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Epistula de hymno trisagio

A letter written by the blessed John, monk and presbyter, to

Jordan the archimandrite concerning the Trisagion hymn. To the God-honored and adorned with divine zeal, lord Jordan, archimandrite, John. 1 The height of my desire for you, O best of fathers, does not derive its origins from an unstable cause, but from divine love, which is never wont to fail. For we know the orthodoxy of your faith and the right-cutting of the word of truth, the ardency of your zeal, the purity of your love for God, from which and for which you are naturally bound to your neighbor; for the one is, as it were, the first source, while the second is also a symbol of the first. For love for one's neighbor is known to characterize love for God. We know your longing for and delight in the words of God, which are accounted by you sweeter than honey; for you have envisioned the divine beauty and have soared up to it on wings, and have become a spotless mirror of God and of divine manifestations, having virtue as your beauty and becoming by its most precise lines a true impression of the divine beauty, as of the archetype of all that is good. Therefore, in longing for you, we long for virtue and God, from whom you have the preeminences of virtue. But, alas, O father, alas. How the enemy of the church always hastens to throw it into confusion, and what is indeed difficult, if it be through the nurslings of piety. For our most God-fearing brother, Abba Sergius the townsman and intimate and friend, informed us by letter, through his own brother, the most holy Abba Job, that our most sacred father, the lord Abba Anastasius, the renowned hegumen of the blessed Euthymius, has supposedly brought forth certain citations from the holy fathers that refer the Trisagion hymn to the Son alone. This being granted, nothing will prevent the corruption that has wickedly crept in from the fuller's from utterly ruining everyone. And I am amazed, greatly amazed, if these things are so. And again I am amazed, if these things are not so; for we know the orthodoxy of the venerable man and we are not ignorant of his seemliness in word and virtue in practice [.....], I mean of the lord Abba Anastasius. Yet we also clearly know the truthfulness of the accuser. For loving God and living for him, he would not, I think, lie, and be a slanderer of an innocent man, even one excelling in the preeminences of virtue. This indeed has tormented our thought not a little. And he strongly condemned this, through the most devout Abba Job, his own brother, and urged us without any delay or postponement to make known our opinion on this matter. And he wrote that he himself had confirmed this, that we too had submitted to this opinion, becoming consenting and of one mind with him on this matter, at which I was all the more amazed—for he presented the citations to us, I will not lie, and we declared that they were from holy and distinguished fathers; but we certainly did not agree that the citations declared that the Trisagion hymn referred to the Son alone—and that the thrice-blessed patriarch of the holy city of Christ our God, John, the most divine and man of God, had come to be of the same mind as him; for on this very account, he wrote, he made his declaration. We therefore thought it necessary to make matters concerning these things perfectly clear to the

