Letter CLXXVI.845    Placed in 374.

To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium.846    An invitation to feast of St. Eupsychius, with a request to arrive three days before the actual day of the festival, which was observed on the 7th of September.  (cf. Letter c. and note, and the invitation to the Pontic bishops in cclii.)

God grant that when this letter is put into your hands, it may find you in good health, quite at leisure, and as you would wish to be.  For then it will not be in vain that I send you this invitation to be present at our city, to add greater dignity to the annual festival which it is the custom of our Church to hold in honour of the martyrs.847    i.e. Damas and Eupsychius.  For be sure my most honoured and dear friend, that our people here, though they have had experience of many, desire no one’s presence so eagerly as they do yours; so affectionate an impression has your short intercourse with them left behind.  So, then, that the Lord may be glorified, the people delighted, the martyrs honoured, and that I in my old age may receive the attention due to me from my true son, do not refuse to travel to me with all speed.  I will beg you too to anticipate the day of assembly, that so we may converse at leisure and may comfort one another by the interchange of spiritual gifts.  The day is the fifth of September.848    So the date stands in eight mss.  However it arose, 5th is a mistake for 7th, the day of St. Eupsychius in the Greek Kalendar.  Come then three days beforehand in order that you may also honour with your presence the Church849    Μνήμη.  The Ben. Ed. understand by this word the church erected by Basil in his hospital (cf. Letter xciv.) at Cæsarea.  In illustration of the use of μνήμη in this sense Du Cange cites Act. Conc. Chalced. i. 144, and explains it as being equivalent to “memoria,” i.e. “ædes sacra in qua extat sancti alicujus sepulcrum.”  cf. Nomocan. Photii v. § 1.  For the similar use of “memoria,” in Latin, cf. Aug., De Civ. Dei. xxii. 10:  “Nos autem martyribus nostris non templa sicut diis sedmemoriassicut hominibus mortuis fabricamus.” of the Hospital.  May you by the grace of the Lord be kept in good health and spirits in the Lord, praying for me and for the Church of God.

ΑΜΦΙΛΟΧΙῼ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠῼ ΙΚΟΝΙΟΥ

[1] Παράσχοι ὁ ἅγιος Θεὸς ἐρρωμένῳ σοι τὸ σῶμα καὶ ἀπὸ πάσης ἀσχολίας ἀνειμένῳ καὶ πάντα πράττοντι κατὰ νοῦν τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἡμῶν ταύτην εἰς χεῖρας ἐλθεῖν, ἵνα μὴ ἄπρακτος ἡμῶν ἡ παράκλησις γένηται ἣν παρακαλοῦμεν νῦν ἐπιφανῆναί σε ἡμῶν τῇ πόλει ἐπὶ τῷ σεμνοτέραν γενέσθαι τὴν πανήγυριν ἣν δι' ἔτους ἄγειν ἐπὶ τοῖς μάρτυσιν ἔθος ἐστὶν ἡμῶν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ. Πέπεισο γάρ, τιμιώτατέ μοι καὶ ποθεινότατε ὡς ἀληθῶς, ὅτι, πολλῶν εἰς πεῖραν ἐλθὼν ὁ παρ' ἡμῖν λαός, τῆς οὐδενὸς οὕτως ἀντέχεται ἐπιτυχίας ὡς τῆς σῆς παρουσίας, τοιοῦτον κέντρον ἀγάπης ἐκ τῆς μικρᾶς ἐκείνης συντυχίας ἐναφῆκας. Ἵνα οὖν καὶ ὁ Κύριος δοξασθῇ καὶ λαοὶ εὐφρανθῶσι καὶ τιμηθῶσι μάρτυρες καὶ ἡμεῖς οἱ γέροντες τῆς ὀφειλομένης ἡμῖν παρὰ τέκνου γνησίου τύχωμεν θεραπείας, καταξίωσον ἀόκνως μέχρις ἡμῶν διαβῆναι καὶ προλαβεῖν τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς συνόδου, ὥστε ἐπὶ σχολῆς ἡμᾶς ἀλλήλοις συγγενέσθαι καὶ συμπαρακληθῆναι διὰ τῆς κοινωνίας τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρισμάτων. Ἔστι δὲ ἡ ἡμέρα τῇ πέμπτῃ τοῦ Σεπτεμβρίου. Διὸ παρακαλοῦμεν πρὸ τριῶν ἡμερῶν ἐπιστῆναι, ἵνα καὶ τοῦ πτωχοτροφείου τὴν μνήμην μεγάλην ποιήσῃς τῇ παρουσίᾳ. Ἐρρωμένος καὶ εὔθυμος ἐν Κυρίῳ ὑπερευχόμενός μου διαφυλαχθείης μοι καὶ τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησίᾳ χάριτι τοῦ Κυρίου.