264

unspeakable, inexhaustible life, eternal joy, the delight of paradise, the illumination of the Holy Trinity, every other blessedness both spoken and conceived. Come now then, come, child, return to your senses, be recalled, be renewed, cast off the ropes of sin entangled around you by the enemy, be cut off from Eve, approach the most forgiving and most philanthropic Jesus. He cries out openly: come to me, all you who labor and are burdened with sins. He meets, embraces, brings into his house, he does not accuse concerning former things, he holds a feast again, he saves the profligate. Yes, I beg you, child, hear, be kindled, wound the one who wounded you. Come then, come quickly to us sinners; I lay down my soul for you, I am the guarantor of your salvation, I will heal you with gentle medicines, I, wretched one, with God, will embrace you more than before. Only run to us, only stand still no longer, but leaving Eve to amuse herself (or if she listens in a godly way, putting her into a convent), you will offer yourself to God and to us. I testify therefore before God and the elect angels, that hearing these things you might change yourself, hastening to us before the end arrives, before the irrevocable sentence is shut against you. 432 {1To Theophilus the abbot}1 Not a few were the things I heard concerning your honor, which also grieved me not moderately, yet they have been refuted by your esteemed letter. And indeed the Lord, I dare to say, has accepted your repentance and the defense for your returning to the monastery, even if it was not a fine thing at that time, when Christ was being persecuted; but now, since the persecution has abated, what reason is there for returning and not rather for contending? 'From me,' he says, 'you will see, and so you shall do.' This you should have declared to your disciples, when they were summoned to run back home, not to obey and become a model of defeat, and this after the fall; or do you not know that communion for you and for those who were impiously led astray with you was upon the denial of Christ? Then, since you chose repentance through withdrawal (for this is the chief point of repentance and without it the fall is unrepented), why did you turn back again to the offense (forgive me, father, I am compelled, since you have given yourself over to my lowliness, to speak to you as from the mouth of the Lord the fitting things), why did you not admonish all either to be persecuted with you in like manner or, if they were unwilling, leave them as haters of Christ, as lovers of the flesh, as disobedient, and not sons? And in this you would have both reversed the defeat well and become a good example for those under your authority and you would have been seen by the church of Christ as a building up instead of a previous tearing down. Thus