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of the blessed woman in her night journeys, so that from this God might be bent toward mercy. And what of her keeping house? And what of her raising children? And what of her care for the servants, and the simplicity of her character, and her grace towards friends, and her uniting of the family, her lack of envy toward those of equal renown, and her dignity and modesty in all things? These things, more than braided gold and adornments of pearls and costly garments, truly adorned that renowned woman, both when she remained at home, and when she went out, and when she was seen in royal courts. But nevertheless all these things are gone, and we have become, to speak with passion, half-dead and broken off, or rather, to speak in the words of the psalm, like a night raven in a ruined house, like a lonely sparrow on a rooftop, seeing the house bereft of its mistress, the children before your eyes circling and being circled, having nowhere to rest their hands, whence to receive a mother's kiss, a nurse's encouragement. The hearth is gloomy as if the sun has left it, and no one sings in your ears, or those of the children, or of all the servants, with her absent who was truly sweet-voiced and delighted her listeners with her truly harmonious conversation and greeting. All these things are truly pitiful and lamentable, both when expressed allegorically and when considered literally. But what are we to do, master? It is God's command, or rather, a decree, sung through the divine David: "There is no man who will live and not see death." Thus everyone from Adam our forefather until now, having entered the world through birth, will depart again through dissolution into that world which is higher and more divine; for, it says, "it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." For we shall be equal to the angels and sons of the resurrection, the mortal having been swallowed up by life. Do you see, master, that, even if the lady has left us, she has come out from darkness into light and from a perishable life to an immortal end? There you will see her a little later, when you yourself pass over. Therefore let us not grieve like the rest, who have no hope, but let us hope in the resurrection to be improved into a life without sorrow; let us rather, I remind you, come to ourselves and take charge of the house and care for the children and, before all things, for our own precious soul, being adorned with virtues according to that blessed woman and rejoicing in this, that we have sent ahead a spouse to be a suppliant before God, who has left behind for us and for all her acquaintances a model of a good life. 498 {1To the tourmarchess of Hellas}1 Insofar as we have not met, we were not going to write to your honor, being unknown and unacquainted with each other; but since the encouragement came from a God-loving person known to us, I mean the all-honorable patrician lady related to you and her blessed lady daughter, and then also from the letter-carrier himself, Ignatius, our spiritual son, your address to us humble ones was made, we have necessarily come to write a word of consolation to your afflicted soul on account of the suffering that has befallen it because of your blessed son who died in the war. But what medicine of comfort could be found for the healing of the incurable wound? Oh, the calamity that is recounted in hearing alone! Gone is the honorable offspring, a mother's eye, the heart's entrails, a well-formed branch, the whole and entire light of her who bore him, bearing in himself his father's features and alleviating the desolation of widowhood as much as possible, and being the comfort of her whole life both for her own hearth and for her relatives. And what has happened? He has flown from his mother's eyes, he was cut off from the good root, and his death was not even before her eyes, by which those who send forth their own kin receive comfort through the funeral rites and holy burial. But now with the others

