Ep. LXIV.

(In the year 374 Eusebius and other orthodox Bishops of the East were banished by Valens and their thrones filled with Arian intruders.)

When Your Reverence was passing through our country I was so ill as not to be able even to look out of my house.  And I was grieved not so much on account of the illness, though it brought about the fear of the worst, as by the inability to meet your holiness and goodness.  My longing to see your venerable face was like that which a man would naturally feel who needed healing of spiritual wounds, and expected to receive it from you.  But though at that time the effect of my sins was that I missed the meeting with you, it is now by your goodness possible for me to find a remedy for my trouble, for if you will deign to remember me in your acceptable prayers, this will be to me a store of every blessing from God, both in this my life and in the age to come.  For that such a man, such a combatant for the Faith of the Gospel, one who has endured such persecutions, and won for himself such confidence before the all-righteous God by his patience in tribulation—that such a man should deign to be my patron also in his prayers will gain for me, I am persuaded, as much strength as I should have gained through one of the holy martyrs.  Therefore let me entreat you to remember your Gregory without ceasing in all the matters in which I desire to be worthy of your remembrance.

[64] ΕΥΣΕΒΙΩΙ ΣΑΜΟΣΑΤΩΝ

Ὅτε παρῄει σου ἡ θεοσέβεια διὰ τῆς πατρίδος ἡμῶν, οὐδὲ τοῦ δωματίου προκύψαι οἷός τε ἤμην, ἐν ἐσχάτῃ ἀρρωστίᾳ διάγων. Ἐλύπει δέ με οὐ τοσοῦτον ἡ νόσος τὸν περὶ τῶν ἐσχάτων φόβον ἐπάγουσα, ἀλλ' ὅτι τῆς ἱερᾶς σου καὶ ἀγαθῆς συντυχίας ἀπεστερούμην, τοσαύτην ἔχων περὶ τὸ ἰδεῖν σου τὸ τίμιον πρόσωπον ἐπιθυμίαν, ὅσον εἰκὸς ἦν τὸν χρῄζοντα μὲν θεραπείας τῶν ψυχικῶν τραυμάτων, ταύτην δὲ παρὰ τῆς σῆς τελειότητος ἕξειν ἐλπίζοντα. Ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τῶν ἐμῶν γέγονεν ἔργον τὸ κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν ἐκεῖνον διαμαρτεῖν με τῆς σῆς συντυχίας, νῦν διὰ τῆς σῆς ἀγαθότητος ἔστι δυνατὸν γενέσθαι μοί τινα τῶν λυπηρῶν ἐπανόρθωσιν. Εἰ γὰρ καταξιώσειας κἀμοῦ μνήμην ποιεῖσθαι ἐν ταῖς εὐπροσδέκτοις σου προσευχαῖς πάσης ἔσται μοι τοῦτο τῆς παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ εὐλογίας ἐφόδιον, καὶ ἐν ταύτῃ μου τῇ ζωῇ καὶ ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τῷ μέλλοντι. Τὸ γὰρ ἄνδρα τοσοῦτον, οὕτως ἐναθλοῦντα τῇ πίστει τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου καὶ τηλικούτους διωγμοὺς ὑπομείναντα καὶ τοσαύτην ἑαυτῷ παρρησίαν ἐπὶ τοῦ δικαιοδότου Θεοῦ ἑτοιμάζοντα διὰ τῆς τῶν θλίψεων ὑπομονῆς τοῦτον καὶ ἡμῶν καταξιοῦν γενέσθαι προστάτην διὰ τῶν προσευχῶν, πέπεισμαι ὅτι τοσαύτην ἔχει τὴν δύναμιν, ὅση ἂν ἦν μοι καὶ εἰ παρά τινος τῶν ἁγίων ἐγίνετο μαρτύρων. Ὥστε παρακλήθητι ἀπαραλείπτως μεμνῆσθαι τοῦ σοῦ Γρηγορίου ἐν οἷς εὔχομαι εἶναί σου τῆς μνήμης ἐπάξιος.