatherly affection and to forgive him all his sins.

For just as it is impossible for a sheep torn from its own fold and led astray not to fall prey to wild beasts, so it is impossible for one who lawlessly departs from a monastery by his own will and settles in a place which the Lord does not oversee, not to be captured by demons.

His cell, therefore, is a lair of demons, a hunting-ground for souls, a snare for women, a workshop of every lawlessness — whatever words and devices either he himself or you may attempt to employ to gloss over what has been said.

If, then, he obeys and you obey, it will be well for both parties, as you flee the divine wrath and threats.

But if not, you will see before your own eyes the fruits of your disobedience.

But the most holy bishop is blessed by the Lord, keeping the laws and driving the impious man far away.

He is worthy of ordination in every respect, even should he return here.

For I know his affairs better than he himself does, having become his father.

{To Pinouphios and Mares, our children} I was unwilling to write to you, because your second letter did not agree with the first (the first contained a promise of the swiftest change of heart and coming to us, but the second a refusal and reversal of that promise), and because you keep offering this excuse and that, and do not rather confess your fault in truth, lamenting and repenting for the wrong you have done.

If, then, you repent and there remains in you a spark of the fear of God, rekindling your hearts to the confessions and covenants which you made to God and to us before his fearful judgment seat, with the angels and the whole brotherhood as witnesses, it would be well.

And do not look this way and that, but swiftly break the demon's entanglement of your attachment and self-willed singularity, by which he has deceived you, casting you out of the community and leading you about to places which the Lord does not oversee (for how could he oversee a place where his holy commandments are set at naught?) — come to us, come with a contrite heart and humbled speech, to take up a manner of life better than the former.

For your former way was perverse, owing to your gradual slackening, your boldness and contentiousness, which led you down into the fall of apostasy.

And we, even though we are sinners, will nevertheless receive you with fatherly affection, laying down our own humble life even unto death, to bear up your infirmities of soul and body.

For from the time you slipped away, we have not been free of anxious care, just as we have not been for the others either; rather we have a heart that melts within us, and we lift up to God our piteous and unworthy voice, that he may breathe into you a thought of repentance and cause you to return again to your own fold.

And if you should indeed act thus, you would once more serve God and us sinners.

For he does not desire the death of the sinner so much as that he should turn and live.

Turn back, then, turn back, before destruction suddenly overtakes you as it did Petronius, and you be found repenting in vain and to no profit, when repentance brings no gain.

Where, then, are your words, Pinouphios, and yours, Mares? You were once eager to undergo the struggles of martyrdom for the sake of our humble self — or rather, for the salvation that comes through obedience — and this many times.

And yet some small breeze that came fanned you away like a wisp of chaff.

Sober up, look to God, fear his judgments and the deeds of your own which you know full well — because for those alone your whole life would not be sufficient for repentance.

Why, then, do we go on adding sins upon grievous sins? As for writing, as you asked, to those by whom you say you were gladly received and hospitably entertained — this we will not do.

For you did not go out from us by way of obedience, that we should judge you worthy of reception; on the contrary, taking full account of your conduct, we determine for you as follows.

From the very day, then, that you receive this letter, set out and make your way here.

But if, disobeying, you should persist — which may God not grant, and which I pray against — you are excommunicate, condemned and sentenced by truth as judge, dead in soul and deprived of the Spirit, just as the great and divine Basil declared.

Moreover, neither are those who receive you free of condemnation, inasmuch as they do not keep the divine canons.

{To Symeon, a monk} We knew, O father, even from former events, what manner of man and how great you have shown yourself toward our humble self, smoothing over and ordering all things toward what is profitable in every distressing circumstance that has occurred.

And now too we have perceived that you have become deeply grieved, on account of the report concerning the brother, amid the circumstances now at hand.

But what can we do? For the commandment of God stands before us, and the paternal canons which restrain us from such communion.

— your sincere disposition toward God and toward us sinners, that you might turn aside this trial as one turns aside some great tidal wave, and calm the disturbance of our pious lords.