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τῆς μακαρίας ἐν ταῖς νυκτοπορίαις, ὡς ἂν κἀντεῦθεν κάμπτοιτο πρὸς ἔλεον θεός. τί δὲ τὸ οἰκοῦρον; τί δὲ τὸ τεκνοτρεφές; τί δὲ τὸ πρὸς τοὺς δούλους περιποιητικόν, τό τε ἁπλοῦν τοῦ ἤθους καὶ χαρίεν πρὸς τοὺς φίλους καὶ συναπτικὸν τοῦ γένους, ἄφθονόν τε πρὸς τὰς ἰσοκλεεῖς καὶ τὸ περὶ πάντα σεμνοπρεπές τε καὶ κόσμιον; ἅπερ ὑπὲρ ἐμπλοκίων χρυσέων καὶ διακοσμήσεων μαργαριτῶν καὶ ἐσθήτων πολυτελῶν διεκόσμει ὄντως τὴν ἀοίδιμον ἐκείνην καὶ οἴκοι μένουσαν, καὶ προόδους ποιουμένην, καὶ ἐν βασιλείοις αὐλαῖς ὁρωμένην. Ἀλλ' ὅμως οἴχεται ταῦτα πάντα καὶ ἐγενόμεθα, περιπαθῶς εἰπεῖν, ἡμιθνεῖς καὶ ἀπερρωγότες, μᾶλλον δέ, ψαλμικῶς εἰπεῖν, ὡσεὶ νυκτικόραξ ἐν οἰκοπέδῳ, ὡς στρουθίον μονάζον ἐπὶ δώματι, ὁρῶντες τὴν οἰκίαν ἔρημον τῆς προστατούσης, τὰ τέκνα πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ὑμῶν περικυκλοῦντα καὶ περικυκλούμενα, οὐκ ἔχοντα ποῦ ἀπερείσειεν τὰς χεῖρας, ὅθεν λάβοιεν μητρικὸν ποππυσμόν, γαλουχικὸν ἐμψύχωμα. στυγνὴ ἡ ἑστία οἱονεὶ ἡλίου αὐτὴν ἀπολιπόντος, κελαδεῖ δὲ οὐδεὶς ἔν τε τοῖς ὠσὶ σοῦ τε καὶ τῶν τέκνων καὶ πάντων τῶν ὑποχειρίων, ἀπούσης ἐκείνης τῆς ὄντως καλλιφώνου καὶ τερπούσης τοὺς ἐπαΐοντας τῇ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐμμελεῖ διαλέξει τε καὶ ὑπαντήσει. ἐλεεινὰ ταῦτα πάντα ὄντως καὶ στενακτικά, καὶ τροπολογούμενα καὶ διανοούμενα. Ἀλλὰ τί πάθωμεν, ὦ δέσποτα; θεοῦ πρόσταγμά ἐστιν, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀπόφασις, διὰ τοῦ θείου ∆αυὶδ ᾀδομένη· οὐκ ἔστιν ἄνθρωπος ὃς ζήσεται καὶ οὐκ ὄψεται θάνατον. οὕτω πᾶς τις ἀπὸ Ἀδὰμ τοῦ προ πάτορος ἡμῶν μέχρι τοῦ δεῦρο, εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὸν κόσμον διὰ γεννήσεως, πάλιν ἔξεισι δι' ἀναλύσεως εἰς τὸν ἐκεῖσε κόσμον ὑψηλότερόν τε καὶ θεοειδέστερον· σπείρεται γάρ, φησίν, ἐν φθορᾷ, ἐγείρεται ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ· σπείρεται ἐν ἀτιμίᾳ, ἐγείρεται ἐν δόξῃ· σπείρεται ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ, ἐγείρεται ἐν δυνάμει· σπείρεται σῶμα ψυχικόν, ἐγείρεται σῶμα πνευματικόν. ἰσάγγελοι γὰρ ἐσόμεθα καὶ υἱοὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως, τοῦ θνητοῦ ὑπὸ τῆς ζωῆς καταποθέντος. Ὁρᾷς, ὦ δέσποτα, ὅτι, εἰ καὶ ἀπολέλοιπεν ἡμᾶς ἡ κυρία, ἀλλ' εἰς φῶς ἐξελήλυθεν ἀπὸ σκότους καὶ ἀπὸ ζωῆς ἐπικήρου εἰς ἀθάνατον λῆξιν; ἐκεῖ αὐτὴν ὄψῃ μικρὸν ὕστερον μεταβαίνων καὶ αὐτός. ὥστε μὴ λυπώμεθα καθὼς καὶ οἱ λοιποί, οἱ μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα, ἐλπίζοντες τῇ ἀναστάσει βελτιωθῆναι εἰς ἀπήμονα ζωήν, εἰς ἑαυτοὺς δὲ μᾶλλον, ὑπομνήσκω, γενώμεθα καὶ τῆς οἰκίας ἀντεχώμεθα καὶ τῶν παίδων φροντίσωμεν καί, πρό γε πάντων, τῆς οἰκείας τιμίας ψυχῆς, κατ' ἐκείνην τὴν μακαρίαν ἀρεταῖς κοσμούμενοι καὶ τούτῳ χαίροντες, ὅτι παρεπέμψαμεν ὁμόζυγον ἱκέτιδα πρὸς θεὸν καὶ ὑπόδειγμα καλοῦ βίου ἐπαφήσασαν ἡμῖν τε καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς γνωρίμοις. 498 {1Τῇ τουρμαρχίσσῃ τῆς Ἑλλάδοσ}1 Ὅσον ἀπὸ λόγου ἀσυνοψίσεως οὐκ ἐμέλλομεν ἐπιστέλλειν τῇ τιμιότητί σου, ἄγνωστοι ἀλλήλοις καὶ ἀσυνήθεις· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ἐκ θεοφιλοῦς προσώπου καὶ ἐγνωσμένου ἡμῖν, λέγω δὴ τῆς ἀγχιστευούσης σοι πανευφήμου πατρικίας καὶ τῆς ταύτης κυρίας εὐλογημένης θυγατρός, ἡ προτροπή, εἶτα καὶ ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ γραμματηφόρου Ἰγνατίου, τοῦ πνευματικοῦ ἡμῶν υἱοῦ, ἡ πρὸς ἡμᾶς σου τοὺς ταπει νοὺς προσηγορία ἐγεγόνει, ἀναγκαίως ἤλθομεν ἐπὶ τὸ γράψαι λόγον παρακλήσεως τῇ τετρυχωμένῃ σου ψυχῇ ἐκ τοῦ συμπεσόντος αὐτῇ πάθους εἵνεκα τοῦ μακαρίου υἱοῦ τοῦ τεθνεῶτος ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ. Ἀλλὰ ποῖον ἂν καὶ ἐξευρεθείη φάρμακον παραμυθίας εἰς ἴασιν τῆς δυσιάτου πληγῆς; ὢ τῆς καὶ ἐν ἀκοῇ μόνῃ ἐξηγορουμένης συμφορᾶς. ᾤχετο ἔντιμον σπέρμα, μητρῷος ὀφθαλμός, ἐγκάρδιον σπλάγχνον, κλάδος εὐφυής, ὅλον δι' ὅλου τῆς τεκούσης τὸ φῶς, φέρον τοὺς πατρῴους ἐν ἑαυτῷ χαρακτῆρας καὶ τὴν ἐρημίαν τῆς χηρείας καθ' ὅσον οἷόν τε ὑποτεμνόμενον καὶ ὅλου τοῦ βίου ὂν παραμύθιον κατά τε τὴν ἰδίαν ἑστίαν καὶ τοὺς ἀφ' αἵματος. καὶ τί γέγονεν; ἀπέπτη τῶν μητρικῶν ὀφθαλμῶν, ἐξεκόπη τῆς ἀγαθῆς ῥίζης καὶ οὐδὲ κατ' ὀφθαλμοὺς ὁ θάνατος, ἐφ' ᾧ καὶ παρηγορίαν διὰ τῶν ἐξοδίων ῥημάτων καὶ τῆς ὁσίας ταφῆς ἐρανίζονται οἱ τοὺς οἰκείους προπέμποντες. νῦν δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων