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men of power, traversing land and sea. Here I am for now; as for what comes next, we do not know where and how the Lord will provide, not only for our affairs, but also for yours, and those of the archbishop and of any other of the contending brothers. Since, as you have written, there are some in Thessalonica, we must go about everywhere with letters and brothers; so Christ loves, so it is our duty to take thought. And may the Lord thus grant success to open a door for us under heaven; for nothing is impossible for him. But if someone goes away to help those in Thessalonica, we are eager for the things dear to God, and may he himself grant success; even if we are all imprisoned, he is able to raise up ministers from the stones. Therefore, let us not be downcast, but let us believe. I have dared to compose an encomium for the Theologian and some chapters against the iconoclasts, the one as a duty, being moved also by the brothers, the others as they stir up my mind; if there is anything good in them, it is by your prayers and those of the shepherd, but if anything is rotten, it is from my sins. Therefore, after copying them, keep them safely, when at a time of strength they are inspected by Abba John. The brothers greet you, I greet those with you and indeed the 4th, the 9th, and indeed you, my desired child Litoios. Grace be with you all. 178 {1To Tithoios, my child}1 Your letter is small, my child, but it has the power of great affliction; and I know that I grieved you, my son, yet not willingly, nor acting without sympathy, but so that you might know that you have a father, who, though a sinner, yet loves his children. For from my great love, which I have for you, so that you might be perfect and lacking in nothing, I struck, I grieved, I reproached, I made my indignation heavy, so that I might make you such as the truth seeks. And indeed by the grace of Christ I found you tested as in the fire of affliction and seen by me to be more precious than gold through the things you said in your defense, through your compunction, through your brevity of speech; for for one who is being rebuked to utter a few words of defense is a measure of great humility and virtue. Do you see, my child, how with the digging tool of rebuke I have unearthed your treasures of virtue, and brought things unknown into plain sight for your brothers, revealing you to be a different person? so that you also owe me thanks for the exaltation of your glory. You have turned my affliction, which you caused unwillingly, into great joy; you have greatly encouraged me in your warm friendship, as God is my witness; so that I do not regret having struck you (for I opened a spring of love), so that the apostolic law is not to be despised: 'convict,' he