For our reason for withholding communion is not directed at them, nor is that the cause of our dispute (rather, honor and reverence, friendship and address are given them as is due); it is directed against the one who unlawfully crowned the adulterer, according to the word of the Lord, against the one who dared to become the minister and confirmer of so great an evil before the whole world — whom Christ himself has condemned, since he has fallen under two canons (for there are others besides): according to the first, that the canon does not permit even a presbyter to feast at the marriage of one contracting a second marriage (for the canon did not even dare to write concerning the marriage of an adulterer) — how much less, then, to crown it! And according to the second, that one who has fallen into some fault and has for that reason been excommunicated, unless within a year he pleads his case through his own petition, it is no longer permitted that his voice be received.

But he, having exceeded nine years, forced his way into the church.

If, then, this man is blameless, much more so is the adulterer.

But if that man is guilty of sin, who doubts that the one who joined them in marriage and blasphemed against the Holy Spirit is not more guilty and more profane? These are the things, holy father, that terrify and constrict our heart.

And on account of these things, in order not to have communion with him and with the preceding patriarch, when he administered communion to the adulterer, I myself was shut up in the very place where you now reside, while the abbot and the rest were exiled to Thessalonica.

But God again gathered us together through your prayers.

And even so, we were not reunited with the patriarch carelessly, unless he confessed that we had acted rightly.

If, then, when the adultery and the transgression of the canons was taking place, we did not shrink back, by the power of God, how then now, when the empire is pious, shall we shrink back for the sake of one presbyter and betray the truth, endangering our souls? By no means; rather, all things are bearable for us even unto death, rather than share in communion with that man and with those who concelebrate with him, until he ceases from his priestly ministry, just as in the former case.

What then? Does he minister unworthily? Have presbyters run out? But if this seems to be nothing to those who concelebrate with him, they shall see for themselves the consequences of what they do.

Our good lords will spare our humble state — we having been content and having said nothing up to the present, but having managed things with discretion these two years, ever since he re-entered [his ministry], so that we might get through this more peacefully — our good lords, mediators and judges of what is just, lovers of those who speak with frankness in truth, as their own honored mouth has often declared.

Let the priests bear this in a priestly manner: let them either persuade us, or be persuaded by us.

But if none of this comes to pass, but even our merely murmuring is not to be tolerated, God watches over all — than whom none is greater, whose fear alone is truly fearful, and whose is the judgment seat there before which we shall all stand, called to account for everything.

But we beseech your goodness, and as though rolling ourselves before your honored footsteps, we entreat and implore you to show mercy upon us, and a common benefit upon our pious emperors themselves, upon the most holy patriarch, and upon the whole church — not only that of our own region, but throughout the whole inhabited world — that this one man may cease, to the glory of God, and that his church may not be thrown into turmoil.

But if not, then at least the second option: that we remain in the same state as during these ten years.

For it is no wonder if the rest — even should they be ten thousand bishops, priests, and abbots who are in communion with him.

since they themselves also assembled with the adulterer, and no one has said a word.

These things God, through us — though it be bold to say — both exhorts and speaks; and let it be as you command.

{To the Same} And again we have thought it good to entreat your paternal holiness to apply yourself to what is commonly beneficial and most advantageous.

As we have written above (rather, honor and reverence, submission and address being given as is due), our dispute is against the one who unlawfully crowned the adulterer, according to the word of the Lord — against the one who dared to become the minister and confirmer of so great an evil before the whole world.

And so that what is said may be made more clear — not for the sake of instruction, but for the sake of reminder itself, if you permit — we will set forth the sacred prayer belonging to the rite of crowning [in marriage], and let us consider from it how, in direct opposition to Christ himself — though it be bold to say — he who shows himself as guiltless has spoken and fought against him with his own defiled mouth.

For since Christ has called an adulterer him who divorces the wife lawfully joined to a man (and adultery, as you know, is a grievous sin equal in weight to murder, to sodomy and to bestiality, to sorcery and to idolatry, according to the canon of the divine Basil) — this man, having himself brought him to stand before the altar in the hearing of all the people, dared to burst forth with those profane utterances.

And let us consider, father, I beseech you, the fearful and monstrous thing.

'Do thou thyself, O Master, send forth thy hand from thy holy dwelling place, and join together thy servant and thy handmaid.'

'Yoke them together in oneness of mind, unite them into one flesh, whom thou hast been well pleased should be joined to one another.'

'Show forth their marriage as honorable, keep their bed undefiled, and grant that their life together remain unstained.'

