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through your consignment of all things to God. 21 {1To Leo the Sakellarios}1 And we are not permitted to be silent, enjoying the benefactions of your greatest and much-desired excellence, and we are not able to respond worthily, lacking a fitting word. But if your God-loving soul does not think so, it is not surprising (for love, it says, thinks no evil), since long ago it has been accustomed to think the same in a friendly manner and to honor us, the worthless, for free and, as it says, not even to have a comparison with one another in excellence. But these things, as has been said, are the tokens of sacred affection. But you yourself, O all-praised one, seem to be established as a kind of acropolis in the queen of cities or, to speak the truth more appropriately, a spacious harbor, a repose for the afflicted, a sufficient comfort for those who thirst for melodious speech, receiving and healing, as one might say, each day, and ministering to and dedicating yourself to these and those, greater and lesser, priests and high priests, perfect and imperfect. How magnificent is your divine office and your God-loving ministry. The sayings of the renowned Job also befit you: I became a father to the orphans, a foot to the lame, and my door was open to every man, and all that follows these. You are the remnant of piety, you yourself the treasure of orthodoxy; and may my speech pass over many things, so that what is spoken to your face may not seem to be said for favor and flattery. Nevertheless, having added one voice, it would cease from speaking: a single comfort to a father, a son both only-begotten and father-loving, and to the queen of cities your brilliant and renowned noble rule. 522 {1To the spatharia of Flavianos}1 The dreadful news of the suffering concerning your ever-memorable son has reached even our lowliness; at which, just as those who are struck in their hearing as if by thunder are utterly cowed, so it has made our speech to be at a loss and to have nothing to say worthy of the pain. oh, what has happened so suddenly? How has a wonderful man departed, who was leading the very prime of his life? How great his age; how beautiful in appearance; how noble his blood; how glorious his fame; how he was left as the sole comfort to a blessed mother, a support to his paternal house, an ornament to his family, and I would add, a rare sight even in the imperial courts. He, while administering the emperor's affairs in a foreign land, flew away, leaving behind his renowned mother, and also leaving behind his glorious wife with noble infants and a brilliant hearth, the much-storied bloodline, the very wealthy property, the skillful servants, the master-loving