did our most God-loving brother and abbot of Medicium work, thus our most holy father of Laodicea, and others as well. One of two things: if these men acted lawfully, you acted unlawfully, and any who has acted like you. But there are some, as I learn, of the company of the fallen (whose names I will willingly pass over), who say that they repent not at all for it, nor do they ask for even one thing for forgiveness, and that they have done well; from which, they say, both the brothers have been saved and the churches are unharmed. Oh, the hardness of heart! Oh, the fighting against God! Christ was denied, with the setting aside of his holy icon, the Theotokos, any of the saints, on account of which also a high priest was persecuted and bishops were confined and abbots suffered the same, monks and nuns, laymen, laywomen, some being beaten, others imprisoned, others starved, others scraped, others cast into the sea, others put to death, others hiding, others fleeing. The deserts and the caves are full, the mountains and the glens are full; flesh being cut, blood flowing, our inhabited world being shaken by the persecution, the whole world under heaven, so to speak, groaning and weeping. And you, O thrice-wretched one, having been captured by the soul-destroying communion and remaining in the place of destruction (since it is so, and not a monastery) say that it is well and you mock the Christ-bearers, or rather Christ himself, for whose sake also the

264

ἀνεκλάλητος, ζωὴ ἀμήρυτος, εὐφροσύνη αἰώνιος, τρυφὴ παραδείσου, τῆς Ἁγίας Τριάδος ἔλλαμψις, πᾶσα ἄλλη καὶ λεγομένη καὶ νοουμένη μακαριότης. ∆εῦρο δὴ οὖν, δεῦρο, τέκνον, ἀνάνηψον, ἀνακλήθητι, ἀνακαινίσθητι, ῥῖψον τὰ συμπλακέντα σοι ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ σχοινία τῆς ἁμαρτίας, διατμήθητι τῆς Εὔας, πρόσελθε τῷ ἀμνησικάκῳ καὶ φιλανθρωποτάτῳ Ἰησοῦ. ἄντικρυς βοᾷ· δεῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις. ὑπαντᾷ, περιπλέκεται, εἰσοικίζεται, οὐκ ἐγκαλεῖ περὶ τῶν προτέρων, ἄγει καὶ πάλιν ἑορτήν, σῴζει τὸν ἀσωτευθέντα. ναί, δέομαί σου, τέκνον, ἄκουσον, ἐξάφθητι, τρῶσον τὸν τρώσαντά σε. ἧκε οὖν, ἧκε τάχει πρὸς ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἁμαρτωλούς· ἐγὼ τὴν ψυχήν μου τίθημι ὑπὲρ σοῦ, ἐγὼ ἐγγυητὴς τῆς σωτηρίας σου, ἐγώ σε ἰατρεύσω ἁπαλοῖς φαρμάκοις, ἐγὼ σὺν θεῷ ὁ τάλας ἀσπάσομαί σε ὑπὲρ τὸ πρότερον. μόνον πρόσδραμε, μόνον μὴ στῇς ἔτι, ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν Εὔαν ἀφεὶς εἰς ἑαυτὴν παίζειν (εἰ δ' οὖν ἀκούει θείως, ἐμβαλὼν εἰς σεμνεῖον), σαυτὸν δὲ παρέξεις τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἡμῖν. διαμαρτύρομαι οὖν ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν ἀγγέλων, ἵνα τούτων ἀκούων ἀλλάξῃς ἑαυτόν, κατεπείγων πρὸς ἡμᾶς πρὶν ἢ φθάσῃ τὸ τέλος, πρὶν ἢ ἀποκλείσῃ κατὰ σοῦ ἡ ἀπαραίτητος ἀπόφασις. 