Letter XXIX.264    Placed in 368.

To the Church of Ancyra.  Consolatory.265    cf. Letters xxiv. and xxv., and note.

My amazement at the most distressing news of the calamity which has befallen you for a long time kept me silent.  I felt like a man whose ears are stunned by a loud clap of thunder.  Then I somehow recovered a little from my state of speechlessness.  Now I have mourned, as none could help mourning, over the event, and, in the midst of my lamentations, have sent you this letter.  I write not so much to console you,—for who could find words to cure a calamity so great?—as to signify to you, as well as I can by these means, the agony of my own heart.  I need now the lamentations of Jeremiah, or of any other of the Saints who has feelingly lamented a great woe.  A man has fallen who was really a pillar and stay of the Church or rather he himself has been taken from us and is gone to the blessed life, and there is no small danger lest many at the removal of this prop from under them fall too, and lest some men’s unsoundness be brought to light.  A mouth is sealed gushing with righteous eloquence and words of grace to the edification of the brotherhood.  Gone are the counsels of a mind which truly moved in God.  Ah! how often, for I must accuse myself, was it my lot to feel indignation against him, because, wholly desiring to depart and be with Christ, he did not prefer for our sakes to remain in the flesh!266    cf. Phil. i. 23, 24.  To whom for the future shall I commit the cares of the Churches?  Whom shall I take to share my troubles?  Whom to participate in my gladness?  O loneliness terrible and sad!  How am I not like to a pelican of the wilderness?267    cf. Ps. cii. 6.  Yet of a truth the members of the Church, united by his leadership as by one soul, and fitted together into close union of feeling and fellowship, are both preserved and shall ever be preserved by the bond of peace for spiritual communion.  God grants us the boon, that all the works of that blessed soul, which he did nobly in the churches of God, abide firm and immovable.  But the struggle is no slight one, lest, once more strifes and divisions arising over the choice of the bishop, all your work be upset by some quarrel.

Τῌ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙᾼ ΑΓΚΥΡΑΣ ΠΑΡΑΜΥΘΗΤΙΚΗ

[1] Πολὺν ἡμῖν χρόνον σιωπὴν ἐνεποίησεν ἡ ἔκπληξις τῆς βαρυτάτης ἀγγελίας τοῦ συμβάντος κακοῦ. Ἐπεὶ δὲ μικρόν πως τῆς ἀφασίας ἀνηνέγκαμεν ἥν, ὡς οἱ βροντῇ μεγάλῃ τὰς ἀκοὰς ἐκπλαγέντες, πεπόνθαμεν, ἀναγκαίως ἐπεστενάξαμεν τῷ συμβάντι καὶ μεταξὺ ὀδυρόμενοι τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ὑμῖν ἐξεπέμψαμεν, οὐ παρακλήσεως ἕνεκεν (τίς γὰρ ἂν καὶ λόγος εὑρεθείη τοσαύτης συμφορᾶς ἰατρός;), ἀλλὰ τὴν ὀδύνην τῆς καρδίας ἡμῶν, καθ' ὅσον δυνατόν, ἐκ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης ὑμῖν διασημαίνοντες. Νῦν ἐδεόμην τῶν Ἱερεμίου θρήνων καὶ εἰ δή τις ἄλλος τῶν μακαρίων ἀνδρῶν συμφορὰς μεγίστας ἐμπαθῶς ἀπωδύρατο. Πέπτωκεν ἀνήρ, στῦλος τῷ ὄντι καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας: μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτὸς μὲν πρὸς τὴν μακαρίαν ζωὴν ἀρθεὶς ἀφ' ἡμῶν οἴχεται, κίνδυνος δὲ οὐ μικρὸς μὴ πολλοὶ τῷ ἐρείσματι τούτῳ ὑπεξαιρεθέντι συγκαταπέσωσι καὶ τὰ σαθρά τινων φανερὰ γένηται. Κέκλεισται στόμα παρρησίας τε δικαίας καὶ λόγοις χάριτος ἐπ' οἰκοδομῇ τῆς ἀδελφότητος βρύον. Οἴχεται δὲ φρενὸς βουλεύματα τῆς ὄντως ἐν Θεῷ κινουμένης Ὢ ποσάκις μοι (κατηγορήσω γὰρ ἐμαυτοῦ) ἐπῆλθεν ἀγανακτῆσαι κατὰ τοῦ ἀνδρός, ὅτι, ὅλος γενόμενος τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τοῦ ἀναλῦσαι καὶ σὺν Χριστῷ εἶναι, τὸ ἐπιμεῖναι ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ οὐ προετίμησε δι' ἡμᾶς. Πρὸς τίνα λοιπὸν τὰς φροντίδας τῶν ἐκκλησιαστικῶν ὑπερθώμεθα; Τίνα κοινωνὸν τῶν λυπηρῶν λάβωμεν; Τίνα μερίτην τῆς εὐφροσύνης; Ὢ τῆς δεινῆς ὄντως καὶ σκυθρωπῆς ἐρημίας. Πῶς ἀκριβῶς ὡμοιώθημεν πελεκᾶνι ἐρημικῷ; Ἀλλὰ μὴν τά γε συναφθέντα μέλη τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, οἷον ὑπὸ ψυχῆς τινος, τῆς ἐκείνου προστασίας εἰς μίαν συμπάθειαν καὶ ἀκριβῆ κοινωνίαν συναρμοσθέντα, καὶ φυλάσσεται διὰ τοῦ συνδέσμου τῆς εἰρήνης πρὸς τὴν πνευματικὴν ἁρμολογίαν παγίως καὶ φυλαχθήσεται εἰς ἀεί, τοῦτο τοῦ Θεοῦ χαριζομένου, ἑδραῖα μένειν καὶ ἀμετακίνητα τῆς μακαρίας ἐκείνης ψυχῆς τὰ ἔργα, ὅσα ἐνήθλησε ταῖς Ἐκκλησίαις τοῦ Θεοῦ. Πλὴν ἀλλ' ὁ ἀγὼν οὐ μικρὸς μή τινες πάλιν ἔριδες καὶ διχοστασίαι, ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκλογὴν τοῦ μεταστάντος ἀναφυεῖσαι, πάντα ὁμοῦ τὸν κόπον ἐκ τῆς τυχούσης ἔριδος ἀνατρέψωσιν.