attendants, these things and those, all things together, so that my speech may not detail each one, then, returning home from the foreign land, a pitiable cargo, a somber encounter both for the queen of cities and for his admirable hearth. O, the overwhelming misfortune! Even the very walls of the city would groan, not to mention rulers and peers, even the emperors themselves would groan, having lost a much-admired scion, perhaps even the common crowd would weep, and the whole family would rightly be downcast. If these things are so, who could dramatize the suffering upon you, O lady? And who that of your spouse? And who that of his sister? And who that of the household servants? Not even the streams of the rivers, if turned into tears, would suffice to serve your lament. And what of the air? Has it not been altered to your eyes, and has the sun not risen, having lost the sun of the hearth? So many things, and as many as are comparable to these, the suffering suggests to lament. But since our speech is to a woman, long educated in divine things and showing her own life to be a whole theme of virtue, as nearly every ear and eye testifies, there is not much need of reminder, as she has the medicines of consolation from home. You have taken many holy books into your hands, you have gone through many patristic readings, being at leisure for prayers night and day, persisting in supplications in the all-night, that is, nocturnal and diurnal psalm-singing

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διὰ τῆς ἐπὶ πάντα εἰς θεὸν ἀναθέσεως ὑμῶν. 21 {1Λέοντι σακελλαρίῳ}1 Καὶ σιωπᾶν οὐκ ἐπιτρεπόμεθα, τῶν εὐεργεσιῶν τῆς μεγίστης καὶ ἐπιποθήτου σου ὑπεροχῆς ἀπολαύοντες, καὶ ἀπαντᾶν κατ' ἀξίαν οὐκ εὐποροῦμεν, λόγου ἀποροῦντες προσήκοντος. εἰ δὲ ὅτι ἡ θεοφιλής σου ψυχὴ μὴ οὕτως οἴεται, οὐ θαυμαστὸν (ἡ ἀγάπη γάρ, φησί, τὸ κακὸν οὐ λογίζεται), ἐπεὶ καὶ ἔκπαλαι τὸ αὐτὸ εἴωθεν φιλικῶς ὑπολαμβάνειν καὶ ἀποσεμνύνειν ἡμᾶς δωρεὰν τοὺς ἀλιτίμους καί, ὥς φησιν, οὐδὲ συγκρίνειν ἔχειν πρὸς ἀλλήλους καθ' ὑπεροχήν. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μέν, ὡς εἴρηται, τῆς ἱερᾶς στοργῆς τὰ συμβόλαια. αὐτὸς δέ, ὦ παντεπαίνετε, ἔοικας ἀκρόπολίς τις ἐνιδρῦσθαι ἐν τῇ βασιλίδι τῶν πόλεων ἤ, τἀληθὲς οἰκειότερον εἰπεῖν, λιμὴν πολυχώρητος, θλιβομένων ἀνάπαυλα, διψώντων λόγου ἐμμελοῦς ἱκανὸν παραμύθιον, καθ' ἑκάστην, ὡς εἰπεῖν, εἰσδεχόμενος καὶ ἰώμενος, θεραπεύων τε καὶ ἀφοσιούμενος τούτους κἀκείνους, μείζους καὶ ἐλάττους, ἱερεῖς καὶ ἀρχιερεῖς, ἐντελεῖς καὶ ὑφειμένους. ὡς μεγαλοπρεπές σου τὸ θεῖον ἀξίωμα καὶ τὸ θεοφιλὲς πρακτήριον. προσήκει σοι καὶ τὰ τοῦ ἀοιδίμου Ἰὼβ ἐπιφθέγματα· πατὴρ ἐγενόμην ὀρφανῶν, ποὺς δὲ χωλῶν, παντὶ δὲ ἀνθρώπῳ ἠνέῳκταί μου ἡ θύρα καὶ ὅσα τούτοις συνεπόμενα. σὺ τὸ λείψανον τῆς εὐσεβείας, αὐτὸς τὸ κειμήλιον τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας· καὶ τὰ πολλὰ παρατρέχοι ὁ λόγος, ἵνα μὴ δόξῃ πρὸς χάριν λέγειν καὶ κολακείαν τὰ εἰς πρόσωπον ἀκουτιζόμενα. ὅμως μίαν φωνὴν προσθεὶς ἀποπαύσειεν τοῦ λέγειν· μία παραμυθία πατρί, μονογενής τε καὶ φιλοπάτωρ υἱός, καὶ τῇ βασιλίδι πόλει ἡ σὴ μεγαλοφυὴς καὶ περιβόητος ἀρισταρχία. 