says, 'exhort, rebuke in season and out of season.' Thus, my desired child, that letter has turned out for the good in all respects; I know that you love me, as I also love you; I know that you live for me, as I also for you; I know that even your eyes, if it were possible to pluck them out, you would have given to me, as I also to you. Thanks be to God who has so provided. Hold to your ministry more perfectly, my desired child; may every sin be forgiven you, as also to all. But that I may show you also by an example the abundance of my love for you in the Lord, accept the encomium of our master the Theologian, which I, the unworthy one, dared to compose, having been moved more on your account and through you. Copy it out neatly, therefore, and pray that remission of sins may be sent down to me for those things in which I, wretched one, have erred and fallen short, both in the encomium and in every way always in my sinful life. But I exhort you more abundantly to prepare yourselves daily in the present persecution for Christ's sake, so that none of you, by God's good pleasure, may be put to shame. See, brother, how you exhort and remind one another in the struggles for piety. Greet my good Dometian; greet Euprepian, my fellow-prisoner and like-minded and fellow-sufferer; greet Theodoulos, my faithful child; greet Metrophanes, my desired son; greet mystically Kassianos and Neilos, who formerly grieved me, but are now my beloved children through your defense. Christ be with you; my love in

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ἄνδρας δυνάμεως, γῆν καὶ θάλατταν περιερχομένους. ὧδε τανῦν ἐγώ· πρὸς τὸ ἑξῆς οὐκ ἴσμεν ποῦ καὶ πῶς οἰκονομήσει ὁ Κύριος, οὐ μόνον τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ κατὰ σέ, τοῦ τε ἀρχιεπισκόπου καὶ οὗτινος ἄλλου τῶν ἐναθλούντων ἀδελφῶν. ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐν Θεσσαλονίκῃ τινές, ὡς γέγραφας, δεῖ ἡμᾶς πανταχοῦ περιιέναι γράμμασι καὶ ἀδελφοῖς· οὕτω φιλεῖ Χριστός, οὕτω χρέος ἡμῖν φροντίζειν. καὶ εἰ οὕτως εὐοδώσειεν Κύριος ἀνοῖξαι ἡμῖν θύραν ἐν τῇ ὑπ' οὐρανόν· οὐδὲν γὰρ αὐτῷ ἀδυνατεῖ. εἰ δὲ ἄπεισί τις βοηθήσων τοῖς ἐν Θεσσαλονίκῃ, ἡμεῖς προθυμούμεθα τὰ θεῷ φίλα καὶ αὐτὸς τὰ εὔοδα παρέχοι· κἂν πάντες φρουρισθῶμεν, δύναται ἐκ τῶν λίθων ἐγεῖραι διακονητάς. διὸ μὴ καταπίπτωμεν, ἀλλὰ πιστεύωμεν. ἐτόλμησα ποιῆσαι ἐγκώμιον εἰς τὸν Θεολόγον καὶ κεφάλαιά τινα κατὰ τῶν εἰκονομάχων, τὸ μὲν ὡς χρέος, κινούμενος καὶ παρὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν, τὰ δὲ ὡς ἐπισείοντά μου τὸν νοῦν· εἴ τι ἐν αὐτοῖς καλόν, ὑμῶν εὐχαῖς καὶ τοῦ ποιμένος, εἰ δέ τι σαπρόν, ἐξ ἐμῶν ἁμαρτιῶν. διὸ μεταγράψαντες ἔχετε ἀσφαλῶς, καιρῷ δυνάμεως ἐπισκεπτομένων παρὰ τοῦ ἀββᾶ Ἰωάννου. Προσαγορεύουσιν οἱ ἀδελφοί, ἀσπάζομαι τοὺς σὺν σοὶ καί γε τὸ ˉδ, τὸ ˉθ καί γε σέ, τέκνον μου ποθητὸν Λιτόιε. ἡ χάρις μετὰ πάντων ὑμῶν. 178 {1Τιθοΐῳ τέκνῳ}1 Μικρὰ ἡ ἐπιστολή σου, τέκνον, ἀλλὰ μεγάλης θλίψεως ἔχουσα δύναμιν· καὶ οἶδ' ὅτι ἐλύπησά σε, τὸν υἱόν μου, ἀλλ' οὐ βουλόμενος, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀσυμπαθῶς φερόμενος, ἵνα δὲ γνοίης ὅτι πατέρα ἔχεις, κἂν ἁμαρτωλόν, ὅμως φιλότεκνον. ἐκ γὰρ πολλῆς μου ἀγάπης, ἧς ἔχω περὶ σέ, πρὸς τὸ τέλειόν σε εἶναι καὶ ἐν μηδενὶ λειπόμενον, ἔπληξα, ἐλύπησα, ὠνείδισα, ἐβάρυνα τὴν ἀγανάκτησιν, ὅπως οἷον ζητεῖ ἡ ἀλήθεια ἀπεργάσοιμί σε. καί γε χάριτι Χριστοῦ εὗρον ὡς ἐν πυρὶ τῇ θλίψει δοκιμασθέντα καὶ χρυσίου τιμιώτερόν μοι ὀφθέντα δι' ὧν ἀπελογήσω, δι' ὧν κατηνύγης, δι' ὧν ἐβραχυλόγησας· τὸ γὰρ μικρὰς φωνὰς ἀφεῖναι ἀπολογίας τὸν ἐπιτιμούμενον μεγάλης ταπεινώσεως καὶ ἀρετῆς μέτρον. εἶδες πῶς σου ἀνεσκάλευσα τῷ ὀρυκτῆρι τῆς ἐπιτιμίας τοὺς τῆς ἀρετῆς θησαυρούς, τέκνον, καὶ ἀγνοουμένους εἰς προῦπτον ἤγαγον τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς σου, ἄλλον ἐξ ἄλλου σε φανερώσας; ὥστε καὶ χάριν ὀφείλεις μοι ὁμολογεῖν ἐπὶ τῇ ὑψώσει τῆς δόξης σου. ἔστρεψάς μου τὴν θλῖψιν, ἣν ἄκων ἐποίησας, εἰς χαρὰν μεγάλην, ἐκαρδίωσάς με μεῖζον πολὺ ἐν τῇ θερμῇ σου φιλίᾳ ὡς μάρτυς θεός· ὥστε οὐ μεταμεμέλημαι πλήξας (ἤνοιξα γὰρ πηγὴν ἀγάπης), ὥστε οὐκ εὐκαταφρόνητος ὁ ἀποστολικὸς νόμος· ἔλεγξον, φησίν, παρακάλεσον, ἐπιτίμησον εὐκαίρως ἀκαίρως. Οὕτω, τέκνον μου ποθητόν, εἰς καλὸν ἐν πᾶσι γέγονε τὸ γράμμα ἐκεῖνο· οἶδα ὅτι ἀγαπᾷς με, ἐπεὶ κἀγώ σε· οἶδα ὅτι δι' ἐμὲ ζῇς, ἐπεὶ κἀγὼ διὰ σέ· οἶδα ὅτι καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς σου, εἰ δυνατὸν ἐξορυχθῆναι, ἔδωκές μοι ἄν, ἐπεὶ κἀγώ σοι. χάρις τῷ θεῷ τῷ οὕτως οἰκονομήσαντι. ἔχου, τέκνον μου ποθητόν, τῆς διακονίας σου τελεώτερον· συγχωρηθείη σοι πᾶν ἁμάρτημα, ὡς καὶ τοῖς πᾶσιν. ἵνα δέ σοι δείξω καὶ ἐν ὑποδείγματι τὸ πλεονάζον τῆς πρὸς σέ μου ἀγάπης ἐν Κυρίῳ, δέξαι τὸ ἐγκώμιον τοῦ δεσπότου ἡμῶν τοῦ Θεολόγου, ὃ ἐπὶ σοῦ καὶ διὰ σοῦ πλέον κινηθεὶς ἐτόλμησα ὁ ἀνάξιος ποιῆσαι. μετάγραψον οὖν αὐτὸ καθαρίως καὶ εὔξασθε καταπεμφθῆναί μοι ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν ἐν οἷς καὶ ἐν τῷ ἐγκωμίῳ ἔσφαλα καὶ ἐνέλιπον ὁ τάλας καὶ ἐν παντὶ πάντοτε τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ μου βίῳ. περισσοτέρως δὲ παρακαλῶ παρασκευάσθαι ὑμᾶς καθ' ἑκάστην ἐν τῷ προκειμένῳ διωγμῷ ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ, ἵνα μηδεὶς ὑμῶν θεοῦ εὐδοκίᾳ καταισχυνθῇ. βλέπε, ἀδελφέ, πῶς παρακαλεῖτε καὶ ὑπομνηματίζετε ἀλλήλους ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας ἄθλοις. ἄσπασαι τὸν καλόν μου ∆ομετιανόν· ἄσπασαι Εὐπρεπιανὸν τὸν σύγκλειστον καὶ σύμψυχον καὶ συνταλαιπωρήτην μου· ἄσπασαι Θεόδουλον τὸ πιστόν μου τέκνον· ἄσπασαι Μητροφάνην τὸν ποθητόν μου υἱόν· ἄσπασαι μυστηρίως Κασιανὸν καὶ Νεῖλον, τοὺς πρὶν μὲν λυπήσαντας, ἄρτι δὲ διὰ σῆς ἀπολογίας φιλητούς μου παῖδας. Ὁ Χριστὸς μεθ' ὑμῶν· ἡ ἀγάπη μου ἐν