John Chrysostom, Letters

we are grieved, not receiving letters from your honor. If it be possible, at each stopping-place send us letters continually, so that we may learn both how far you have progressed on your journey, and if you have drawn near to those parts. For we are very anxious, and concerned; and we wish to learn these things each day. Knowing these things, therefore, my most honored lord, grant us this very great favor, both before you depart and after you have departed, by sending continuous letters, and making everything known to us, so that if there are successes, we may rejoice and be glad; but if there are hindrances, 52.687 by every means and with all zeal we may try to remove them. For we will not rest, doing this both by ourselves and through others, as may be possible, even if it should be necessary to send ten thousand times to Constantinople, so that great ease may be afforded you; not even this will we refuse. Knowing these things, therefore, provide us with what is from your side, your vigilance and your zeal. And if it be necessary for brethren to be sent, declare this to us also. And concerning the relics of the holy martyrs, be without anxiety; for I immediately sent my lord the most devout presbyter Terentius to my lord the most devout bishop Otreius of Arabissus. For he has both undisputed ones, and many, and within a few days we will send these to you in Phoenicia. Let nothing, therefore, be lacking from your honor's part. For you see with how much eagerness the things on our part have been fulfilled. Hasten, so that before winter you may be able to complete the roofless churches. 127. To Polybius. Another might have lamented and bewailed the unbearable frost here, the great desolation of the place, the most grievous illness—for indeed from this place we have fallen into an illness; but I, leaving these things aside, lament our separation, which is more grievous to me than desolation and sickness and winter. And now the winter has made it more grievous than before. For the only consolation I had for this most bitter separation, to converse with you through letters, this too it has come and taken away from us, having closed the roads with the great fall of snow, neither allowing anyone from outside to arrive and be with us, nor anyone from here to set out and journey to you. And now the fear of the Isaurians, no less, but indeed much more, does this very same thing, intensifying the desolation, driving everyone out, putting them to flight, making them migrants. For no one endures to remain at home any longer, but each one, leaving his own, flees away. And the cities are now walls and roofs, but the ravines and the glens are cities. For just as wild beasts, leopards and lions, consider the desert safer for themselves than inhabited cities, so too the people inhabiting Armenia, and each day we are forced to jump from place to place, living the life of certain wagon-dwellers and Nomads and not daring to stand anywhere; so full of disturbances and confusion are all things here. And some they slaughter by their presence, they burn, they make slaves instead of free; others by rumor they make runaways and stateless, or rather, they even destroy them. For as many young men as were often forced to jump suddenly from their house in the middle of the night and in a frost that congealed everything, as if some smoke of the rumor of fear 52.688 were driving them, they had no need of an Isaurian sword to end their life, but having been frozen in the snow, so they expired, and the occasion of their flight from death became for them the occasion of a most grievous death; in these things are our affairs. And we have said these things, not to grieve you—for I know well that what has been said will affect you—but so that we might state the reason for this long silence, and why we have written so late and so tardily. For so completely have all deserted us, that we could not even find anyone arriving there, but were forced to rouse the presbyter who is with us from here, and send him to your wonderfulness. Receive him, therefore, as is fitting for you, and quickly send him back to us bearing good news

ἀλγῶμεν, μὴ δεχόμενοι γράμματα τῆς σῆς τιμιότητος, εἰ οἷόν τε ᾖ, καθ' ἑκάστην μονὴν πέμπε ἡμῖν συνεχῶς ἐπιστολὰς, ἵνα μανθάνωμεν πόσον τε προέκοψας τῆς ὁδοῦ, καὶ εἰ πλησίον γέγονας τῶν μερῶν ἐκείνων. Πάνυ γὰρ μεριμνῶμεν, καὶ φροντίζομεν· καὶ βουλόμεθα ταῦτα καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν μανθάνειν. Ταῦτ' οὖν εἰδὼς, κύριέ μου τιμιώτατε, χάρισαι ταύτην ἡμῖν μεγίστην τὴν χάριν, καὶ πρὶν ἢ ἀπελθεῖν, καὶ ἐπειδὰν ἀπέλθῃς, συνεχεῖς πέμπων ἐπιστολὰς, καὶ πάντα ἡμῖν δηλῶν, ἵνα ἐὰν μὲν κατορθώματα ᾖ, χαίρωμεν, καὶ εὐφραινώμεθα· ἂν δὲ κωλύματα, 52.687 παντὶ τρόπῳ, καὶ πάσῃ σπουδῇ πειρώμεθα αὐτὰ ἀνελεῖν. Οὐ γὰρ ἡσυχάσομεν καὶ δι' ἑαυτῶν, καὶ δι' ἑτέρων, ὧν ἂν οἷόν τε ᾖ, τοῦτο ποιοῦντες, κἂν μυριάκις καὶ εἰς τὴν Κωνσταντινούπολιν ἀποστεῖλαι δέῃ, ὥστε πολλήν σοι γενέσθαι τὴν εὐκολίαν, οὐδὲ τοῦτο παραιτησόμεθα. Ταῦτ' οὖν εἰδὼς, τὰ παρὰ σαυτοῦ πάρεχε ἡμῖν, τὴν ἀγρυπνίαν, καὶ τὴν σπουδήν. Κἂν ἀδελφοὺς δεήσῃ ἀποσταλῆναι, καὶ τοῦτο δήλωσον ἡμῖν. Καὶ τῶν λειψάνων δὲ ἕνεκεν τῶν ἁγίων μαρτύρων ἀμέριμνος ἔσο· καὶ γὰρ εὐθέως ἀπέστειλα τὸν κύριόν μου τὸν εὐλαβέστατον πρεσβύτερον τὸν Τερέντιον πρὸς τὸν κύριόν μου τὸν εὐλαβέστατον ἐπίσκοπον Ὀτρήϊον τὸν Ἀραβισσοῦ. Αὐτὸς γὰρ ἔχει καὶ ἀναμφισβήτητα, καὶ πολλὰ, καὶ εἴσω ὀλίγων ἡμερῶν ἀποστελοῦμέν σοι ταῦτα εἰς τὴν Φοινίκην. Μηδὲν τοίνυν ἐλλιμπανέσθω