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beloved, to write back to you. I rejoice, therefore, that you are well, but I am not pleased that you are isolated, even if involuntarily, because of the brother Neilos being detained. Make haste, therefore, I beseech you, to be with one of the brothers, and with one who is prudent, if possible; for you know that the enemy is everywhere, and there is need of spiritual safety. But as for Abba Leontios, why did it ever occur to you to go away to him? If you had known him to be protected from heresy, it would have been well; for I also was eager for this, just as I had instructed the blessed Theodoulos. But since he has been led away with the heretics through signature and communion, for which reason that blessed man also departed from him, for you to go to him is nothing other than to become like him and to lose everything, both your obedience and your confession of Christ. Stand fast, my child, in the power of the truth, not moving from place to place as it happens without necessity. By all means, the God who said "I will never leave you nor forsake you" will not overlook you as you walk in a true heart, both protecting and nourishing and providing in every way; except that it is a time of affliction and there is need of endurance. Blessed are those who are persecuted for Christ's sake; let this gladden you and lighten your pains. But your brother according to the flesh, being flesh, wants you to become flesh. Why do you write such things to me? See your spiritual brothers contending and hasten to emulate them, so that you may become a crown-bearer. May God, my child, guard you, as you pray for me, the sinner. 264 {1To Eustratios the chief physician}1 I knew the honorableness of your love even before, when I was deemed worthy of your reverence, but not yet how great and of what sort it was; but through our spiritual son Adrianos we have heard so many good things of you, and the report so disposed us to love (especially that you remain superior to the heresy, being preserved as unburnt in the midst of the flame of the heretical communion), that we have thanked our good God exceedingly and seemed to have come into your honorable presence and to have embraced you from the heart. Thanks, therefore, to the Lord, who has chosen ones even in Byzantium in the present difficult time, in which Christ is persecuted with his mother and servants through the assault and dishonor of their holy icons; for indeed the insult to the icon is clearly the dishonor of the one depicted, even if the Christ-persecutors do not understand. Will not he who insults the type of the life-giving cross insult the life-giving cross? Most certainly. So it is also in the case of the type, that is, the icon of Christ. But for them, may there be a turning back and a cessation of their impiety; and may the Lord still preserve you, with the lady your wife, who is also of our blood, as the saying goes, unharmed and uninjured in all things, granting you many rewards also for your good deeds and hospitality to the brother and letter-carrier from the beginning until now, as he reports your many good deeds, but also on account of the revenues of which you were deprived, having fled the company of the arch-impious one. May you have a heavenly treasure of spiritual graces. 