Letters

30 letters of St. Gregory of Nyssa have been preserved, addressed to different persons and touching on various topics. Of these, 28 were written by St. Gregory, and 2 are addressed to him (Letters 26 and 30). Letters 21, 26, 27, 28 are also included in the collection of letters to St. Basil the Great. All letters to St. Gregory were written during the period of his bishopric within 10 years after the death of St. Vasily. Most of the letters (eg Letters 9, 10, 11, 12, 28) are private correspondence. The rest contain: - valuable biographical information (Letters 1-3, 19). In Letter 1, the saint complains about the troubles that befell him and talks about his conflict with Bishop Helladius of Caesarea. Letters 2 and 3 are written about a journey to Jerusalem (both letters probably appeared around 383). Letter 2 sharply condemns the abuses then common when traveling to holy places. In the Letter of 3 St. Gregory expresses his feelings of reverence for the shrines he visited, bitterly mourns the church disorders in Palestine, explains the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God and convinces us to firmly adhere to the faithful faith. In Letter 19, the saint describes his misadventures during the election of the Bishop of Sebaste; - reasoning on dogmatic issues - Letters 5, 24, in which St. Gregory expounds the doctrine of the Holy Trinity; - reasoning on moral and canonical (Letters 17, 21) issues. In these letters, the saint points out the qualities that are desirable to see in a candidate for bishopric and the rules of life that are obligatory for him; - important information about liturgical practice and church architecture of the time (Letters 4, 25). In the Letter 4 St. Gregory talks about why the feast of the Nativity of Christ is celebrated on the day of the winter solstice, and not the spring equinox. In Letter 25, addressed to St. Amphilochius of Iconium, the saint describes parts of the “martyrion” - the church in honor of the martyrs: the letter is one of the important sources on church archeology. Some letters are recommendations or solicitations (Letters 7-8). Contents 1. Gregory of Nyssa to Flavian 2. About those who undertake journeys to Jerusalem 3. Truly to the most honorable and reverent sisters Eustathia and Ambrose and the most honorable and honorable daughter Vasilisa, Gregory 4. To Eusebius 5. Epistle to those who do not trust the Orthodox faith, at the request of [Christians] Sebastia [written] 6. Aulavius the bishop 7. Jeria the hegemon 8. Antiochian 9. Stagirius 10. Otreius, bishop of Melitina 11. Eupatius the scholastic 12. Himself 13. Libanius 14. Libanius the sophist 15. John and Maximian 16. Strategius 17. Presbyters of Nicomedia 18. Otreius, Bishop of Melitina 19. Letter to a certain John about various subjects, also about the way and order of life of his sister Macrina 20. To Adelphius the scholastic 21. Bishop Aulavius 22. Bishops 23. Unwritten 24. Heretic Heraklion 25. Amphilochius 26. Sophista Stagirios to Gregory the Bishop 27. Answer of Saint Gregory to the Sophist 28. Letter 28 29. To his brother Peter, Bishop of Sebaste 30. Peter, Bishop of Sebaste, to Gregory of Nyssa, his brother Additions 38. Letter 38 74. Theodore 1. Gregory of Nyssa to Flavian Our affairs are not in a good position, man of God. For the malice that grows in people who harbor unjust and undeserved hatred towards us is no longer suspected by some guesswork, but is revealed openly with boldness, as if it were some good deed. You, who have not yet been threatened by this evil, do not care about stopping the flames raging in your neighborhood; meanwhile, people who prudently take care of their own (property) with great zeal extinguish the fire of their neighbors, and thus helping their neighbors, make their help unnecessary in such circumstances. But what am I talking about? Reverence has become scarce in the world, truth has departed from us (Ps. 11:2); Previously, although the name of peace was in all of our mouths, now not only do we not have peace, but even its very name is not left. In order to make it clearer to you what I am complaining about, I will briefly outline to you the tragedy itself. Some reported that the most venerable Helladius is hostile against us and spreads among everyone that I have become the author of the greatest evils for him. I did not trust what they said, meaning myself and (my) correctness in matters. But when the same thing began to reach us unanimously from everyone, and when deeds began to correspond to the rumors, then I considered it decent not to leave this hostile disposition, which had not yet taken root and had not grown, without treatment. Therefore, I carefully occupied myself with this subject, sending letters both to your piety and to many others who could be useful in some way in the present matter. Finally, having performed the commemoration of Most Blessed Peter, which was performed for the first time among the Sebastians, and the memory of the holy martyrs, which they usually celebrated at the same time as this commemoration, was usually celebrated, I returned back to my church. When someone let me know that Helladius was in the neighboring mountains, commemorating the martyrs, I at first continued on my previous path, reasoning that it would be more decent to arrange a meeting in the main regional city. But when one of my acquaintances deliberately met me on the way and assured me that he was sick, I left the cart at the place where this rumor reached me and made the rest of the journey, rocky and impassable due to steep climbs, on horseback. The distance between us was fifteen