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Epistula de hymno trisagio

Τοῦ μακαρίου Ἰωάννου μοναχοῦ καὶ πρεσβυτέρου ἐπιστολὴ γραφεῖσα πρὸς

Ἰορδάνην ἀρχιμανδρίτην περὶ τοῦ τρισαγίου ὕμνου. Τῷ θεοτιμήτῳ καὶ ζήλῳ θείῳ κεκοσμημένῳ κυρῷ Ἰορδάνῃ ἀρχιμανδρίτῃ Ἰωάννης. 1 Τοῦ πρός σέ μοι πόθου ἡ ἀκρότης, ὦ πατέρων ἄριστε, οὐκ ἐξ ἀστάτου προφάσεως τὰς ἀφορμὰς κέκτηται, ἀλλ' ἐκ θείας ἀγάπης, ἣ οὐδέποτε πίπτειν πέφυκεν. Ἴσμεν γάρ σου τῆς πίστεως τὸ ὀρθόδοξον καὶ τὸ ὀρθότομον τοῦ λόγου τῆς ἀληθείας, τὸ τοῦ ζήλου διάπυρον, τῆς πρὸς θεὸν ἀγάπης τὸ ἀκραιφνές, ἐξ ἧς καὶ δι' ἣν πρὸς τὸν πέλας πέφυκας δέσμιος· ἡ μὲν γάρ ἐστιν ὥσπερ πηγὴ πρώτη τυγχάνουσα, ἡ δὲ δευτέρα καὶ τῆς πρώτης σύμβολον. Χαρακτηρίζειν γὰρ οἶδεν ἡ πρὸς τὸν πλησίον ἀγάπη τὸν πρὸς θεὸν ἔρωτα. Ἴσμεν σου τῶν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγων τὴν ἐπιπόθησίν τε καὶ κατατρύφησιν, ἥ σοι μέλιτος γλυκυτέρα λογίζεται· ἐφαντάσθης γὰρ τὸ θεῖον κάλλος καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸ ὑπόπτερος ἀνεφοίτησας καὶ γέγονας θεοῦ καὶ τῶν θείων ἐμφάσεων ἀκηλίδωτον ἔσοπτρον, κάλλος ἔχων τὴν ἀρετὴν καὶ ταῖς αὐτῆς ἀκριβεστάταις γραμμαῖς ἀψευδὲς τοῦ θείου κάλλους ὡς ἀρχετύπου παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ ἐκμαγεῖον γενόμενος. ∆ιὸ σὲ ποθοῦντες ἀρετὴν ποθοῦμεν καὶ θεόν, ἐξ οὗ σοι τὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς προτερήματα. Ἀλλ', οἴμοι, ὦ πάτερ, οἴμοι. Πῶς ὁ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐχθρὸς ταύτην ἀεὶ κυκᾶν κατεπείγεται, καὶ τὸ δὴ χαλεπόν, εἴγε διὰ τῶν τῆς εὐσεβείας τροφίμων. Γράμμασι γὰρ ἡμῖν κατεμήνυσεν ὁ θεοσεβέστατος ἡμῶν ἀδελφὸς ὁ ἀββᾶς Σέργιος ὁ ἀστὸς καὶ συνήθης καὶ φίλος, διὰ τοῦ γνησίου αὐτοῦ ἀδελφοῦ τοῦ ὁσιωτάτου ἀββᾶ Ἰώβ, ὡς ὁ ἱερώτατος ἡμῶν πατὴρ ὁ κύρις ἀββᾶς Ἀναστάσιος, ὁ κλεινὸς τῆς Εὐθυμίου τοῦ μάκαρος καθηγεμών, χρήσεις τινὰς τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων προκεκόμικε δῆθεν εἰς τὸν υἱὸν μόνον ἀναφερούσας τὸν τρισάγιον ὕμνον. Οὗ δοθέντος οὐδὲν κωλύσει τὴν ἐκ τοῦ κναφέως κακῶς ἐπεισφρήσασαν λύμην πάντας ἄρδην καταλυμήνασθαι. Τεθαύμακα δέ, λίαν τεθαύμακα, εἴγε ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει. Καὶ πάλιν τεθαύμακα, εἴγε μὴ ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχει· τὸ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ σεβασμίου ἀνδρὸς ὀρθόδοξον ἐπιστάμεθα καὶ τὸ εὐπρεπὲς τῆς αὐτοῦ ἐν λόγῳ καὶ ἀρετῇ τῇ κατὰ πρᾶξιν [.....] οὐκ ἀγνοοῦμεν, τοῦ κυροῦ ἀββᾶ Ἀναστασίου φημί. Οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἀψευδὲς τοῦ κατηγόρου σαφῶς γινώσκομεν. Θεὸν γὰρ ποθῶν καὶ αὐτῷ ζῶν οὐκ ἄν, οἶμαι, ὡς ψεύσαιτο, καὶ συκοφάντης ἔσται ἀθῴου ἀνδρὸς κἂν τοῖς τῆς ἀρετῆς προτερήμασι διαπρέποντος. Ὃ δὴ οὐ μετρίως ἡμῶν τὸν λογισμὸν ἐβασάνισε. Κατέκρινε δὲ ὅτι πλεῖστα διὰ τοῦ εὐλαβεστάτου ἀββᾶ Ἰώβ, τοῦ γνησίου αὐτοῦ ἀδελφοῦ, καὶ κατήπειξε πάσης ἀναβολῆς ἄτερ καὶ ὑπερθέσεως τὴν ἡμετέραν περὶ τούτου ἐπισημήνασθαι γνώμην. Γέγραφε δὲ καὶ τοῦτο αὐτὸν βεβαιώσασθαι, ὅτιπερ καὶ ἡμεῖς τῇ γνώμῃ ταύτῃ καθυπεκύψαμεν, σύναινοι καὶ σύμψηφοι αὐτῷ περὶ τούτου γενό μενοι, ὃ καὶ μᾶλλον καὶ μᾶλλον τεθαύμακα-προκεκόμικε γὰρ ἡμῖν τὰς χρήσεις, οὐ ψεύσομαι, καὶ τῶν ἁγίων καὶ ἐκκρίτων πατέρων εἶναι ταύτας ἀπεφηνάμεθα· οὐ μὴν εἰς τὸν υἱὸν μόνον δηλοῦν ἀναφέρεσθαι τὸν τρισάγιον ὕμνον τὰς χρήσεις συνῃνέσαμεν-καὶ τὸν τρισμακάριστον δὲ πατριάρχην τῆς ἁγίας Χριστοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν πόλεως Ἰωάννην, τὸν θειότατον καὶ τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπον, τῆς αὐτῆς αὐτῷ γεγενῆσθαι ἐννοίας· τούτου γε ἕνεκεν γέγραφεν αὐτὸν ἀποφήνασθαι. ∆εῖν οὖν ᾠήθημεν τὰ περὶ τούτων ἀρίδηλα καταστῆσαι τῇ