John Chrysostom, Letters

to see you. This indeed is what we also are experiencing now, seeking with much eagerness 52.657 the presence of both those who have seen us and those who have not seen us. But since this is not presently possible—for the length of the road, and the season of the year, and the fear of robbers, and the fact that it is not easy for us, even apart from these things, to move from home and make long journeys, prevent it—we have come to a second-best course, both paying you the greeting that is owed, and before this exhorting you, and asking as a very great favor, that you continually remember us in your prayers, and fall before the man-loving God with much nobility and tears, on behalf of our lowliness. For you who have escaped the Euripus of worldly affairs, and have been delivered from the smoke and the storm of the evils in our midst, and, as into some fair and waveless harbor, have guided your own souls to the anchorage of this good philosophy, and who make the nights days with sacred all-night vigils, and see more clearly in them than others do in the days, would be right to impart to us an alliance from your prayers. For it is possible, even though we are situated at so great a distance, for us to benefit from these things, and there is no place, nor time, that can cut off such assistance. Be our allies, therefore, and extend a hand through your prayers. For this is especially the greatest form of love. And along with your prayers, do not hesitate to inform us about your health, so that from this also we may receive the greatest comfort, delighting in your love, and imagining the absent as present; for genuine love is able to sketch such images. And even if we should happen to be in a more difficult wilderness than this, we will reap much encouragement from this. 4. To Pentadia the Deaconess. As for your love, which you have for us, I knew it even before, having learned it from the facts themselves; but I have learned it more clearly now from what you have written to us. And for this reason especially we admire you, not only for writing, but also for reporting to us all that has happened. For this is the mark of one who is both confident in us and concerned for our affairs. For these reasons we leap, we rejoice, we are glad, having the greatest encouragement, even while sitting in so great a wilderness: your courage, your steadfastness, your unswerving judgment, your great understanding, your freedom of speech, your lofty boldness, through which you put your adversaries to shame, and dealt the devil a timely blow, and anointed those who contend for the truth, just as a noble champion in war, having set up a brilliant trophy and won a splendid victory, you also filled us with such delight as to think we are neither in a foreign nor a strange land, nor in a wilderness, but are present there, and are with you, and are delighting in the virtue of your soul. Rejoice, therefore, and be glad, for having won such a victory, and for so easily muzzling such beasts, and stopping up their shameless 52.658 tongues, and sewing up their raging mouths. For such is the truth with which you contended, and for which you were often slain; in a few words it prevails over slanderers; just as falsehood, then, even if it clothes itself in ten thousand channels of arguments, leaks away and collapses easily, and is weaker than a spider's web. Rejoice, therefore, and be glad—for I will not cease repeating these words—be strong, and be courageous, and laugh at every plot brought against you by them. For the more fiercely they rage, the deeper the wounds they inflict upon themselves, injuring you not in the least, just as waves do not injure the rock, but breaking themselves up, and making themselves weaker, and heaping up excessive punishments upon themselves. Therefore, fear none of the threats, even if they gnash their teeth, even if they are drunk with great wrath, even if they look murderously, having fallen into the fierceness of wild beasts through wickedness. For He who to this day has snatched you from their various and