432 {1Θεοφίλῳ ἡγουμένῳ}1 Οὐκ ὀλίγα τὰ ἀκουσθέντα μοι περὶ τῆς τιμιότητός σου, ἃ καὶ ἐλύπει με οὐ μετρίως, ὅμως ὅτι ἀπεσκευάσθησαν διὰ τοῦ τιμίου σου γράμματος. καί γε δέδεκταί σου, τολμῶ λέγειν, ὁ Κύριος τὴν μετάνοιαν καὶ τὴν ἀπολογίαν τῆς ἐν τῷ μοναστηρίῳ ἀνθυποστροφῆς, εἰ καὶ οὐκ ἀστεία τηνικαῦτα ἦν, ὅτε Χριστὸς ἐδιώκετο· ἄρτι δέ, ἐπὰν ἐλώφησεν ὁ διωγμός, τίς λόγος ὑποστροφῆς καὶ οὐχὶ μᾶλλον ἀθλήσεως; ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, φησίν, ὄψεσθε, καὶ οὕτως ποιήσατε. τοῦτό σε ἔδει φθέγξασθαι τοῖς φοιτηταῖς, ἐκκαλουμένοις οἴκοι ἐπαναδραμεῖν, οὐχ ὑπακοῦσαι καὶ γενέσθαι ὑποτύπωσιν ἥττης, καὶ ταῦτα μετὰ τὴν πτῶσιν· ἢ οὐκ οἶσθα ὅτι ἐπ' ἀρνήσει Χριστοῦ ἦν ἡ κοινωνία σοί τε καὶ τοῖς συναπαχθεῖσιν ἀθέως; εἶτα, ἐπειδὴ εἵλου μετάνοιαν διὰ τῆς ὑποχωρήσεως (τοῦτο γὰρ τὸ κεφάλαιον τῆς μετανοίας καὶ ἧς ἄνευ ἀμεταμέλητος ἡ πτῶσις), τί πάλιν ἐπὶ τὸ πλημμελὲς ἀνέκαμψας (σύγγνωθι, πάτερ, ἀναγκάζομαι ἐπιδόντος σου σεαυτὸν τῇ ταπεινώσει μου λέγειν σοι ὡς ἀπὸ στόματος Κυρίου τὰ προσήκοντα), τί οὐ πάντας ἢ ὁμοτρόπως συνδιώκεσθαί σοι νενουθέτηκας ἤ, μὴ βουλομένους, εἴασας ὡς μισοχρίστους, ὡς φιλοσάρκους, ὡς ἀπειθεῖς, ἀλλ' οὐχ υἱούς; κἀν τούτῳ καὶ τὴν ἧτταν ἂν ἀνεκαλέσω καλῶς καὶ τοῖς ὑπὸ χεῖρα ἐγένου ὑπογραμμὸς χρηστὸς καὶ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ Χριστοῦ ὤφθης οἰκοδομὴ ἀντὶ καταλύσεως προτέρας. Οὕτως εἰργάσατο ὁ θεοφιλέστατος ἀδελφὸς ἡμῶν καὶ ἡγούμενος τοῦ Μηδικίου, οὕτως ὁ ἁγιώτατος πατὴρ ἡμῶν τῆς Λαοδικείας, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἕτεροι. δυοῖν θάτερον, εἰ οὗτοι ἐννόμως, αὐτὸς ἀνόμως καὶ εἴ τίς σοι ὁμοίως δέδρακεν. ἀλλ' εἰσί τινες, ὡς μανθάνω, τῆς συμπτωματικῆς συστοιχίας (ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα ἑκὼν ὑπερβήσομαι), οἳ λέγουσιν ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς μηδ' ὁτιοῦν μετανοεῖν μηδ' αὖ ἓν συγχωρητικὸν καὶ μόνον ἐξαιτεῖν, καὶ καλῶς πεποιηκέναι· ἐξ οὗ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί, φασί, σέσωνται καὶ οἱ ναοὶ ἀσίαντοι. ὢ τῆς πωρώσεως· ὢ τῆς θεομαχίας· Χριστὸς ἤρνητο, ἀθετουμένης τῆς ἁγίας αὐτοῦ εἰκόνος, ἡ Θεοτόκος, ὁστισοῦν τῶν ἁγίων, δι' ὧν καὶ ἀρχιερεὺς ἐδίωκτο καὶ ἐπίσκοποι περιωρίζοντο καὶ ἡγούμενοι ταὐτοπαθοῦντες, μοναχοὶ καὶ μονάζουσαι, λαϊκοί, λαΐζουσαι, οἱ μὲν τυπτόμενοι, οἱ δὲ φρουρούμενοι, ἄλλοι λιμοκτονούμενοι, ἕτεροι ξεόμενοι, ἄλλοι θαλαττευόμενοι, ἕτεροι θανατούμενοι, ἄλλοι κρυπταζόμενοι, ἕτεροι δραπετεύοντες. πλήρεις αἱ ἐρημίαι καὶ τὰ σπήλαια, πλήρη τὰ ὄρη καὶ αἱ νάπαι· σάρκες κοπτόμεναι, αἵματα ῥέοντα, ἡ καθ' ἡμᾶς οἰκουμένη κωδωνιζομένη τῷ διωγμῷ, πᾶσα ἡ ὑπ' οὐρανὸν ὡς εἰπεῖν στοναχίζουσα καὶ κατακλάουσα. καὶ σύ, ὦ τρισάθλιε, ἑαλωκὼς τῇ ψυχοφθόρῳ κοινωνίᾳ καὶ μένων εἰς τὸ ὀλετήριον (ἐπὰν οὕτως, ἀλλ' οὐ μοναστήριον) λέγεις εὖ ἔχειν καὶ ἐγγελᾷς τοὺς χριστοφόρους, μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτὸν Χριστόν, ὑπὲρ οὗ καὶ τὸ