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our Jesus Christ, I pray, in whom may you remain in the unity of God and in his oversight. I greet Alke, a name dear to me. Farewell in the Lord.

TO IGNATIUS, MARY OF CASSOBOLA.

Mary, a proselyte of Jesus Christ, to Ignatius Theophorus, most blessed bishop of the apostolic church which is in Antioch, beloved in God the Father and in Jesus, sends greeting and wishes for your health. We always pray for you, for joy and health in him. Since, O admirable man, Christ has been made known also among us to be the son of the living God and in later times to have become man through the virgin Mary, of the seed of David and Abraham, according to the utterances spoken beforehand concerning him by himself through the choir of the prophets, for this reason we ask and beseech that there be sent to us by your wisdom Maris our companion, bishop of our native Neapolis which is near Zarbus, and Eulogius, presbyter of Cassobola, so that we may not be destitute of those who preside over the divine word, as Moses also somewhere says: Let the Lord God look upon a man, who shall lead this people, and the congregation of the Lord shall not be as sheep which have no shepherd. And concerning the youthfulness of the aforementioned, fear nothing, O blessed one. For I want you to know that they think little of the flesh and disregard its passions within themselves, flashing forth with grey-haired wisdom in the fresh youth of their priesthood. But stir up your thought through his Spirit given to you from God through Christ, and you will know, that Samuel, being a small child, was called the Seer, and having been numbered in the choir of the prophets, he convicted the elder Eli of transgression, because he had preferred his deranged sons to God, the cause of all things, and had left them unpunished as they made a mockery of the priesthood and acted wantonly toward the people. And Daniel the wise, being young, judged certain savage old men, showing them to be reprobates and not elders, and though they were Jews by race, in their manner they were Canaanites. And Jeremiah, declining on account of his youth the prophecy entrusted to him by God, hears: Say not, I am a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I shall send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak, for I am with you. And Solomon the wise, being twelve years of age, understood the great question of the women's ignorance concerning their own children, so that all the people were astonished at such great wisdom in the boy and feared him not as a youth, but as a grown man. And the riddles of the queen of the Ethiopians, which had a flow like the streams of the Nile, he so solved them, that she who was so wise was beside herself. And Josiah, the beloved of God, while still scarcely speaking articulately, convicts those possessed by the evil spirit, showing that they are liars and deceivers of the people, and he exposes the deceit of demons and makes a public example of those who are not gods, and slays their priests with impunity, and he overturns their altars and defiles their places of sacrifice with dead remains, and destroys their sacred precincts and cuts down their groves and shatters their pillars and digs up the tombs of the wicked, so that not even a trace of the wicked might remain; so zealous was he for piety and a punisher of the wicked, while still stammering with his tongue. And David, who was both prophet and king, the root according to the flesh of the Savior, as a youth is anointed king by Samuel; for he himself somewhere says, that I was small among my brothers and younger in the house of my father. And time will fail me, if I should wish to trace all those who in their youth pleased God and were entrusted by God with prophecy and priesthood and kingship. But for the sake of reminder, what has been said is sufficient.

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ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ εὔχομαι, ἐν ᾧ διαμείνητε ἐν ἑνότητι θεοῦ καὶ ἐπισκοπῇ. Ἀσπάζομαι Ἄλκην, τὸ ποθητόν μοι ὄνομα. Ἔρρωσθε ἐν κυρίῳ.

I ΓNATIΩI MAΡIA EK KAΣΣOBOΛΩN.