Is this not a fearful thing, both to hear and to consider? How great must we suppose the provocation of the Holy Spirit to be at such blasphemy, and how enraged the holy angels at such profane utterances? Or how did the earth not immediately, as with Dathan and Abiram, open and swallow this teacher of falsehood, who shows darkness as light and attempts to make Christ fall into self-contradiction? For assuredly, whatever the priest declares below, this God promises to ratify above, according to the great Dionysius.

But being longsuffering, he bore with it, opening a door of repentance to the one guilty of the sin.

Then, instead of weeping and mourning for such a man even unto death, that he should be an object of loathing and abomination, an example to later generations of divine jealousy — has he instead entered the church again and openly become a priest once more? Has he then entered as though having done something good, and is Christ overcome, speaking irrationally against him, according to this man's account? And is it fitting that, through his public priestly ministry, this should be disseminated to the whole church that is ours, and that all should give assent to such a deed? For what else, and not this, will result? But may it never be!

But perhaps, from now on, such a thing must occur out of mutual rivalry.

And let adulterers be crowned, and let those who crown them, as though they had accomplished some great thing and were able to benefit the many and lead them into like conduct, be embraced by the many.

For neither is that man a priest, nor are those who imitate him.

For let no one be deceived in this matter, on the ground that the one who committed adultery was an emperor.

For the laws of God rule over all, according to what is written.

But nevertheless, having done this most grievous thing, he still contends to have his lawlessness recognized as righteousness and, as the saying goes, to prove himself more holy than the Forerunner and Baptist.

For while that man was reproving Herod's adultery and dying for the sake of truth, this man crowned and embraced unto death the second Herod, who had truly shown himself guilty of the same kind of adultery -- not in words but by his very deeds proclaiming that John the Forerunner had erred, in reproving him untimely and unlawfully, and dying for it.

For the one was a defender of the law and a reprover of the abomination, while the other is a trampler of the divine mysteries, and the one who joined and sealed the unlawful union.

Now by his very deeds he cries out openly to the second Herod, 'It is lawful for you to have Theodote the lewd woman as wife,' and in his person he expressly decrees that men may commit adultery forever, and that those who crown such persons are [still] priests.

Oh, what contempt for the judgments of God!

Why does not each rather denounce this matter and keep himself apart from such a man, even to the point of avoiding eating or associating with him -- unless he confesses his sin after being entirely barred from all priestly ministry? But for this reason we beseech your piety, and the precision fitting our sacred order, to sound these words into the ears of our pious sovereigns.

For we believe that, if they restrain this man with the consent of our most holy patriarch, the angels will applaud, all the saints will acclaim it, and the whole Church will rejoice; and there will come to their power a great increase of divine help from above, both in the overthrow of enemies and foes, and in a peaceful and long-lived life for them.

Where then, holy father, shall we place the sacred canons, which bar him from priestly ministry? The first canon does not even permit a presbyter to feast at the marriage of a man who marries a second time, even though this is a thing permitted by God.

But if this was not even a permitted marriage, but he feasted for a full thirty days at a marriage that was disowned and adulterous, and not only this, but he also placed the victory crowns of virginity upon adulterers and unclean persons -- of what then is he worthy? Deposition would perhaps be too small a penalty.

But if this goes unpunished, then divine things are but playthings, and the canons are stale.

Again, according to the second canon, one who has fallen into some fault and has for this reason been excommunicated, if he does not within a year strive earnestly for his own reinstatement, it is no longer permissible for his plea to be received.

But this man, after nine years had passed, forced his way into the church.

But if he should say that he received the authorization from his predecessor, and that the matter is therefore blameless, why then did not the one who gave permission perform the crowning himself? For it belongs altogether to patriarchs to crown emperors, not to some [ordinary] priest.

But it is clear that, since the danger of deposition from the high priesthood itself lay before him, having found this man eager [to do it] -- for he was one who frequented the palace -- he passed the danger on to that man's person, if indeed it is even true that he gave permission.

For we do not believe it, since he has fully assured both us and many others [otherwise].

But if again he should say that he was not excommunicated by his predecessor, why then did he not celebrate the liturgy during those nine years? Why is it, as he says, that he has now been released by a synod? Clearly, it is the one who was bound who is released, not the one who was never bound.

So that here too he contradicts himself in being barred, since he did not, within the year according to the canon, demonstrate his own innocence and openly receive release -- if indeed there was any release at all for one wholly bound -- even though he may produce countless false witnesses.

These, holy father, are the things that terrify and constrict our heart.

And because of these things, on account of refusing to commune with him and with the preceding patriarch, whenever he gave communion to the adulterer, I was confined in the very place where you now reside, while the abbot and the rest, together with the archbishop, were exiled to Thessalonica.

But God once again gathered us together, through your prayers.

And even then we were not reunited with the patriarch just as it happened to be, but only after he confessed that we had acted rightly.

If, then, when there was adultery and transgression of the canons, we did not shrink back, by the power of God, how then now, when the empire is pious, shall we shrink back on account of one deposed presbyter, and betray the truth, endangering our souls? By no means; rather, all things are bearable for us, even unto death, rather than to partake of communion with him and with those who concelebrate with him, until he ceases from priestly ministry -- just as in the former case, although this second case is more grievous.

For not even once did his predecessor concelebrate with him.

To assemble [with him] was indeed improper, yet not so great an evil; but here, it would mean the deposition of our own priesthood, if we should concelebrate [with him].

Why does he also concelebrate unworthily? Has the office of presbyter run out? But if this seems to be nothing to those who concelebrate with him, they shall see to what they are doing.

May they spare our lowliness, we who have acquiesced and said nothing up to the present, but have exercised economy during these two years, ever since he entered [office], so that we might pass through more peaceably -- our good sovereigns, mediators and judges of what is just, lovers of those who speak boldly in truth, as their own honored mouth has often declared.

Let the priests bear this in a priestly manner -- either let them persuade, or let them be persuaded.

But if none of this happens, and even our merely murmuring is not tolerated, God watches over [us] -- than whom there is none greater, whose fear alone is truly fearsome, and the tribunal that comes from Him, before which we shall all stand, being held accountable for everything.

But we beseech your goodness, and, as though prostrating ourselves before your honored footsteps, we implore and entreat you to show mercy upon us, and a common benefit to our pious emperors themselves, to the most holy patriarch, and to the whole Church -- not only the one among us, but that throughout the whole inhabited world -- so that this one man may cease [his ministry], to the glory of God, and His Church not be thrown into turmoil.

But if not, then at least the second [option]: that we be allowed to remain in the same condition, just as during these ten years.

For as for the rest -- even if there be countless bishops, priests, and abbots who commune with him -- that is no wonder.

Since they themselves also joined in with the adulterer, and no one has said anything against it.

These things God, through us -- though it is bold to say so -- both exhorts and utters; and as you command [so we shall act].

{To the Same} None of what you have now disclosed to us, holy father, is as grievous as this: that our pious sovereigns are unwilling for us to come, as is customary, and be deemed worthy of doing them honored obeisance, and to render, as does every other person, farewell and prayerful words at their departure.

But surely their gentle, forgiving, and Christ-imitating heart would not do all this against our lowliness.

Since it knows how to be reconciled even with enemies, and would surely not [refuse] us, who love and revere them with a true heart.

Your holiness has most excellently laid the answers of our insignificance before their sacred hearing.

And that they nodded assent, let this be attributed to their magnanimous, God-given understanding.

For indeed they know how to judge divine matters unerringly, as men filled with wisdom and replete with the knowledge of God.

But he bids [us] be asked for what reason we gave ourselves over to the hierarchy, when the fault was already known.

And to this we answer with reverence that, as far as it depended on us, we were unwilling -- partly because of the dangerous nature of the office, and partly on account of that very matter already mentioned, concerning the economos.

But when the Thessalonians came, entreating as though on behalf of the whole city, and our good sovereigns themselves also lent their support to the decree, we became fearful of disobeying and thereby opposing both God and our pious sovereigns -- reasoning that it is possible, when ordination is performed by [one's own local] bishops, to escape the danger that lay before us.

For as regards what comes afterward: partly because [ordination there] removes one far away from affairs here, partly because it is possible even while residing there to guard oneself in many ways, and further because deaths also occur and the scandal is thereby removed from the midst -- just as it happened in our own case too, we lowly ones sitting here, that we were preserved up to the present by making use of this kind of economy.

For it is necessary, as far as possible, to withdraw from temptations, especially for those who do not hold the rank of a bishopric.