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Epistula canonica ad Letoium

CANONICAL EPISTLE OF THE SAME TO SAINT LETOIUS, BISHOP OF MELITENE.

This too is one of the things that contributes to the holy feast, for us to understand the lawful and canonical economy concerning those who have transgressed; so that every spiritual sickness, which arises through some sin, might be healed. For since this universal feast of creation is celebrated each year according to the appointed period of the annual cycle, being fulfilled in all the world, for the resurrection of the fallen; and sin is a fall, and resurrection is the restoration from the fall of sin; it would be well on this day, not only to bring to God those who are transformed from regeneration through the grace of the font, but also those who through repentance and conversion are returning from dead works to the living way, and to guide these as well to the saving hope, from which they were estranged through sin. And it is no small task, to manage the discourses concerning these things with right and approved judgment, according to the command of the Prophet, which bids us to manage our words in judgment, so that, as the saying has it, he might not be moved for ever, and the righteous might be in everlasting remembrance.

45.224 For just as in the healing of the body, the one purpose of medicine is to make the sick person well; but the form of the treatment is various; for according to the variety of sicknesses, the therapeutic method is also applied appropriately to each of the diseases; so also, since there is a great variety of passions in the sickness of the soul, the therapeutic treatment will of necessity be manifold, working the cure in proportion to the passion. And that there might be some technical method for the problem before us, we shall so take up the discourse. There are three things considered concerning our soul in the first division: the rational, the appetitive, and the irascible. In these are both the good deeds of those who live according to virtue, and the falls of those who lapse into vice. Therefore it is fitting for one who is about to apply the appropriate therapy to the diseased part of the soul, first to examine in what the passion consists; and then to apply the therapy fittingly to the one who has suffered; so that not through inexperience of the therapeutic method, one part is sick, and another receives the therapy; just as, indeed, we see many physicians, in their inexperience of the primarily affected part, aggravating the disease by the means with which they treat it. For since the sickness is often due to a predominance of the hot, and since what is warming and reviving is useful for those afflicted by an excess of the cold, having applied the same thing that was reasonably beneficial to these, inconsiderately to those burning with an immoderate heat, they have made the passion difficult to cure. Just as, therefore, the understanding of the property of the elements was deemed most necessary for physicians, so that for each of those well or ill disposed, there might be a correction of that which is disposed contrary to nature; so also we, returning to this division of the things considered in the soul, shall make the general theory the beginning and basis for the appropriate therapy of the passions. Therefore, the property of the soul's movements being divided in three, as we said, into the rational, the appetitive, and the irascible; the right functioning of the rational part of the soul is a pious conception concerning the Divine, and the discerning knowledge of good and evil, and the clear

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Epistula canonica ad Letoium

ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ ΚΑΝΟΝΙΚΗ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΝ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΛΗΤΟΙΟΝ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΝ ΜΕΛΙΤΙΝΗΣ.

Ἓν καὶ τοῦτο τῶν εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν ἑορτὴν συντελούν των ἐστὶ, τὸ κατανοῆσαι

ἡμᾶς τὴν ἔννομόν τε καὶ κανονικὴν ἐπὶ τῶν πεπλημμεληκότων οἰκονομίαν· ὅπως ἂν θεραπευθείη πᾶν ἀῤῥώστημα ψυχικὸν, τὸ διά τινος ἁμαρτίας ἐπιγινόμενον. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἡ καθολικὴ καὶ αὕτη τῆς κτίσεως ἑορτὴ κατὰ τὴν τεταγμένην περίοδον τοῦ ἐνιαυσιαίου κύκλου καθ' ἕκαστον ἔτος, ἐν παντὶ πληρουμένη τῷ κόσμῳ, ἐπὶ τῇ ἀναστά σει τοῦ πεπτωκότος ἐπιτελεῖται· πτῶσις δέ ἐστιν ἡ ἁμαρτία· ἀνάστασις δὲ ἡ ἐκ τοῦ πτώματος τῆς ἁμαρ τίας ἀνόρθωσις· καλῶς ἂν ἔχοι κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν ταύτην, οὐ μόνον τοὺς ἐκ παλιγγενεσίας μεταστοι χειουμένους διὰ τῆς τοῦ λουτροῦ χάριτος τῷ Θεῷ προσάγειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς διὰ τῆς μετανοίας τε καὶ ἐπιστροφῆς ἀπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν ἔργων εἰς τὴν ζῶσαν ὁδὸν πάλιν ἐπανιόντας, καὶ τούτους χειραγωγεῖν πρὸς τὴν σώζουσαν ἐλπίδα, ἧς διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀπεξενώ θησαν. Ἔστι δὲ οὐ μικρὸν ἔργον, τὸ τοὺς περὶ τούτων λόγους οἰκονομῆσαι ἐν τῇ ὀρθῇ τε καὶ δεδοκιμασμένῃ κρίσει, κατὰ τὸ παράγγελμα τοῦ Προφήτου, τὸ κε λεῦον δεῖν οἰκονομεῖν τοὺς λόγους ἐν κρίσει, ἵνα, καθὼς ἔχει τὸ λόγιον, μήτε σαλευθῇ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, καὶ εἰς μνημόσυνον αἰώνιον γένηται δίκαιος.