Mαρία προσήλυτος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἰγνατίῳ Θεοφόρῳ μακαριωτάτῳ ἐπισκόπῳ ἐκκλησίας ἀποστολικῆς τῆς κατὰ Ἀντιόχειαν ἐν θεῷ πατρὶ καὶ Ἰησοῦ ἠγαπημένῳ χαίρειν καὶ ἐρρῶσθαι. πάντοτέ σοι εὐχόμεθα τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ χαράν τε καὶ ὑγείαν. Ἐπειδή, θαυμάσιε, καὶ παρ' ἡμῖν ὁ Χριστὸς ἐγνωρίσθη υἱὸς εἶναι τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος καὶ ἐν ὑστέροις καιροῖς ἐνηνθρωπηκέναι διὰ παρθένου Mαρίας ἐκ σπέρματος ∆αυὶδ καὶ Ἀβραὰμ κατὰ τὰς περὶ αὐτοῦ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ προρρηθείσας φωνὰς παρὰ τοῦ τῶν προφητῶν χοροῦ, τούτου ἕνεκεν παρακαλοῦμεν ἀξιοῦντες ἀποσταλῆναιἡμῖνπαρὰ τῆς σῆς συνέσεως Mάριν τὸν ἑταῖρον ἡμῶν ἐπίσκοπον τῆς ἡμεδαπῆς Nέας πόλεως τῆς πρὸς τῷ Zαρβῷ, καὶ Eὐλόγιον Kασσοβόλων πρεσβύτερον, ὅπως μὴ ὦμεν ἔρημοι τῶν προστατῶν τοῦ θείου λόγου, καθά που καὶ Mωσῆς λέγει· Ἐπισκεψάσθω κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἄνθρωπον, ὃς ὁδηγήσει τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον, καὶ οὐκ ἔσται ἡ συναγωγὴ κυρίου ὡσεὶ πρόβατα, οἷς οὐκ ἔστι ποιμήν.Ὑπὲρ δὲ τοῦ νέους εἶναι τοὺς προγεγραμμένους δείσῃς μηδέν, ὦ μακάριε. γινώσκειν γάρ σε θέλω, ὡς ὑπερφρονοῦσι σαρκὸς καὶ τῶν ταύτης παθῶν ἀλογοῦσιν αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, προσφάτῳ νεότητι ἱερωσύνης ἀστράπτοντες πολιᾷ. ἀνάσκαλον δὲ τὸν λογισμόν σου διὰ τοῦ δοθέντος σοι παρὰ θεοῦ διὰ Χριστοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ, καὶ γνώσῃ, ὡς Σαμουὴλ μικρὸν παιδάριον ὢν ὁ βλέπων ἐκλήθη, καὶ τῷ χορῷ τῶν προφητῶν ἐγκαταλεχθεὶς τὸν πρεσβύτην Ἠλεὶ παρανομίας ἐξελέγχει, ὅτι παραπλῆγας υἱεῖς θεοῦ τοῦ πάντων αἰτίου προτετιμήκει καὶ παίζοντας εἰς τὴν ἱερωσύνην καὶ εἰς τὸν λαὸν ἀσελγαίνοντας εἴασεν ἀτιμωρήτους. ∆ανιὴλ δὲ ὁ σοφὸς νέος ὢν ἔκρινεν ὠμογέροντάς τινας, δείξας ἐξώλεις αὐτοὺς καὶ οὐ πρεσβυτέρους εἶναι καὶ τῷ γένει Ἰουδαίους ὄντας τῷ τρόπῳ Χαναναίους ὑπάρχειν. καὶ Ἱερεμίας διὰ τὸ νέον παραιτούμενος τὴν ἐγχειριζομένην αὐτῷ πρὸς τοῦ θεοῦ προφητείαν ἀκούει· Mὴ λέγε, ὅτι νεώτερός εἰμι, διότι πρὸς πάντας, οὓς ἐὰν ἐξαποστελῶ σε, πορεύσῃ καὶ κατὰ πάντα, ὅσα ἂν ἐντείλωμαί σοι, λαλήσεις, ὅτι μετά σου ἐγώ εἰμι. Σολομὼν δὲ ὁ σοφὸς δυοκαίδεκα τυγχάνων ἐτῶν συνῆκε τὸ μέγα τῆς ἀγνωσίας τῶν γυναικῶν ἐπὶ τοῖς σφετέροις τέκνοις ζήτημα, ὡς πάντα τὸν λαὸν ἐκστῆναι ἐπὶ τῇ τοσαύτῃ τοῦ παιδὸς σοφίᾳ καὶ φοβηθῆναι οὐχ ὡς μειράκιον, ἀλλ' ὡς τέλειον ἄνδρα. τὰ δὲ αἰνίγματα τῆς Aἰθιόπων βασιλίδος, φορὰν ἔχοντα ὥσπερ τὰ τοῦ Nείλου ·εύματα, οὕτως ἐπελύσατο, ὡς ἔξω ἑαυτῆς γενέσθαι τὴν οὕτως σοφήν. Ἰωσίας δὲ ὁ θεοφιλὴς ἄναρθρα σχεδὸν ἔτι φθεγγόμενος ἐλέγχει τοὺς τῷ πονηρῷ πνεύματι κατόχους, ὡς ψευδολόγοι καὶ λαοπλάνοι τυγχάνουσι, δαιμόνων τε ἐκκαλύπτει τὴν ἀπάτην καὶ τοὺς οὐκ ὄντας θεοὺς παραδειγματίζει καὶ τοὺς ἱερωμένους αὐτοῖς νηποινὶ κατασφάζει, βωμούς τε αὐτῶν ἀνατρέπει καὶ θυσιαστήρια νεκροῖς λειψάνοις μιαίνει τεμένη τε καθαιρεῖ καὶ τὰ ἄλση ἐκκόπτει καὶ τὰς στήλας συντρίβει καὶ τοὺς τῶν ἀσεβῶν τάφους ἀνορύττει, ἵνα μηδὲ σημεῖον ἔτι τῶν πονηρῶν ὑπάρχῃ· οὕτω τις ζηλωτὴς ἦν τῆς εὐσεβείας καὶ τῶν ἀσεβῶν τιμωρός, ἔτι ψελλίζων τῇ γλώττῃ. ∆αυὶδ δὲ ὁ προφήτης ὁμοῦ καὶ βασιλεύς, ἡ τοῦ σωτηρίου κατὰ σάρκα ·ίζα, μειράκιον χρίεται ὑπὸ Σαμουὴλ εἰς βασιλέα· φησὶν γάρ που αὐτός, ὅτι μικρὸς ἤμην ἐν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς μου καὶ νεώτερος ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ πατρός μου. Kαὶ ἐπιλείψει με ὁ χρόνος, εἰ πάντας ἀνιχνεύειν βουλοίμην τοὺς ἐν νεότητι εὐαρεστήσαντας θεῷ προφητείαν τε καὶ ἱερωσύνην καὶ βασιλείαν ὑπὸ θεοῦ ἐγχειρισθέντας. ὑπομνήσεως δὲ ἕνεκα αὐτάρκη καὶ τὰ εἰρημένα.