522 {1Τῇ σπαθαρέᾳ τοῦ Φλαβιανοῦ}1 Ἔφθασεν ἡ ἀπευκτὴ ἀγγελία τοῦ περὶ τοῦ ἀειμνήστου υἱοῦ σου πάθους μέχρι καὶ τῆς ἡμῶν ταπεινώσεως· ἐν ᾗ, ὥσπερ οἱ τὰς ἀκοὰς βροντηδὸν καταπλαγέντες πεπτήχασιν ὅλως, οὕτως ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος ἐξαπορεῖσθαι πεποίηκεν καὶ μηδὲ ἔχειν τι φθέγξασθαι ἄξιον τῆς ὀδύνης. ὤ, τί γέγονεν ἐξάπινα; πῶς ᾤχετο ἀνὴρ θαυμαστός, αὐτὸ τῆς ἡλικίας ἄγων τὸ βιώσιμον; ὡς μεγαλοῆλιξ· ὡς ὡραῖος τὴν ὄψιν· ὡς εὐγενὴς τὸ αἷμα· ὡς εὐκλεὴς τὸ κῦδος· ὡς μόνος ἐγκαταλελειμμένος παραμύθιον μητρὶ αἰσίᾳ, οἰκίᾳ πατρῴᾳ ἔρεισμα, γένει ἐγκαλλώπισμα, προσθείην δ' ἂν καὶ βασιλείοις αὐλαῖς ξένον ὅραμα. οὗτος, ἐν ἀλ λοδαπῇ τὰ βασιλέως διοικούμενος, ἀπέπτη, καταλιπὼν μὲν τὴν περιβόητον μητέρα, συναπολιπὼν δὲ καὶ τὴν περίδοξον ὁμόζυγα σὺν εὐγενέσι νεογόνοις καὶ λαμπρὰν ἑστίαν, τὸ πολυθρύλλητον αἷμα, τὸ πολυούσιον κτῆμα, τοὺς δεξιοὺς ὑπηρέτας, τοὺς φιλοδεσπότους παραστάτας, ταῦτα κἀκεῖνα, ὁμοῦ τὰ πάντα, ὡς ἂν μὴ κατακερματίζοιεν ἓν ἕκαστον ὁ λόγος, εἶτα, ἐπανελθὼν ἐκ τῆς ξένης οἴκαδε, φόρτος ἐλεεινός, σκυθρωπὸν ἀπάντημα καὶ βασιλίδι πόλει καὶ ἀξιαγάστῳ ἑστίᾳ. ὢ τῆς ὑπερβαλλούσης συμφορᾶς· στενάξειεν δ' ἂν καὶ αὐτὰ τὰ τείχη τῆς πόλεως, μὴ ὅτι ἄρχοντες καὶ ὁμήλικες, στενάξειαν δ' ἂν καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ αὐτοκράτορες, ἀποβεβληκότες ἔρνος πολυθαύμαστον, δακρύσειεν τάχα καὶ ὁ ἐπιπόλιος ὅμιλος, ἐπιστυγνάσει δὲ εἰκότως καὶ πᾶν τὸ γένος. εἰ δὲ ταῦτα οὕτως, τίς τὸ ἐπὶ σοὶ πάθος ἐκτραγωδήσειεν, ὦ δέσποινα; τίς δὲ τὸ τῆς ὁμοζύγου; τίς δὲ τὸ τῆς ἀδελφῆς; τίς δὲ τὸ τῶν οἰκετῶν; οὐδ' ἂν τῶν ποταμῶν τὰ ῥεύματα εἰς δάκρυον μεταποιούμενα ἐξαρκέσειεν ὑμῖν ὑπηρετεῖσθαι τῷ θρήνῳ. τί δὲ ὁ ἀήρ; οὐκ ἠλλοίωται τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ὑμῶν ἆρα καὶ ὁ ἥλιος οὐκ ἀνατεταλκώς, τὸν τῆς ἑστίας ἥλιον ἀπολελωκώς; Τοσαῦτα καὶ ὅσα τούτοις ἐφάμιλλα ὑποβάλλει τὸ πάθος ἀποδύρασθαι. ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ πρὸς γυναῖκα ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος, πάλαι τὰ θεῖα πεπαιδευμένην καὶ ὅλην ὑπόθεσιν ἀρετῆς τὸν ἑαυτῆς βίον ὑποδεικνύουσαν, ὡς μαρτυρεῖ σχεδὸν πᾶσα ἀκοὴ καὶ ὄψις, οὐ πολλῆς χρεία ὑπομνήσεως, οἴκοθεν ἔχουσαν τὰ φάρμακα τῆς παραμυθίας. πολλὰς ἱερὰς βίβλους ἐπὶ χεῖρας εἴληφας, πολλὰ πατρικὰ ἀναγνώσματα διεξελήλυθας, νύκτωρ τε καὶ μεθ' ἡμέραν σχολάζουσα ταῖς προσευχαῖς, ταῖς δεήσεσιν ἐπιμένουσα ταῖς παννύχοις εἴτουν νυκτεριναῖς καὶ ἡμεριναῖς ψαλμῳδίαις