45.224 Ὥσπερ γὰρ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς σωματικῆς θεραπείας, ὁ μὲν σκοπὸς τῆς ἰατρικῆς εἷς ἐστι, τὸ ὑγιᾶναι τὸν κάμνον τα· τὸ δὲ εἶδος τῆς ἐπιμελείας διάφορον· κατὰ γὰρ τὴν ποικιλίαν τῶν ἀῤῥωστημάτων καταλλήλως καὶ ἡ θε ραπευτικὴ μέθοδος ἑκάστῳ τῶν νοσημάτων προσάγε ται· οὕτω πολλῆς οὔσης καὶ ἐν τῇ ψυχικῇ νόσῳ τῆς τῶν παθῶν ποικιλίας, ἀναγκαίως πολυειδὴς γενήσεται ἡ θεραπευτικὴ ἐπιμέλεια, πρὸς λόγον τοῦ πάθους ἐνεργοῦσα τὴν ἴασιν. Ὡς δ' ἂν γένοιτό τις τεχνικὴ μέθοδος περὶ τοῦ προκειμένου προβλήματος, οὕτω τὸν λόγον διαληψόμεθα. Τρία ἐστὶ τὰ περὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἡμῶν θεωρούμενα κατὰ τὴν πρώτην διαίρεσιν· τό τε λογικὸν, καὶ τὸ ἐπιθυμητικὸν, καὶ τὸ θυμοειδές. Ἐν τούτοις ἐστὶ καὶ τὰ κατορθώματα τῶν κατ' ἀρετὴν βιούντων, καὶ τὰ πτώματα τῶν εἰς κακίαν ἀποῤῥεόντων. ∆ιὸ προσ ήκει τὸν μέλλοντα τὴν κατάλληλον θεραπείαν προσ άγειν τῷ νενοσηκότι τῆς ψυχῆς μέρει, πρότερον μὲν ἐπισκέπτεσθαι ἐν τίνι συνέστη τὸ πάθος· εἶθ' οὕτω πεπονθότι προσάγειν ἁρμοδίως τὴν θεραπείαν· ὥστε μὴ δι' ἀπειρίαν τῆς θεραπευτικῆς μεθόδου, ἄλλο μὲν ᾖ τὸ νοσῆσαν μέρος, ἕτερον δὲ τὸ τὴν θεραπείαν δε χόμενον· ὥσπερ ἀμέλει βλέπομεν πολλοὺς τῶν ἰατρῶν ἐν ἀπειρίᾳ τοῦ πρωτοπαθοῦντος μέρους προσεπιτρί βοντας τὴν νόσον δι' ὧν θεραπεύουσι. Τῆς γὰρ ἀῤῥω στίας οὔσης πολλάκις κατὰ θερμοῦ ἐπικράτησιν, ἐπειδὴ τοῖς κατὰ πλεονασμὸν τοῦ ψυχροῦ κεκακωμέ νοις χρήσιμον τὸ θερμαῖνόν τε καὶ ἀναθάλπον ἐστὶ, τὸ τούτοις κατὰ λόγον συνενεγκὸν, ἀπερισκέπτως τὸ αὐτὸ τοῖς ἐν ἀμετρίᾳ θερμότητος ἐκκαιομένοις ἐπ αγαγόντες, δυσίατον τὸ πάθος ἐποίησαν. Ὥσπερ τοί νυν ἀναγκαιοτάτη τοῖς ἰατροῖς ἐνομίσθη ἡ κατανόη σις τῆς τῶν στοιχείων ἰδιότητος, ὅπως ἂν ἑκάστου τῶν εὖ ἢ κακῶς διακειμένων γένοιτο τοῦ παρὰ φύ σιν διατεθέντος ἡ ἐπανόρθωσις· οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐπὶ ταύτην ἀναδραμόντες τὴν διαίρεσιν τῶν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ θεωρουμένων, ἀρχὴν καὶ ὑπόθεσιν τῆς καταλλήλου τῶν παθῶν θεραπείας ποιησώμεθα τὴν γενικὴν θεωρίαν. Οὐκοῦν τριχῆ, καθὼς ἔφαμεν, διῃρημένης τῆς ἰδιότητος τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς κινημάτων, εἰς τὸ λογιστι κόν τε καὶ ἐπιθυμητικὸν καὶ θυμοειδές· κατόρθωμα μὲν τοῦ λογιστικοῦ μέρους τῆς ψυχῆς ἐστιν, ἡ εὐσε βὴς περὶ τὸ Θεῖον ὑπόληψις, καὶ ἡ τοῦ καλοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ διακριτικὴ ἐπιστήμη, καὶ ἡ τρανήν