Letter to Saint John Chrysostom

To my beloved brother John Innocent. Although it is fitting for an innocent person to expect all blessings and ask for mercy from God, we, advising patience, sent with Deacon Kyriakos the appropriate message, so that the insult with his attacks would not be stronger than a clear conscience with its hopes. You, the teacher and shepherd of so many people, do not need to be taught that all the best people are always and constantly tested to see whether they remain in the power of patience and whether they do not fall under the weight of labor and suffering, and that conscience is a strong bulwark against all undeserved misfortunes, the failure to overcome which through patience gives grounds for unfavorable assumptions about oneself. Everything must be endured by those who rely first of all on God, and then on their own conscience. A good man can be tested in patience, but cannot be defeated: his thought is protected by Divine Scripture, since readings from divine books abound with examples that we point out to the people and which testify that almost all the saints in various ways and often were oppressed and, as it were, subjected to some kind of test, and in this way received the crown of patience. May your love, dear brother, comfort your conscience itself, which in misfortunes should serve as a consolation for virtue. In the eyes of the Lord Christ, let a clear conscience be established in the haven of peace.