Letters 1 part 48/55

Thus this noble fellow rises up against the sacred oracles, just as against the foremost father, and, thinking to correct another on this very doctrine, he himself is caught out uttering vain things.

And for this reason we utterly reject such babblings, and we also remind your reverence to keep to this same rule of orthodoxy, knowing that, just as every perfect person — even one enrolled in apostolic rank — has need of the evangelic book, so also does he have need of the pictorial narrative corresponding to it, since both are of equal honor and veneration.

{To Hesychius the protonotary} Fair indeed is the letter of your most excellent honor, spoken forth as from the good treasure of the heart, and adorned with the beauty of love; yet it does not hold true in the way it has honored us, unlettered as we are, with words of praise.

For when did I ever become, as you say, a lamp burning and shining, in which you, my master, rejoiced, being illumined; or a fountain flowing most clearly, from which your love drew a saving word — and did not rather, on the contrary, my appearance grow darker than soot, to speak prophetically, through the uselessness of my life, and my word grow weak, having no power derived from deeds to establish the hearer? And I say this, not finding fault with the imprisonment in Smyrna (far be it from me —

— for that imprisonment is venerable, a guardian to me of a venerable confession) — but rather blaming myself for not having conducted myself worthily in it.

But letting these things go, as being tokens of your love, I shall turn my discourse to the more pressing matter.

Your goodness has signified to us that you have, to put it briefly, two God-given daughters, and that the first, even before her birth, was promised, through dedication, to a monastic life for God, while the second remains in a state of indecision;

but now you have resolved to reverse the arrangement, on account of some necessary turn of events, so as to give over to the world the one who was promised — that is, to give her in marriage to a man good in every respect and suited in age to the girl — while dedicating to God the one who is in an undecided state, though she is quite young and not yet of a fitting age; and in this you falter and are troubled, lest it should somehow be contrary to God's will.

Now indeed, most honored master, it would have been fitting to inquire of others concerning this matter, and to receive the solution from them, as being superior in knowledge to our nothingness, and not — separated as we are by so great a distance in the position of our place — to call upon us for a reply;

Nevertheless, since you have decided according to the ways you have trusted, this matter has been considered together with the most God-beloved archbishop, our brother, as being contrary to what is fitting, contrary to right judgment, and contrary to the examples handed down from ages past.

Hannah of blessed memory, having promised Samuel before his birth, did not substitute another for the one promised, even though she had other children besides, but brought this very one to God.

Nonna the blessed, having likewise promised Gregory the Theologian, rendered to God her vow.

And indeed Saint Euthymius was given to God by his parents before his birth, and was not exchanged after his birth.

Such men appeared to the world as something wonderful, and because of them their parents have been called blessed.

How then, O most sagacious one, could we, by acting contrary to these examples, fall outside of blame? Would not the blessed Peter rather lay hold of us, saying somewhere as follows: 'Did it not remain your own, and when sold, was it not in your own power? Why is it that you conceived this thing in your heart?' And the ill-omened words that follow I forbear to say, since I am speaking to one who already knows them.

For indeed, whenever anything whatsoever has been set apart for God by a solemn vow, it is not without danger to transfer it back to common use.

And common use is marriage in secular life.

And just as one who has promised to become a monk, and having settled upon this, has nevertheless drawn back and married, stands condemned, so too the one who has resolved to offer a son or daughter to God, and then has changed his mind, would incur the same condemnation.

This is how we understand the matter — forgive us — although we do desire that your repose, and the thing vowed concerning yourself, should come to fulfillment.

But one commandment ought not be transgressed for the sake of another, nor should what is harmful in the one be brought about for the sake of what is salutary in the other, as the God-bearing Fathers have declared.

Now the third point of the discourse is this: there are, it says, certain monks who, while seeming to hold fast to the right faith and having endured many persecutions for the sake of truth, nevertheless associate and eat together with heretics and those who make compromises, considering the matter one of indifference — as though it had been ordained by some father that they need observe only these three things: not to be blessed by those who hold heretical views, not to chant psalms together with them when they lead off, and to abstain from partaking of their bread.

This saying is contrary to what has been ordained by the holy Fathers.

For the Fathers do not allow associating with them, nor eating together, nor chanting psalms together, nor having any communion with them at all; rather, they pronounce 'Woe' even upon those who share communion with them merely in food and drink and social relations.

Therefore whoever says such things is to be denounced and is a teacher of strange doctrines, whoever he may be among men.