265 {1To Joseph, brother and archbishop}1 I have been deemed worthy even now to learn of your health and holiness not only from your esteemed letter, but also from the living voice of the good Dionysios, who has nourished my humble soul, explaining each of the things he perceived with his eyes there, the foreign land, the sojourning, the quiet, the mountain, the water, or rather, leaving these things aside, I will speak of that by which he is more well-known, God, whom you worship, and whom you serve and for whose sake you have your wilderness and your suffering, being orphaned in person, but not in heart, from us the humble, and indeed also from the great church of God under your hand. These things are indeed pitiable (for how could they not be?), being beloved with love by both and being divided as by the cut of a sword; yet you yourself, most longed-for and most holy one, have great hopes in God, and your church with us has many boasts in you, who for the sake of truth have both suffered such things before and are now suffering with Christ; in which may the divine grace bring your good contest to completion for the reward of the crown of

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ἠγαπημένον, ἀντεπιστεῖλαί σοι. χαίρω οὖν ὅτι ὑγιαίνεις, εἰς δὲ τὸ μεμονῶσθαί σε οὐχ ἡδέως ἔχω, κἂν ἀκουσίως, ἐκ τοῦ τὸν ἀδελφὸν Νεῖλον κρατηθῆναι. σπούδασον οὖν, παρακαλῶ, συνεῖναι ἑνὶ τῶν ἀδελφῶν, καὶ τούτῳ, εἰ οἷόν τε, συνετῷ· οἶδας γὰρ ὅτι παντὶ ὁ ἐχθρός, καὶ χρεία ἀσφαλείας ψυχικῆς. εἰς δὲ τὸν ἀββᾶν Λεόντιον τί σοι ὅλως ἐπῆλθεν ἀπιέναι; εἰ μὲν ἔγνως πεφυλαγμένον αὐτὸν τῆς αἱρέσεως, εὖ ἂν εἶχεν· τοῦτο γὰρ κἀγὼ προεθυμούμην, καθὰ καὶ προενετειλάμην τῷ μακαρίῳ Θεοδούλῳ. ἐπειδὴ δὲ συναπήχθη τοῖς αἱρετικοῖς δι' ὑπογραφῆς καὶ κοινωνίας, δι' ἣν καὶ ἀπέστη ἀπ' αὐτοῦ ὁ μακάριος ἐκεῖνος, οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶ τὸ ἀπελθεῖν σε πρὸς αὐτὸν ἢ τὸ γενέσθαι ὅμοιον αὐτῷ καὶ ἀπολέσαι τὰ πάντα, καὶ τὴν ὑποταγὴν καὶ τὴν Χριστοῦ ὁμολογίαν. στῆθι, τέκνον μου, ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἀληθείας, τόπον ἐκ τόπου μὴ ὡς ἔτυχεν μετερχόμενος ἄνευ ἀνάγκης. πάντως δὲ ὁ εἰπὼν οὐ μή σε ἀνῶ οὐδ' οὐ μή σε ἐγκαταλίπω θεὸς οὐ παρόψεταί σε ἐν ἀληθινῇ καρδίᾳ πορευόμενον καὶ σκέπων καὶ τρέφων καὶ παντοίως προνοούμενος· πλὴν ὅτι θλίψεως καιρὸς καὶ ὑπομονῆς χρεία. μακάριοι οἱ δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν Χριστοῦ· τοῦτο εὐφραινέτω σε καὶ τὰ ἐπώδυνα κουφιζέτω. ὁ δὲ κατὰ σάρκα σου ἀδελφός, σὰρξ ὤν, σάρκα σε θέλει γενέσθαι. Τί μοι τοιαῦτα γράφεις; ἴδε τοὺς κατὰ πνεῦμα ἀδελφούς σου ἐναθλοῦντας κἀκείνους ζηλοῦν ἐπείγου, ἵνα γίνῃ στεφανίτης. ὁ θεός σε, τέκνον μου, περιφυλάξειεν, εὐχόμενον περὶ ἐμοῦ τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ. 