ὑμῶν ἰδεῖν. Ὃ δὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς πάσχομεν νῦν, τῶν τε ἑωρακότων ἡμᾶς, τῶν τε οὐχ ἑωρακότων μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς σπουδῆς ἐπιζητοῦντες 52.657 τὴν παρουσίαν. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τοῦτο τέως οὐκ ἔνι κωλύει γὰρ καὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ τὸ μῆκος, καὶ ἡ τοῦ ἔτους ὥρα, καὶ ὁ τῶν λῃστῶν φόβος, καὶ τὸ μὴ ῥᾴδιον ἡμῖν εἶναι καὶ τούτων χωρὶς κινεῖσθαι οἴκοθεν, καὶ μακρὰς ἀποδημίας ἀποδημεῖν, ἐπὶ τὸν δεύτερον ἤλθομεν πλοῦν, τήν τε ὀφειλομένην ἀποδιδόντες ὑμῖν πρόσρησιν, καὶ πρὸ ταύτης παρακαλοῦντες, καὶ ἐν μέρει μεγίστης αἰτοῦντες χάριτος, τὸ διηνεκῶς ἡμῶν εὐχομένους μεμνῆσθαι, καὶ τῷ φιλανθρώπῳ Θεῷ προσπίπτειν μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς εὐγενείας, καὶ τῶν δακρύων, ὑπὲρ τῆς ταπεινώσεως τῆς ἡμετέρας. Οἱ γὰρ τὸν εὔριπον τῶν βιωτικῶν διαφυγόντες πραγμάτων, καὶ τοῦ καπνοῦ καὶ τῆς ζάλης τῶν ἐν τῷ μέσῳ κακῶν ἀπαλλαγέντες, καὶ, καθάπερ εἰς λιμένα τινὰ εὔδιον καὶ ἀκύμαντον, τῆς καλῆς ταύτης φιλοσοφίας ὅρμον τὰς ἑαυτῶν ὁδηγήσαντες ψυχὰς, καὶ τὰς νύκτας ταῖς ἱεραῖς παννυχίσιν ἡμέρας ἐργαζόμενοι, καὶ φανερώτερον ἐν ταύταις ὁρῶντες, ἢ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἕτεροι, δίκαιοι ἂν εἴητε ἡμῖν ἀπὸ τῶν εὐχῶν ὑμῶν μεταδοῦναι συμμαχίας. ∆υνατὸν γὰρ καὶ ἐκ τοσούτου καθημένους διαστήματος, ἀπολαύειν ἡμᾶς τούτων, καὶ τόπος οὐδείς ἐστιν, οὐδὲ χρόνος, ὁ τὴν τοιαύτην δυνάμενος διακόψαι βοήθειαν. Συμμαχήσατε τοίνυν ἡμῖν, καὶ χεῖρα ὀρέξατε διὰ τῶν εὐχῶν τῶν ὑμετέρων. Τοῦτο γὰρ μάλιστα μέγιστον ἀγάπης εἶδός ἐστι. Καὶ μετὰ τῶν εὐχῶν τῶν ὑμετέρων, καὶ περὶ τῆς ὑγείας τῆς ὑμετέρας δηλοῦν ἡμῖν μὴ κατοκνεῖτε, ἵνα καὶ ἐντεῦθεν μεγίστην δεχώμεθα τὴν παραμυθίαν, ἐντρυφῶντες ὑμῶν τῇ ἀγάπῃ, καὶ ὡς παρόντας τοὺς ἀπόντας φανταζόμενοι· δύναται γὰρ καὶ εἰκόνας τοιαύτας ὑπογράψαι τὸ γνησίως φιλεῖν. Κἂν ἐν χαλεπωτέρᾳ ταύτης τύχωμεν ὄντες ἐρημίᾳ, πολλὴν ἐντεῦθεν καρπωσόμεθα τὴν παράκλησιν. ∆ʹ. Πενταδίᾳ διακόνῳ. Ἐγώ σου τὴν ἀγάπην, ἣν περὶ ἡμᾶς ἔχεις, ᾔδειν μὲν καὶ ἕμπροσθεν, δι' αὐτῶν μαθὼν τῶν πραγμάτων· ἔμαθον δὲ σαφέστερον νῦν ἐξ ὧν ἐπέσταλκας ἡμῖν. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μάλιστά σε θαυμάζομεν, οὐ διὰ τὸ γράψαι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τὸ ἀπαγγεῖλαι ἡμῖν πάντα τὰ γεγενημένα. Τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ θαῤῥούσης ἡμῖν καὶ μεριμνώσης τὰ ἡμέτερα. ∆ιὰ ταῦτα σκιρτῶμεν, χαίρομεν, εὐφραινόμεθα, μεγίστην παράκλησιν, καὶ ἐν ἐρημίᾳ τοσαύτῃ καθήμενοι, τὴν ἀνδρείαν ἔχομεν τὴν σὴν, τὴν ἔνστασιν, τὴν ἀπερίτρεπτον γνώμην, τὴν σύνεσιν τὴν πολλὴν, τὴν ἐλευθεροστομίαν, τὴν παῤῥησίαν τὴν ὑψηλὴν, δι' ἧς κατῄσχυνας μὲν τοὺς ὑπεναντίους, καιρίαν δὲ δέδωκας τῷ διαβόλῳ πληγὴν, ἤλειψας δὲ τοὺς ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀληθείας ἀγωνιζομένους, καθάπερ ἀριστεὺς γενναῖος ἐν πολέμῳ τρόπαιον στήσασα λαμπρὸν, καὶ νίκην ἀραμένη φαιδρὰν, καὶ ἡμᾶς δὲ τοσαύτης ἐνέπλησας ἡδονῆς, ὡς νομίζειν μήτε ἐν ἀλλοτρίᾳ εἶναι, μήτε ἐν ξένῃ γῇ, μήτε ἐν ἐρημίᾳ, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖσε παρεῖναι, καὶ μεθ' ὑμῶν εἶναι, καὶ ἐντρυφᾷν σου τῇ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρετῇ. Χαῖρε τοίνυν καὶ εὐφραίνου τοιαύτην ἀραμένη νίκην, καὶ τοιούτους εὐκόλως ἐπιστομίσασα θῆρας, καὶ τὰς ἀναισχύντους 52.658 αὐτῶν ἐμφράξασα γλώττας, καὶ λυσσῶντα ἀποῤῥάψασα στόματα. Τοιοῦτον γὰρ ἡ ἀλήθεια μεθ' ἧς ἠγωνίσω, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἧς ἐσφάγης πολλάκις· ἐν βραχέσι ῥήμασι κρατεῖ τῶν συκοφαντούντων· ὥσπερ οὖν τὸ ψεῦδος κἂν μυρίους περιβάληται λόγων διαύλους, διαῤῥεῖ καὶ καταπίπτει ῥᾳδίως, καὶ ἀράχνης ἐστὶν ἀδρανέστερον. Χαῖρε τοίνυν καὶ εὐφραίνου οὐ γὰρ παύσομαι συνεχῶς ταῦτα λέγων τὰ ῥήματα, ἀνδρίζου, καὶ κραταιοῦ, καὶ καταγέλα πάσης ἐπαγομένης σοι παρ' αὐτῶν ἐπιβουλῆς. Ὅσῳ γὰρ ἂν χαλεπώτερον ἀγριαίνωσι, τοσούτῳ βαθυτέρας καθ' ἑαυτῶν τὰς πληγὰς ἐπιφέρουσι, σὲ μὲν οὐδὲ μικρὸν ἀδικοῦντες, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τὴν πέτραν τὰ κύματα, ἑαυτοὺς δὲ διαλύοντες, καὶ ἀσθενεστέρους ποιοῦντες, καὶ ὑπερβαλλούσας καθ' ἑαυτῶν σωρεύοντες τὰς τιμωρίας. Μηδὲν τοίνυν δέδιθι τῶν ἀπειλουμένων, κἂν τοὺς ὀδόντας βρύχωσι, κἂν θυμῷ πολλῷ μεθύωσι, κἂν φόνιον βλέπωσιν, εἰς ἀγριότητα θηρίων ὑπὸ τῆς πονηρίας ἐκπεσόντες. Ὁ γὰρ μέχρι σήμερον ἐξαρπάσας σε τῶν ποικίλων αὐτῶν καὶ