{To the Brotherhood of Pelekete} Grievous indeed is what has befallen your Honored community, brothers and fathers (for how could it not be?), that you have cast out your shepherd and have become like a flock thrown into confusion — and this in such days as these, in which grievous wolves are coming upon the flocks of Christ, devising schemes to carry off souls as spoil.

But nevertheless, since what has happened is from God, and it was by Him that your shepherd was taken up, at the time when the Lord, who administers all things in His wisdom, knew what was beneficial for both, we ought to give thanks and not be indignant.

For He gave, and He has taken away, and as it seemed good to the Lord, so it came to pass.

What then is required? That you now come to yourselves, and, just as you have chosen to elect as shepherd the lord Sergius, our most devout brother — provided there is no hesitation regarding the lord Macarius, our spiritual father — remain being governed and led by him whom you have chosen as spiritual father, for the building up of your God-preserved community and the completion of a God-inclined life, so that you may escape the storm of heretical spirits and be brought into the harbor of salvation, so that the name of God may not be blasphemed on your account, but rather glorified, according to the pious conduct of life that has hitherto prevailed among you.

But you, beloved brother, have not acted contrary to what is fitting when, since this so happened, you came down from the cleft of the rock and took the lead of the brothers.

For indeed our Lord Jesus Christ also, employing condescension, accomplished the mystery of the divine dispensation for the salvation of all.

...of our holy hierarch, and then what must happen will take place more lawfully and more canonically.

But until the sought-for time arrives, lead the brothers and prosper in the Lord, as one who will render an account for their souls, but also as one who will receive the reward on their behalf.

For to the degree that the yoke of leadership is heavy, to that same degree is the reward great.

Only have eyes to see and ears to hear, a heart that is watchful and seeks after God, a pastoral disposition, a teaching word, well-ordered character, a dignified bearing and gait — being wholly, through and through, preserved and guided by the Word.

And blessed are you, in carrying out an apostolic work.

For indeed the Lord showed to Peter, the chief of the apostles, the pastoral staff as the pre-eminent proof of love toward Him.

'If you love me,' He says, 'more than these, Peter, feed my sheep.'

Feed, then, the sheep of the Lord, securing them within the fold of orthodoxy, and nourishing them upon the green pasture of His commandments, and making them dwell beside the water of rest of His will.

Take heed lest you yourself, or any of your own sheep, be snatched away by the heretical beasts.

Sufficient are the things that have already befallen those who went before.

But now let us walk securely and without stumbling, counting all things secondary when the occasion calls — even our very bodies, let alone anything else that perishes — for the sake of the love of God; may His peace be arbiter of your hearts and your thoughts, and may He guide your way straight in Christ Jesus our Lord.

{To Gregory the Hypatos} Your Honor has, until now, done us injury by not writing, although you write well, as the letters themselves show, on account of which we have praised not only your aptness in learning, but also your abiding love of learning, as you are eager to partake of a loftier education.

As for the booklet which he requested, we do have it, but it is not here with us.

But if it should happen that our assistant steward arrives there, he will take it from the place where it has been stored and deliver it.

Good indeed is education, O master, so long as it serves as a helper toward the truly genuine education, and does not, in its frenzied excess, show forth its partakers as uneducated.

As for the meaning of the apostolic saying, 'in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,' it seems to me to be as follows: namely, that in the flesh of the Word assumed from the Virgin — that is, in the temple which He built for Himself — dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.

'All the fullness,' it says, not some part, as has been thought by those who divide the indivisible Godhead.

And 'bodily' means, that is, 'substantially.'

For thus it has been understood by the Fathers, in opposition to those who babble nonsense in terms of a mere relation.

Such also is the meaning of 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.'

For so that no one should suppose the Word to have been turned into flesh, the Evangelist added, 'and dwelt among us.'

And it is clear that the one who dwells is one thing, and the tabernacle — in which the indwelling of the one who dwells takes place — is another, so that the two, divinity and humanity, exist together in the one person of Christ.

But if it seems to you to be otherwise, do not deprive us — who are of little learning, and I would add, careless as well, even though you yourself, out of friendly praise, have extolled us otherwise — of the more clear-sighted and truer contemplation.

{Catechetical Address to His Own Disciples} Since the sacred season of the Forty Days is now approaching, I have thought it opportune to say a few words to you, O beloved children and most honored brothers, being urged as I am by the Apostle to exhort, to reprove, to rebuke, in season and out of season.

But now the season of fasting has its own self-taught exhortation, knowing how to pierce with compunction even the hard-hearted.

Receive, then, brothers, gladly these joyous days, each one, in the lodging where he is a guest, carrying out the customary practices according to his ability, so that through quietness and moderate diet we may purify the heart, give wings to the soul, and trip up the passions.