furlongs. Having crossed some of them on foot, others with difficulty on horseback, early in the morning, having even taken part of the night, at the first hour of the day I arrived in Andumokina. This is the name of the area where he and the other two bishops conducted church ministry. Seeing from a distance, from a certain hill above the village, that a church meeting had gathered in the open air, we immediately set off on foot to this place, I and my companions, leading the horses; so both happened at the same time - and he returned home from church, and we approached the church of the martyrs. Without the slightest delay, a man was sent from us to announce our arrival; after a short time, the deacon serving him met us, whom we asked to notify him as soon as possible, so that we could stay with him longer and find (enough) time for a complete explanation and healing of all (misunderstandings) between us. After this, I sat down in the open air, waiting to see if anyone would call us, and was an untimely sight for everyone who came to the meeting. A lot of time has passed; Moreover, drowsiness, despondency, fatigue from the journey, which intensified despondency, intense heat, people looking at us and pointing fingers at us - all this was so difficult for me that the word of the Prophet was justified on me: “my spirit is depressed within me” (Ps. 142:4). It was already one o'clock in the afternoon, and I began to greatly repent of this adventure, as if I myself had given rise to such dishonor. But more severe suffering than the insults of my enemies was caused to me by my own thoughts, which in some way fought with each other and, with later reflection, condemned what I had assumed. Finally, as soon as the royal chambers were opened to us and we entered the sanctuary, the people were forbidden to enter here, but my deacon entered with me, who supported my body with his hand, weakened from fatigue. Having greeted Helladius and stood for a while, waiting to see if there would be an invitation to sit down, since nothing of the sort came, I turned and sat down on one of the far steps, waiting to see if he would tell us something friendly, humane, or, at least, if he would show us something like that with a glance. But everything was contrary to our expectations, on his part there was silence, as if at night, tragic embarrassment, surprise, amazement and complete silence; A lot of time passed in silence, as if in the middle of the night. I was especially amazed that he did not deign to answer us with at least an ordinary word, as is usually the case between people when meeting, for example: welcome, or where are you coming from, or why, or what is the purpose of your arrival? This silence seemed to me like living in hell. However, I do not recognize this comparison as correct, because in hell there is perfect equality of positions; since nothing that constitutes the tragedy of life on earth outrages those who are there; for, as the Prophet says, glory does not descend with people (Ps. 48:18); but the soul of each, having left everything that most people now care about, I mean arrogance, exaltation, pride, simply and without any embellishment moves to the underworld, and none of the local misfortunes touch them. But what was then really seemed to me either hell, or a dark prison, or some other gloomy place of punishment, when I thought about what good customs we were heirs from our fathers and what our descendants would say about us. What can we say about the loving relationship between fathers? There is nothing surprising in the fact that people, being all equally honest by nature, did not want to have anything more than one another, but out of humility they were ready to consider each other greater than themselves. But it especially occurred to me that the Lord of all creation, the Only Begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Fathers, Who is in the beginning, in the image of God, bearing all things with the word of His power, not only humbled Himself by being established in the flesh in human nature, but He also allowed His betrayer Judas, who approached with a kiss, to come to His lips, and entered into the house of Simon The leper, as a lover of mankind, reproached him for not greeting Him with a kiss. I wasn’t even compared to a leper. Who? Whom? I can't find the differences. Where did he come from? Where am I defeated? If only someone begins to pay attention to worldly advantages. For if anyone begins to analyze the (advantages) of the flesh, then, probably, without offense, we can say that both of us have equal honor and nobility and freedom. If anyone begins to seek true freedom and nobility in the soul, then we are both equally slaves of sin, we equally need the One who takes away sins; not we, but He delivered us with His blood from death and sins, He redeemed us, and did not show any exaltation in relation to the redeemed, calling the dead to life, healing every disease, both soul and body. Because this pride in relation to us and this height of arrogance almost reached the heights of heaven; but I did not see any reason or reason for such indignation, which would excuse this illness (they suffer from this illness due to certain circumstances, when either origin, or education, or the superiority of some merits puff up people of vain disposition); then I did not know how to keep myself calm, since my heart was agitated by the recklessness of everything that was happening, and could not keep my thoughts within the limits of patience. At this time, I was filled with special surprise at the divine Apostle, who so clearly depicted the battle taking place in us, saying that in our hearts there is a certain law of sin, which is at war with the law of the mind and often captivates and subjugates the mind (Rom. 7:23). I felt such a battle between two opposing thoughts within myself: one irritated me for being offended by arrogance, the other moderated my excitement. After, by the grace of God, the worst impulse did not prevail, I said to him: “Does my arrival prevent you from healing your body and is it not time for me to leave?” When he replied that he did not need to worry about healing his body, I told him a few soothing words as possible. When he indicated in a few words that he was upset by many insults on our part, I answered him like this: “Lies have great power of deception among people; but the judgment of God cannot be deceived by deceit; my conscience in all matters concerning you is so calm that it allows me to pray for forgiveness of my other sins; if I have done anything against you, then let it remain forever without forgiveness.” Offended by these words, he no longer wanted to listen to further explanations. It was more than six o'clock, there was a decent bathhouse, and food was being prepared - it was Saturday and the Feast of Martyrs. And how does a disciple of the Gospel imitate the Master of the Gospel? He, when he ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners, answered those who reproached him that he was doing this out of love for mankind; this one considers it lawlessness and an insult to communicate at a meal after such labor as we suffered on the journey, after the heat in which we baked when we sat in the open air at his door, after the sad humiliation that we suffered in his eyes; and he sends us back to our previous place along the same route, when our bodies are already exhausted from weakness and fatigue; so, having suffered many more misadventures along the way, we barely reached our companions late in the evening, because a cloud, suddenly driven by a storm in the air, soaked us with heavy rain to the very bones; and due to the excessive heat, we did not stock up on anything to protect ourselves from the rain. But by the grace of God, as if having been delivered from the storm and shipwreck, we joyfully reached our companions, and having rested at night, we, together with others, reached our places alive and safe, having taken from this meeting only that the insult we had recently received renewed in our memory everything that had happened before. Now necessity forces us to think about ourselves, or better yet about ourselves; for the very fact that his intentions, revealed in his previous actions, did not receive a rebuff, led him to such exorbitant arrogance. Therefore, in order for him to become better than he is, perhaps I, on my part, need to do something so that he learns that he is a man and that he has no right to offend and dishonor people who think the same way and are equally honest with him. Let's say that something unpleasant was actually done on my part for him. Has any trial taken place against us for actual or suspected actions? What evidence proved us wrong? What rules were brought against us? What lawful episcopal verdict confirmed our condemnation? If there was anything like that, then according to the laws, in any case, there would be a danger relative to the degree. And what canons legitimize insulting free people and dishonoring those of equal honor? Judge the righteous judgment, you who turn your eyes to God, how can you excuse the dishonor done to us? If we take into account the dignity of the priesthood, then both of us have been given equal and identical rights by the council, or, better, we have been equally entrusted with the care of correcting common affairs. If someone, leaving aside the dignity of the priesthood, pays attention to ourselves, then in what way does one of us have an advantage over the other? Like? In education? In freedom of relations with the noble and noble? In knowledge? All this can be found here either to an equal extent, or at least not to a lesser extent. Maybe they will start talking about wealth? God forbid it comes to the need to talk about him from this side; It is enough to indicate only one thing, what he was in the beginning and what he has become now, and invite others to investigate the ways in which (his) wealth has increased, until now it has been growing almost every day and, as it were, nourished by good orders. So, what power does he have to insult us, when there is no superiority of birth, no advantage of merit, no excess of power in speech, no previous service? Even if all this were true, then even in this case the offense towards the free is not excusable. But since there is nothing like that, I don’t think we would do well to leave such a disease of pride without treatment. Healing consists in subduing exaltation, destroying this empty pout, so that the proud arrogance will somewhat dissipate. How to achieve this, let us leave it to God’s care. 2. About those who undertake journeys to Jerusalem Since you, beloved, asked me in a letter, I considered it appropriate to answer you about everything in order. For those who have once devoted themselves to a higher kind of life, I consider it very useful for them to constantly turn to the words of the Gospel. And as those who level something with a rule, the crooked things in their hands are made straight by the straightness of the rules; So, I think, I should, applying to my actions, as it were, some kind of direct and unchangeable rule, I mean a way of life according to the Gospel, according to it, direct myself to God. So, since there are people who have chosen the monastic and hermit life, who consider it a matter of piety to visit places in Jerusalem in which monuments of the Lord’s presence in the flesh are visible, then it would be good for them to look at the rule, and if the guidance of the commandments requires this, then do this work, as the commandment of the Lord. If this is not in the Lord’s commandments, then I don’t know where it would be commanded to want to do something, making oneself a law in choosing what is good. Where the Lord calls the blessed to inherit the kingdom of heaven, He did not count the journey to Jerusalem among the good deeds. Where He proclaims beatitudes, He did not include their zeal for this. Let him who has intelligence think about why try to do something that does not make him blessed or close to the kingdom of heaven? Even if this thing was useful, in this case it is not so good for perfect people to be jealous about it. But since this matter, upon careful consideration, turns out to bring spiritual harm to those who have chosen a strict life, it should not be the subject of special jealousy, but of the greatest caution, so that those who decide to live according to God do not experience any harm. What's harmful about this? A pious lifestyle is obligatory for everyone - both husbands and wives, but the distinguishing feature of a wise life is chastity; and it is preserved with an unmixed and separate way of life, so that nature is not offended by the mixing and close proximity of either women with men, or men with women, as long as they strive to maintain chastity. But during a journey, necessity always leads to a breach of caution and to indifference in observing the rules; for it would be inconvenient for a woman to make such a long journey if she did not have a guardian; due to physical weakness, she is lifted (by someone) onto a pack animal, and descended from it, and in difficult cases is supported. And in order to lift, you need to have either an acquaintance who would perform this service, or a mercenary who would serve; in both cases, criticism is inevitable here. For whether he entrusts himself to someone else’s or to his own, he does not preserve the law of chastity. And since in eastern countries, in inns, in hotels and cities, there is a lot of debauchery and opportunity for sin, how can it be that the eyes of one walking in the smoke will not hurt? Where the hearing is defiled, the sight is also defiled, the heart is also defiled, accepting indecent things through sight and hearing. How can one pass dispassionately through places where passions operate? And what more will the one who visits these places receive, as if the Lord still physically dwells in them, but has moved away from us, or as if the Holy Spirit abounds among the Jerusalemites, but cannot come to us? On the contrary, if we conclude about the presence of God from what we see, then one would rather think that God is more present among the Cappadocians than in other places. For how many altars do they have, at which the name of God is glorified! There is hardly anyone in the whole universe who can count so many altars. Then, if there had been great grace in the places of Jerusalem, then sin would not have entered into those living there. And now there is no form of uncleanness that they would not dare to commit; they have wickedness, and adultery, and theft, and idolatry, and poisoning, and envy, and murder; especially among them there is usually the last kind of evil, so that nowhere is there such a readiness to kill as in these places; fellow tribesmen, like animals, seek each other’s blood for the sake of vile self-interest. So, where this happens, how will you prove that there is great grace in these places? But I know that many people object to my words. They say: why didn’t you prescribe this law for yourself? For if there is no benefit for someone who lives according to God to be there, why did you take such a path in vain? Listen to my justification for this. By the necessity in which I was assigned to live by the Ruler of our life, I happened to be in those places for the sake of the holy Council convened for the organization of the Arabian Church. And since Arabia is adjacent to the country of Jerusalem, I promised the primates of the holy churches of Jerusalem to come to them for a conference, since matters were in confusion and they needed a mediator. Moreover, the most pious emperor made the journey easier by providing a public chariot, and therefore there was no need for me to endure what, as they learned, others endure. For the chariot was both a church and a monastery for us, where we sang to the Lord together all the way and fasted. So, let no one be tempted by us, only our advice should be more convincing, because we advise about what we have seen with our own eyes. That the revealed Christ is the true God, we confessed this even before we were in place, and after this our faith did not decrease or increase. We knew about the incarnation through the Virgin before we were in Bethlehem; and we believed in the resurrection from the dead before we saw the tomb; They confessed that the rapture was true before they saw the Mount of Olives. The only thing that benefited us from the journey was that in comparison we learned that we have more holiness than other countries. Therefore, you who fear the Lord, praise Him in the places where you are. For a change of place does not bring God closer to us. But wherever you are, the Lord will come to you if the abode of your soul turns out to be such that the Lord can dwell in you and walk (Lev. 26:12). And if your inner man is full of evil thoughts, then even if you were on Golgotha, even on the Mount of Olives, even under the monument of the resurrection, you are as far from accepting Christ into yourself as those who have not even confessed the beginning of faith. So, beloved, advise the brothers from the body to travel to the Lord, and not from Cappadocia to Palestine. If anyone points out against this the word of the Lord, who commanded the disciples not to leave Jerusalem, let him understand the meaning of what was said. since the grace of the Holy Spirit and the distribution (of His gifts) had not yet been communicated to the apostles, the Lord ordered them to remain in the same place until they were clothed with power from above. If what was said continued to this day, that is, if the Holy Spirit were to distribute gifts to everyone in the form of fire, then everyone should be in the place where the distribution of gifts takes place. And if the Spirit breathes where it wills, then here too those who believe become partakers of the gift because of the similarity of faith, and not because of the journey to Jerusalem. 3. Truly to the most honorable and reverent sisters Eustathia and Ambrose and the most honorable and honest daughter Vasilisa, Gregory “rejoice in the Lord” (Acts 15:23) Meeting with kind and pleasant people and the monuments of the Lord’s great love for us, which were shown to me on the spot, were for me the subject of the greatest joy and fun; because in both of these the feast of God was revealed to me: both in the fact that I saw the saving traces (of being here) of the God who revived us, and in the fact that I met souls in whom the same signs of the grace of the Lord are spiritually contemplated, so that you believe that truly in the heart of the one who has God is Bethlehem, Golgotha, the Mount of Olives, the Resurrection. For in whom Christ was imagined through a good conscience and who, having nailed his flesh with Divine fear, was crucified with Christ, and putting away from himself the heavy stone of worldly flattery, and emerging from the bodily tomb, began to walk as if in newness of life; who, having left the low and low life of man and ascended with high fiery love into a heavenly dwelling, philosophizing “on high” (abides there) “where Christ is” (Col. 3, 1–2); who, not burdened by the plumpness of the flesh, has become so light through a purer life that the flesh accompanies him to heaven like a cloud; that, in my opinion, is one of the above-mentioned villages, in which monuments of the Lord’s love for us are visible. So, since I saw holy places with my sensory gaze, and also saw in you clear signs of such places, I was filled with such joy that no word can convey. But since, as usual, it is difficult, if not impossible, for a person to enjoy any good without an admixture of evil; then, in my taste of sweets, a certain sensation of bitterness was mixed; why, after pleasantly enjoying the joyful things, I again returned to my fatherland saddened, reasoning that the word of the Lord is true: “the whole world lies in evil” (1 John 5:19); so that no part of the universe is free from its share of evil. For if a place that has received the holy trace of true life is not free from evil thorns, what should one think about other places to which participation in good is imparted through hearing and preaching alone? What I mean by this, I say this, there is absolutely no need to express it in words, since the deeds themselves speak louder than any loud voice about these regrettable (things). The Lawgiver of our life legitimized one enmity for us - I mean enmity towards the serpent, and did not command us to show the power of hatred in anything else except in aversion from evil. “I will put enmity,” He says, “between you and him” (Gen. 3:15). Since evil is different and multiform, the word of God makes it understandable under the image of a serpent, with the thick layering of its scales signifying the diversity of evil. But by fulfilling the desires of the enemy, we became allies of the serpent, and turned our hatred towards each other, or better yet, not towards ourselves, but towards Him who gave the commandment. For He says: “Love your sincere one, and hate your enemy” (Matthew 5:43), commanding that only the enemy of our nature be recognized as an enemy, but everyone who has a common nature with us, calling each of us neighbor. But our hard-hearted age, having removed us from our neighbors, has caused us to warm the serpent and enjoy the diversity of its scales. I am saying that hatred of God’s enemies is legal, and this kind of hatred is pleasing to the Lord. I call enemies everyone who in any way denies the glory of the Lord - whether they be Jews, or open idolaters, or, according to the teachings of Arius, making the creature an idol for themselves and reproducing the error of the Jews. If the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are piously honored and receive worship from believers, and in the unfused and indivisible Holy Trinity one nature, glory, kingdom, and power over all is recognized, then can enmity be justified by a valid reason? When heretical dogmas prevailed, then, with danger to oneself, opposing the authorities (which seemed to support the teachings of opponents), so that the saving word would not be enslaved by human authorities, was a good thing; Now, when piety is clearly preached throughout the entire universe, from one end of heaven to the other, he who is at enmity against the preachers of piety wages war not with them, but with Him Who is piously preached by them. For what other purpose should