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of the patristic and divinely-inspired orthodoxy of the Christians, O avenger of God and champion of the truth, so great are your advances in virtue. How great and praiseworthy are your rewards, how great and exceeding is your recompense from the God of all things. For it is a great thing to save even one person (for how could it not be? since, as the divine Scripture says, he who brings forth the precious from the worthless will be as my mouth), but to save so many souls and the whole of the people, how is it not great and venerable and truly worthy of the great gift from above? You then, whose name is truly great and real, have entered into the palace with every good thing, and may you leave the remnants of righteousness to last forever. 8 {1To Symeon the abbot}1 Thinking of our affairs more than we do, your paternal holiness, through its two sacredly written letters, has spoken to us strange and astonishing things. But concerning the letter-bearers, God was pleased, the abbot having submitted, for them to be taken back into their own monastery, your God-reverence having done this well so as to bring them back again through its instructive word to the paternal and spiritual heart; but concerning our brother who has deserted and been ostracized as it were from the paradise of the coenobitic life, I do not know what we should say, we too having seen the man before as truly a vine planted by God, wholly true, wholly fruitful. and how is it that now a boar from the wood has ravaged it and a wild beast has devoured it, it having turned, so to speak, into deadly bitterness? For is he not given over to the untamed beasts of the passions, I mean love of the flesh and love of rule, and can one not see him now with the eye of the mind being devoured by them and torn to pieces as if from the mouth of lions? For, as you know, the divine Basil judges the fall of one who unreasonably withdraws and is separated from his father to be equal to that of one who rejects the divine profession itself; for this reason they are also under the same condemnation with respect to excommunication and the other penances. But as for this man, we pray as sinners that he may look up again to the former light out of his dim-sighted and darkened mind and return home again to his sweet father and most beloved community. But as for the brothers themselves, we exhort them to stand nobly in the coenobitic contest and not to be shaken by the fall of the impious one, but rather and more so from this to lay hold of a more genuine faith and an unbreakable union, even to the point of blood, as the God-bearing fathers declare, so that by the perfection of their life of submission they may be crowned with the crown of martyrdom on the day of judgment, dancing with Dositheus and Acacius and Dometian, the all-holy ones, who completed their way of life in all obedience. For today, as the other voices of your holiness say, there is all lack of judgment and insubordination, with almost all, so to speak, relying on human customs and on the observances of their more recent predecessors, which are contrary to the commandments of God, and choosing rather to observe the life of this or that abbot than that of our divine fathers. Hence we shepherds, of whom I am first, have become foolish and do not seek the Lord, nor do we follow the blameless and unswerving track of the way of life, but as if the divine law has grown old and the gospel has become inactive and the spiritual ordinances have grown weak, and, to say something even more blasphemous, as if the unchangeable God has changed; for this is what it is to say and to blame the times and the days and the generations, saying that those were different and these are different. But I answer that this was not introduced because of the difference of the time (for neither has the heaven become different in form nor does it move differently nor does the luminary creator of the day shine differently nor is the universe moved and conducted contrary to its former order; for he established them, according to