For this is what fasting seeks, this is what quietness seeks, this is what the commandment seeks; this is the sum of our salvation.

Or rather, it is provision for eternal life.

For he who eats and drinks unworthily — that is, not as purely as is possible for our lowly nature — eats and drinks judgment to himself, according to the apostolic pronouncement, not discerning the body of the Lord.

For this reason, my brothers, we must strive to keep ourselves pure from monstrous desire, from envy that devours the soul, from love of money that sinks the mind, and from listlessness that darkens the eye of the soul, always awaiting the departure of the body, at which the passions melt away and the soul is made strong.

Close the entrances of the passions; flee the places of falls; flee conversation with women and cohabitation with them.

For how could the heart not be scorched — nay, rather set ablaze — by exchanging words with a virgin, with a woman who sings the psalms, with any woman whatever? How, to speak in a theological vein, shall the strange woman save him whom his own has destroyed? For even if one should seem, in outward practice, to guard himself, yet in heart he will not be kept free from adultery, according to the pronouncement of the Lord.

Persecution, then, is not for destruction, but for salvation; nor is there such pressing necessity as to compel one to cohabit with a woman, as circumstance once compelled, among the Fathers, the celebrated Athanasius to spend seven years under the protection of a virgin, or compelled this or that saint to be served by a woman.

But now both cities and regions afford the freedom of lodging in a manner unaccompanied by women.

But you, under the pretext of confession and persecution on Christ's behalf, are moving against Christ without perceiving it, by frequently conversing with women, perhaps chanting psalms together with them, and possibly even eating together or even cohabiting — devouring the countenance of the woman you dwell with, and being devoured ruinously by her? Flee as from fire, both men from women and women from men; and if some association must occur, let it be only so much as necessity and need require, while shunning and avoiding the placing of a stumbling block before others.

'For why,' it says, 'should my liberty be judged by another's conscience?' And, 'if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, lest I cause my brother to stumble.'

Live, then, without giving offense, O children, and without causing stumbling either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, as it is written, keeping in mind also the uncertainty of death.

Already brother Silas has passed away, and before him Abba Theosostos, and also brother Procopius, and no one remains forever.

And blessed is he who understands how to pass through this present life without incurring condemnation.

Pray unceasingly for us who are lowly, that we may be saved.

{To Demetrios the Hypatos} What other consolation could the absence of the body find, than the connection made through a letter? By this means, then, O best of friends, we, in our lowliness, at present join ourselves to your love, embracing you in spirit and recognizing that absence has not severed our love, but rather calls it forth all the more, thirsting for affection, just as those who are thirsty run eagerly to the springs of water.

But let this much suffice as a demonstration of our love.

But how you yourself are faring in the office entrusted to you by the emperors, we do not know; rather, we are anxious about it, since we also learn that another office has been added to your former one — not by your own wish, but by the command of the sovereign — and that, being farther off than the former, it lies near the barbarians.

Because of this, as they say, your honored soul has come to be seized with fear, being neither willing nor equipped to bear the sword and to wage war and be warred against.

All these things have moved us also to make supplications and prayers on your behalf, that you may be kept unharmed in both offices.

And indeed we believe that you are being kept safe, having before your eyes the fear of God, and thereby calling forth help from Him.

For where God is the helper, there every evil is put out of the way.

'For the angel of the Lord,' it says, 'will encamp round about those who fear Him, and will deliver them.'

Be watchful in prayers, be sober in supplications, render just judgment, show a kindly eye to the poor, become a defender of those who are wronged, maintaining moderation both in food and drink.

For intemperance is the mother of evils.

If others play and laugh, my lord, listen to the Lord of all saying, 'Woe to those who laugh, for they shall weep.'

If others speak shameful words, I beseech you, stop up your own ears;

for words are indeed a path leading to deeds.

If others fill their right hands with gifts, my God-loving one, be content, to speak evangelically, with your wages -- that is, with what is customarily given by your commanding officer.

If others act impiously, be pious yourself, keeping away as much as possible from reckless men;

for you know that this life sends on its way, like a dream, those who serve it.

And what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul? Far be it from us to suppose this of your honored self, who possess innate goodness and love to serve God -- him who brought you from non-being into being, and who gives you your very life, and your movement, and your breath.

so that you may keep the deposit which he entrusted to you through the Holy Spirit -- both the faith and right conduct -- and return it to him whole at the time of your departure, so as to hear from him:

'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things;'

'enter into the joy of your Lord.'

And may it be granted to you to heed this voice and to be saved, with your whole household, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

{To Lycastus, the consul} The very man who brought the letter to your honored self reported to us the misfortune that had befallen you, and indeed the grief concerning you truly touched us;

for he is your own kinsman, at once an old friend and a contemporary of yours, and it is not possible for one who loves genuinely not to suffer together with the one he loves, just as, conversely, he shares in his joy.

But oh, what dreadful news!

The lady, the consul's wife, has left us -- one who was, as they say, a woman worthy of all praise, as we have both heard from others and ourselves perceived with our own eyes: first, that she was a lover of her husband, which the Apostle sets forth as the fairest thing in marriage; prudent, a keeper at home, welcoming, affable, devout, a lover of the poor, and -- greater still -- adorned with chastity and silvered over with orthodoxy; whose fruits, her children, are a testimony to the good life of you both.

For just as the tree is known from its fruit, so also from the children are known the parents, of what sort and stature they are.

And, not having had deep acquaintance with that blessed woman, how could I extol her worthily? Yet, having only twice been in her company and come to converse with her, I recognized that God had granted you a wife who was truly a helper -- not, like the ancient foremother, a cause of deception, but one who became for you a means of salvation throughout your whole life.

She has departed; she has flown away from your sight; she has left you half-dead, torn away from your good yoke-fellow.

We can no longer see with our eyes that comfort surpassing every delight, nor the consolation in afflictions, nor the solace in misfortunes, nor the reminder, fellow-worker, and helper in all that is due.

Who will now come to meet us? Who will show us favor? Who will comfort us? We have already become, to speak in the words of David, like a city shorn of its adornment, like a sparrow alone upon the housetop.

What then? Shall we grieve beyond measure and clothe ourselves in inconsolable mourning? By no means, by no means, O thrice-longed-for one; but, knowing that the God who first gave her to us for the sharing of life is himself the one who has now taken her back, let us bear what has happened with thanksgiving, imitating the celebrated Job and uttering that blessed word which he spoke -- not over the loss of a wife, but over ten children dead together, along with the earlier deprivations of all his outward goods, and finally the affliction of his own body -- when, the once-king, sitting upon the dung heap and scraping the discharge of his own flesh with potsherds, he said this:

'He has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so it has come to pass.'

If then, O friend, we so dispose and speak of these things within ourselves, we shall not be far from the portion of those men; indeed, let us also make this a fitting funeral tribute for that blessed woman, and let us, through our own selves, form those branches given to you by God into an image of a life pleasing to God, and may everything from here on turn out well for you;

For as for the things which the eternal God, the Master of all, works in us -- may they find us graciously receiving them -- how then would he not also order well for us what is present, through the consolation of his Holy Spirit, and prepare for the future ages without end places of enjoyment? These things, though brief, I have both written and urged as one who loves you;

But you yourself, O master, deign to greet on our behalf your own precious children.

{To Euphrosyne, the abbess} That we are concerned for your honored self, this humble letter of ours here is witness;

for indeed it would not be right for us to falsify the word which we promised to that blessed and holy mother -- to attend upon your venerable dignity with a visitation by letter as far as possible, whether we are far off or near.

And yet, even if we did not have that promise from that source, from your own trust in us and care for us alone we would still have been persuaded to offer this attention by letter.

Be well, then, O most honored one to me, and may you lead the flock which the holy mother -- or rather, God through her -- entrusted to you, in a manner befitting God and with diligence.

Know that the undertaking of your leadership is a very great one; understand the true nature of the souls under your hand: that they are a bridal chamber kept in trust for the King of heaven, for Christ, the sole fair and incorruptible Bridegroom;

who has entrusted to you, for the day of his marriage through union in the Holy Spirit, not one bride, but as many as you have -- you yourself being the chief bride among them.

For Jesus, having as it were many brides and brides beyond number, takes to himself in marriage even those women who, like you, have come through this life, loving to join to himself all souls of men and women, that he may fill the bridal chamber above;

in which many mansions, like so many chambers, have been prepared by the Father for the souls who shall be deemed worthy, through a pure life and sincere faith, when the time of the Bridegroom's revelation shall come, to run after him and enter with him into the bridal chamber and enjoy that boundless joy for ever and ever.

Behold, the ministry which you have received from the Lord has been shown to you -- great, and requited with many heavenly rewards, in that you will present to the immortal Bridegroom not only yourself, but also many brides.

For which how great and how mighty shall be the recompense!