τῶν παρὰ τῆς σῆς τιμιότητος. Τὰ γὰρ παρ' ἡμῶν ὁρᾷς μεθ' ὅσης πεπλήρωται τῆς προθυμίας. Σπεῦσον, ἵνα πρὸ τοῦ χειμῶνος δυνηθῇς τὰς ἀστέγους ἐκκλησίας ἀπαρτίσαι. ΡΚΖʹ. Πολυβίῳ. Ἄλλος μὲν ἄν τις τὸν ἀφόρητον κρυμὸν τὸν ἐνταῦθα, τὴν πολλὴν ἐρημίαν τοῦ χωρίου, τὴν χαλεπωτάτην ἀῤῥωστίαν καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἀῤῥωστίᾳ ἐντεῦθεν περιπεπτώκαμεν ἀπωδύρατο ἂν, καὶ ἐθρήνησεν· ἐγὼ δὲ ταῦτα ἀφεὶς, τὸν χωρισμὸν ἀποδύρομαι τὸν ὑμέτερον, ὃ καὶ ἐρημίας καὶ νόσου καὶ χειμῶνος ἐμοὶ βαρύτερον. Καὶ νῦν αὐτὸ χαλεπώτερον ἢ πρότερον ἐποίησεν ὁ χειμών. Καὶ γὰρ ἣν μόνην εἶχον παραμυθίαν τοῦ πικροτάτου τούτου χωρισμοῦ, τὸ διὰ γραμμάτων ὑμῖν ὁμιλεῖν, καὶ ταύτην ἐπελθὼν ἡμᾶς ἀφείλετο, τὰς ὁδοὺς ἀποκλείσας τῇ πολλῇ τῆς χιόνος φορᾷ, καὶ οὔτε ἔξωθεν παραγενέσθαι καὶ συγγενέσθαι ἡμῖν, οὔτε ἐντεῦθεν ἀναστῆναι καὶ ἀποδημῆσαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἀφείς. Καὶ νῦν δὲ οὐκ ἔλαττον τῶν Ἰσαύρων ὁ φόβος, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλῷ πλέον τὸ αὐτὸ δὴ τοῦτο ποιεῖ, τὴν ἐρημίαν ἐπιτείνων, πάντας ἐλαύνων, φυγαδεύων, μετανάστας ποιῶν. Οὐδεὶς γὰρ οἴκοι λοιπὸν μένειν ἀνέχεται, ἀλλ' ἕκαστος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ καταλιπὼν ἀποπηδᾷ. Καὶ αἱ μὲν πόλεις εἰσὶ λοιπὸν τοῖχοι καὶ ὄροφοι, αἱ δὲ φάραγγες καὶ αἱ νάπαι πόλεις. Καθάπερ γὰρ τὰ ἄγρια τῶν θηρίων, παρδάλεις καὶ λέοντες, τὴν ἔρημον τῶν οἰκουμένων πόλεων ἀσφαλεστέραν αὐτοῖς εἶναι νομίζει· οὕτω δὴ καὶ οἱ τὴν Ἀρμενίαν οἰκοῦντες ἄνθρωποι, καὶ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν τόπους ἐκ τόπων ἀναγκαζόμεθα μεταπηδᾷν, Ἁμαξοβίων καὶ Νομάδων τινῶν βίον ζῶντες καὶ οὐδαμοῦ στῆναι θαῤῥοῦντες· οὕτω πάντα τὰ ἐνταῦθα θορύβων γέμει καὶ ταραχῆς. Καὶ τοὺς μὲν τῇ παρουσίᾳ σφάττουσι, καίουσι, δούλους ἀντ' ἐλευθέρων ποιοῦσι· τοὺς δὲ τῇ φήμῃ δραπέτας ἐργάζονται καὶ ἀπόλιδας, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ἀναιροῦσιν. Ὅσοι γὰρ νέοι κομιδῆ ἐν μέσῃ νυκτὶ πολλάκις καὶ κρυμῷ πάντα πηγνύντι ἀθρόον τῆς οἰκίας ἐκπηδῆσαι ἠναγκάσθησαν, ὥσπερ τινὸς καπνοῦ τοῦ φόβου τῆς 52.688 φήμης αὐτοὺς ἐλαύνοντος, οὐκ ἐδεήθησαν μαχαίρας Ἰσαυρικῆς εἰς τὸ καταλῦσαι τὸν βίον, ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ χιόνι παγέντες, οὕτως ἀπέπνευσαν, καὶ γέγονεν αὐτοῖς τῆς τοῦ θανάτου φυγῆς ἡ πρόφασις θανάτου πρόφασις χαλεπωτάτου· ἐν τούτοις τὰ ἡμέτερα. Καὶ ταῦτα εἰρήκαμεν, οὐχ ἵνα σε λυπήσωμεν εὖ γὰρ οἶδα ὅτι καθάψεταί σου τὰ εἰρημένα, ἀλλ' ἵνα τὴν αἰτίαν εἴπωμεν τῆς μακρᾶς ταύτης σιγῆς, καὶ τί δήποτε ὀψὲ καὶ βραδέως ἐπεστάλκαμεν. Οὕτω γὰρ πάντες ἡμᾶς ἀπέλιπον, ὡς μηδὲ εὑρεῖν τινα τὸν ἐκεῖσε ἀφικνούμενον, ἀλλ' ἀναγκασθῆναι τὸν συνόντα ἡμῖν πρεσβύτερον ἀναστῆσαι ἐντεῦθεν, καὶ πέμψαι πρὸς τὴν ὑμετέραν θαυμασιότητα. ∆εξάμενος τοίνυν αὐτὸν ὥς σοι πρέπον, ταχέως ἡμῖν ἔκπεμψον εὐαγγελιζόμενον