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πατρικῆς καὶ θεοπνεύστου τῶν Χριστιανῶν ὀρθοδοξίας, ἔκδικε τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας ὑπέρμαχε, τηλικαῦταί σου αἱ τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐπιδόσεις. ὡς μεγάλοι καὶ ἀξιέπαινοι οἱ μισθοί σου, ὡς πολύ σου καὶ ὑπερβάλλον τὸ ἀνταπόδομα παρὰ τοῦ τῶν ὅλων θεοῦ. μέγα μὲν γὰρ καὶ τὸ ἕνα σῴζειν (πῶς γὰρ οὔ; ἐπεί, ὥς φησιν ἡ θεία Γραφή, ὁ ἐξάγων ἄξιον ἐξ ἀναξίου, ὡς στόμα μου ἔσται), τὸ δὲ τοσαύτας ψυχὰς καὶ τὸ πᾶν τοῦ λαοῦ, πῶς οὐ μέγα καὶ σεβάσμιον καὶ τῆς ἄνωθεν μεγαλοδωρεᾶς ὄντως ἐπάξιον; σὺ οὖν, τὸ μέγα ὄντως καὶ πραγματικὸν ὄνομα, μετὰ τοῦ παντὸς καλοῦ εἰσελήλυθας εἰς τὰ βασίλεια καὶ σὺ τὰ ἐγκαταλείμματα τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἐάσειας διαιωνίζοντα. 8 {1Συμεὼν ἡγουμένῳ}1 Ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς ὑπολαμβάνουσα ἡ πατρική σου ἁγιωσύνη, διὰ τῶν δύο αὐτῆς ἱερογράφων ἐπιστολῶν ὡμίλησεν ἡμῖν τὰ ξενίζοντα καὶ ἐκπλήττοντα. ἀλλὰ περὶ μὲν τῶν γραμματηφόρων εὐδόκησεν ὁ θεός, ὑποκλιθέντος τοῦ ἡγουμένου, ἀναληφθῆναι αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ οἰκείῳ αὐτῶν μοναστηρίῳ, καλῶς τοῦτο πραξάσης τῆς θεοσεβείας σου εἰς τὸ ἀνθυπενεγκεῖν αὐτοὺς διὰ τοῦ διδακτικοῦ αὐτῆς λόγου εἰς τὰ πατρῷα καὶ πνευματικὰ σπλάγχνα· περὶ δὲ τοῦ λιποτακτήσαντος ἀδελφοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ ὡς ἐκ παραδείσου τῆς κοινοβιακῆς ζωῆς ἐξοστρακισθέντος οὐκ οἶδ' ὅ τι εἴπωμεν, καὶ ἡμεῖς ἑωρακότες τὸν ἄνδρα τὸ πρότερον ὡς ἀληθῶς ἄμπελον θεοφύτευτον, πᾶσαν ἀληθινήν, πᾶσαν καρποφόρον. καὶ πῶς ὅτι ἄρτι ἐλυμήνατο αὐτὴν ὗς ἐκ δρυμοῦ καὶ μονιὸς ἄγριος κατενεμήσατο αὐτήν, στραφείσης αὐτῆς, ὡς εἰπεῖν, εἰς πικρίαν θανατικήν; μὴ γὰρ ὅτι οὐ παραδοθεὶς τοῖς ἀτιθάσσοις θηρσὶ τῶν παθῶν, φιλοσαρκίας τε φημὶ καὶ φιλαρχίας, ἔστιν ἰδεῖν αὐτὸν ἄρτι τῇ τοῦ νοῦ θεωρίᾳ βιβρωσκόμενον ὑπ' αὐτῶν καὶ κατα σπαρασσόμενον οἷα ἀπὸ στόματος λεόντων; τὴν ἴσην γάρ, ὡς οἶσθα, κρίνει ἀπόπτωσιν ὁ θεῖος Βασίλειος τῷ ἀλόγως ἀναχωροῦντι καὶ ἀποσχιζομένῳ πατρὸς τοῦ καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ θεῖον ἐπάγγελμα ἀπορριπτομένου· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς εἰσι καταδίκης ἐπὶ τῆς ἀκοινωνησίας καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἐπιτιμίων. Ἀλλὰ τοῦτον μὲν εὐχόμεθα ὡς ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀντωπῆσαι πάλιν πρὸς τὸ πρότερον φῶς ἐκ τῆς ἀμβλυωπαθοῦς καὶ ἐζοφωμένης αὐτοῦ ἐννοίας καὶ οἴκαδε αὖθις ἐπανιέναι πρὸς τὸν γλυκὺ πατέρα καὶ τὴν φιλτάτην συνοδίαν. αὐτοὺς δὲ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς παρακαλοῦμεν στῆναι γενναίως πρὸς τὴν κοινοβιακὴν ἄθλησιν καὶ μὴ σαλευθῆναι ἐκ τῆς τοῦ ἀσεβοῦς καταπτώσεως, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ μᾶλλον ἐντεῦθεν ἐπιδράξασθαι γνησιωτέρας πίστεως καὶ ἀδιασπάστου συντεύξεως, τοσοῦτον μέχρις αἵματος, καθὼς οἱ θεοφόροι πατέρες διαγορεύουσιν, ἵνα τελειότητι τοῦ ὑποτακτικοῦ αὐτῶν βίου τὸν τοῦ μαρτυρίου στέφανον ἀναδήσωνται ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς διαγνώσεως, χορεύοντες μετὰ ∆οσιθέου καὶ Ἀκακίου καὶ ∆ομετιανοῦ τῶν πάνυ παναγίων, τῶν πανυπηκόως τὴν πολιτείαν τετελειωκότων. σήμερον γάρ, καθὼς αἱ λοιπαὶ φωναὶ τῆς ὁσιότητός σου, ἀκρισία πᾶσα καὶ ἀνυποταξία, ἐπερειδομένων τῶν πάντων σχεδὸν εἰπεῖν ταῖς ἀνθρωπίναις συνηθείαις καὶ ταῖς τῶν προσεχεστέρων διακρατήσεσιν, ἐξ ἐναντίας ἐχούσαις τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ μᾶλλον αἱρουμένων τοῦ δεῖνος καὶ τοῦ δεῖνος ἡγουμένου παρατηρεῖν τὸν βίον ἢ τῶν θεσπεσίων πατέρων ἡμῶν. ἔνθεν οἱ ποιμένες, ἐξ ὧν ἐγὼ πρῶτος, ἠφρονεύσαμεν καὶ τὸν κύριον οὐκ ἐκζητοῦμεν οὐδὲ τὸ ἀμώμητον καὶ ἀκράδαντον τῆς πολιτείας ἰχνηλατοῦμεν, ἀλλ' ὡς παλαιωθέντος τοῦ θείου νόμου καὶ ἀργήσαντος τοῦ εὐαγγελίου καὶ ἀτονησάντων τῶν πνευματικῶν θεσμῶν καί, ἵνα τι εἴπω καὶ βλασφημότερον, ὡς ἀλλοιωθέντος τοῦ ἀναλλοιώτου θεοῦ· τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι πρὸς τὸ λέγειν καὶ καταιτιᾶσθαι τοὺς χρόνους καὶ τὰς ἡμέρας καὶ τὰς γενεάς, ἀλλοίως μὲν ἐκείνας καὶ ἀλλοίως ταύτας. Ἐγὼ δὲ ἀνταποκρίνομαι ὡς οὐ παρὰ τὸ τοῦ χρόνου διάφορον τοῦτο ὑπήχθη (οὐδὲ γὰρ ἑτερόμορφος γέγονεν ὁ οὐρανὸς οὐδὲ ἑτεροκίνητος οὐδὲ ἑτερολαμπὴς ὁ δημιουργὸς τῆς ἡμέρας φωστὴρ οὐδὲ παρὰ τὴν πρὶν τάξιν φέρεταί τε καὶ διεξάγεται τὸ πᾶν· ἔστησεν γὰρ αὐτά, κατὰ