He will rank you among the foremost brides, among the chosen maidens; he will grant you braided ornaments -- the eternal gifts of the Spirit; garments radiant with light, flashing with incorruption; he will crown you with the crown of righteousness; you will dance an unbroken dance, equal to the angels, with unspeakable exultation.

Take heed, then, my lady, and attend to yourself, and watch over the brides of Christ with utmost care;

feed them with the pure bread of right belief, give them to drink of the stream of good conduct, that they may be well-fed and comely.

for the discourse concerns the beauty of the soul, which Christ our God indeed desires, as the holy David affirms;

'Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear; forget your own people and your father's house, and the King will desire your beauty;'

'for he is your Lord, and you shall worship him.'

Do you see that, in your forgetting -- that is, in your renouncing your parents, brothers and kinsfolk, friends and all the things of this life -- the King has desired the beauty of your soul for marriage? And 'he is your Lord, and you shall worship him' shall be fulfilled for you on the day of his appearing.

O, O, what wisdom you have shown, in forgetting all things!

Bravo, bravo, what a Bridegroom you have obtained!

You have been made more beautiful than all the beauties of the earth.

Even angels revere you, even archangels attend upon you, and you, foremost queens, are in the heavens, above all mothers and daughters who come of the flesh.

Therefore rejoice and rejoice with one another, bearing courageously henceforth the hardships of the ascetic life -- or rather, of your bridal chamber -- knowing that 'all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass,' and that all the desires of this present age come from corruption and end in corruption, whereas your love and desire alone are boundless and incorruptible.

Wait, then, yet a very little while, and endure; you submitting yourselves well and obediently to your lady, the chief bride, who lays upon you the loving customs and observances of Christ the Bridegroom; and she, the lady, as the one who bears the brides, laying down not only anything else but even her own soul for the care of the young women -- I do not say only of their soul, but of their body as well -- thus fulfilling what was said by the Apostle:

'Being affectionately desirous of you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own souls, in Christ Jesus our Lord;'

Him ask also on our behalf for the salvation of our lowly soul, that by the very things with which we have admonished others we ourselves may be admonished, and that we may all be saved from the evil one.

{Beginning of Book Four. To Philotheus, the founder} The letter of your honored self is most acceptable, both to God and to a pious man, because in the present time, in which there is heretical night-warfare and a storm of unbelief, it made clear to us that, like a certain star, you shine forth in that place, not darkened by heretical communion nor submerged beneath the surge of unbelief.

And blessed be the Lord, who has, even in the order of laymen, those who cling fast to his law amid the present confusion and overthrow of orthodoxy.

Blessed are you, most honored brother, and truly your name suits you well, for you have both loved God and guarded the deposit of the faith.

You reported in your letter that you had been guided in such and such a manner by those blessed fathers who departed to the Lord with a good end, whose names are in the book of life.

And this is well; and this too is a mark of your fervent zeal.

But since, by their departure, as one bereaved, you have sought again to be instructed by our lowliness, we, though mean and worthless, nevertheless -- since it is written, 'bearing with one another in love' -- for the sake of this love in the Lord we yield and accept your dedication, which is indeed good and praiseworthy.

As for your abstaining altogether from heretical communion, you have both struggled and abstained, as you say, by the grace of Christ; and continue still to abstain;

for thus would you show yourself beloved by your God and in communion with him;

for the opposite communion separates one from Christ.

But as for the things to which you are compelled by the commander -- namely, to chant psalms together with the heretics and to eat the foods sealed by them, on the ground that the lord commander could not otherwise pass through without danger -- to this we are not able to answer readily;

because strict precision demands that the orthodox-minded person be altogether without participation in the heterodox, and that he not join with them either in food, or in drink, or in any relation.

Knowing these things, let your goodness hold fast to its own good zeal, building upon the good foundation the gold-like structures of exactness, and praying also for our lowliness.

having thereby come to know that you are good among women, a lover of God and a lover of monks, so that it is fitting to utter that scriptural saying: 'blessed is the husband of a good wife.'

Do you see, O lady, that because of your goodness, the lord, the patrician and your God-given husband, is pronounced blessed by Scripture? Be zealous, then, to make him even more blessed still.

And how might this be? By your continuing to grow yet better -- that is, by reminding him, exhorting him, entreating him -- to conduct the high office of the generalship in a manner pleasing to God, as indeed he does; to visit orphans and widows in their affliction; to keep himself unstained by injustice; to be a lover of monks and a lover of the poor, tempered with gentleness -- since this authority is sufficient to strike terror into those under his hand -- and yet to be sparing of threats, striking with a corrective purpose, but scourging with humanity and moderation;