264 {1Εὐστρατίῳ ἀρχιητρῷ}1 Ἐγίνωσκον μὲν τὴν τιμιότητα τῆς ἀγάπης σου καὶ πρότερον, ὁπότε τῆς προσκυνήσεώς σου ἠξιώθην, οὔπω δὲ τὸ πόση καὶ ἡλίκη· διὰ δὲ τοῦ πνευματικοῦ ἡμῶν υἱοῦ Ἀδριανοῦ τοσαῦτά σου καλὰ ἠκουτίσθημεν καὶ οὕτω διέθετο ἡμᾶς ἡ ἀπαγγελία εἰς ἀγάπησιν (μάλιστα ὅτι καὶ τῆς αἱρέσεως μένοις ἀνώτερος, διαφυλαττόμενος ὡς ἐν μέσῳ φλογὸς ἄφλεκτος τῆς αἱρετικῆς κοινωνίας), ὥστε εὐχαριστῆσαι τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἡμῶν θεὸν λίαν καὶ δόξαι εἰς πρόσωπόν σου τίμιον ἐλθεῖν καὶ περιπτύξασθαί σε ἀπὸ καρδίας. χάρις οὖν τῷ Κυρίῳ, τῷ ἔχοντι ἐκλεκτοὺς καὶ ἐν Βυζαντίδι ἐν τῷ παρόντι καιρῷ χαλεπῷ, ἐφ' ᾧ Χριστὸς διώκεται σὺν μητρὶ καὶ θεράπουσι διὰ τῆς τῶν ἁγίων αὐτῶν εἰκόνων καταδρομῆς καὶ ἀτιμίας· καὶ γὰρ ἡ τῆς εἰκόνος ὕβρις τοῦ εἰκονιζομένου ἐστὶν ἀριδήλως ἀτιμία, κἂν οὐ συνιῶσιν οἱ χριστοδιῶκται. ἆρα οὐχ ὁ τὸν τύπον τοῦ ζωοποιοῦ σταυροῦ ὑβρίζων τὸν ζωοποιὸν σταυρὸν ὑβριεῖται; καὶ μάλα. οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ τύπου, ἤτοι τῆς εἰκόνος Χριστοῦ. Ἀλλ' ἐκείνοις μὲν εἴη ἐπιστροφὴ καὶ παῦλα τῆς ἀσεβείας· σὲ δὲ Κύριος ἔτι διαφυλάξειεν μετὰ τῆς κυρίας τῆς ὁμοζύγου, τῆς καὶ ἀφ' αἵματος ἡμῶν, ὡς ὁ λόγος, ἀσινῆ καὶ ἀβλαβῆ ἐν πᾶσι, παρέχων σοι καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ καὶ γραμματηφόρου ἐξ ἀρχῆς μέχρι τοῦ δεῦρο καλοποιΐας καὶ ξενοδοχίας πολλοὺς τοὺς μισθούς, πολλά σου τὰ ἀγαθὰ ἐξαγγέλλοντος, οὐ μὴ ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐστερήθης προσόδων φυγὰς τὴν τοῦ ἀσεβάρχου συνεστίασιν. εἴη σοι θησαυρὸς οὐράνιος τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρίτων. 265 {1Ἰωσὴφ ἀδελφῷ καὶ ἀρχιεπισκόπῳ}1 Ἠξίωμαι καὶ τανῦν μαθεῖν σου τὰ τῆς ὑγιείας καὶ ὁσιώσεως οὐ μόνον ἀπὸ τιμίου γράμματος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπὸ ζώσης φωνῆς τοῦ καλοῦ ∆ιονυσίου, ὃς ἔθρεψέν μου τὴν ταπεινὴν ψυχήν, ἕκαστα ἐξηγησάμενος, ἃ ὑπέλαβεν ὀφθαλμοῖς τῶν αὐτόθι, τὴν ξενίαν, τὴν παροικίαν, τὴν ἡσυχίαν, τὸ ὄρος, τὸ ὕδωρ, μᾶλλον δέ, παρεὶς ταῦτα, ἐξ ὧν ἐστι γνωριμώτερον λέξω, τὸν θεόν, ᾧ λατρεύεις, καὶ ὃν θεραπεύεις καὶ ὑπὲρ οὗ σοι ἡ ἐρημία καὶ ἡ τληπαθεία, ἀπορφανισθέντι προσώπῳ, οὐ καρδίᾳ, ἡμῶν τε τῶν ταπεινῶν, ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ τῆς ὑπὸ χεῖρα μεγάλης τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησίας. ἐλεεινὰ μὲν οὖν ταῦτα (πῶς γὰρ οὔ;), ἀγαπήσει ἠγαπημένος ὑπ' ἀμφοτέρων καὶ οἷα τομῇ μαχαίρας διῃρημένος· ὅμως ἔχεις μὲν αὐτός, ποθεινότατε καὶ ἁγιώτατε, εἰς θεὸν μεγάλας τὰς ἐλπίδας, ἔχει δέ σου ἡ ἐκκλησία σὺν ἡμῖν πολλὰ τὰ αὐχήματα εἰς σέ, τὸν δι' ἀλήθειαν καὶ προπαθόντα τοιαῦτα καὶ νῦν μετὰ Χριστοῦ πάσχοντα· ἐν οἷς τελειώσειέν σου ἡ θεία χάρις τὸν καλὸν ἀγῶνα εἰς ἄμειψιν τοῦ στεφάνου τῆς