he have who has divine zeal than to proclaim the glory of God in every way? For as long as the Only Begotten God is worshiped with all the heart, soul and mind, with faith from everyone, that He is the same as the Father; in the same way, as long as the Holy Spirit is glorified by single-honest worship; Can those who think without measure have any plausible reason for war, tearing apart the unsewn tunic, dividing the name of the Lord between Paul and Cephas, disdaining approaching those who worship Christ, and almost openly declaring this with the words: “Further from me, do not come near me, for I am pure”! May they be given a little more knowledge than they think they have achieved. And what greater knowledge is there than to believe that the true Son of God is the true God? With the confession of Him as the true God, all the pious and saving concepts are connected: that He is good, righteous, strong, unchangeable, does not become different, is always the same, cannot change either for the worse or for the better, because the first is contrary to His nature, and the second is impossible; for what can be higher than the highest, what is more perfect than all that is temporary? So, contemplated in all the perfection of good, He, in relation to every type of change, has the property of immutability and did not manifest it in Himself at one time, but was always the same: both before the time of the economy (salvation), and during the economy itself, and after that; He did not change anything in his unchangeable and inapplicable nature into a form inconsistent with this nature in his actions towards us. For incorruptibility and immutability by nature always remains the same and does not change along with the lower nature when it is united with it according to the economy, like the sun, which, throwing a ray into darkness, does not darken the light of the ray, but through the ray transforms darkness into light. So the true light, which shone in our darkness, was not itself darkened by darkness, but illuminated the darkness. since the human race was in darkness, as it is written: “Without knowledge, without understanding, they walk in darkness” (Ps. 81, 5); then He who illuminated the darkened nature, having directed the ray of Divinity into our entire composition - I mean soul and body, made humanity a participant in His own light, through close unity with Himself, making it what He Himself is. And just as the Divinity did not undergo corruption, being in a corruptible body, so it did not become different and did not change, healing the changeability of our soul. Likewise, in the art of medicine, the one who treats the body, although he touches the sick person, does not himself become sick, but heals the sick person. Let no one, however, misunderstand the saying of the Gospel, think that our nature in Christ, as a result of perfection, was gradually transformed into a more divine one; because the expressions: to prosper “in wisdom and in stature and in grace” (Luke 2:52) are used in the narrative of Scripture to prove that the Lord truly perceived our nature, so that there would not be an opinion of those who claim that instead of a true theophany, some ghost appeared in the form of a bodily image. Therefore, Scripture is not ashamed to tell about Him what is characteristic of our nature, (mentioning) about eating, drinking, sleep, fatigue, nutrition and progress in bodily age, growth - about everything that constitutes a distinctive property of our nature, except for the attraction to sin. For sin is not an essential property of our nature, but a deviation from it. Just as both illness and deformity are not inherent in our nature from the beginning, but constitute an unnatural phenomenon; Likewise, activity directed towards evil should be recognized as some kind of distortion of the good that is innate to us; We understand evil not as something independent in our nature, but we look at it as the absence of only good. Therefore, he who transformed our nature, giving it Divine power, kept it within himself free from shortcomings and illness, without accepting the damage to the will that occurred from sin. “He did not commit sin,” says Scripture, “lest flattery be found in His mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22). And we perceive this property in Him not after any period of time, but immediately after becoming (incarnate) in Mary a man in whom Wisdom has made a home for itself. By human nature, He came from a substance subject to passions, but together with the influx of the Holy Spirit and the overshadowing of the power of the Most High, He immediately became what He who overshadowed Him was by nature. For “without any contradiction the lesser of the greater” is blessed (Heb. 7:7). So, since the power of the Divine is something infinite and immeasurable, and human nature is fleeting and insignificant, then how quickly the Spirit descended on the Virgin and the Power of the Highest overshadowed Her; the tabernacle, erected in this way, did not attract to itself anything from human corruption, so that in this composition, although there was a man, at the same time there was the Spirit, and grace, and power; the peculiarity of our nature was illuminated (in him) by an excess of Divine power. And since there are two limits to human life: one from which we begin, and the other when we cease to live; then it was necessary for the Physician to embrace us all our lives from these two limits, so that, having perceived our beginning and end, from both sides he would lift up the sorrow of the one who lies down. So, what we see at the end of earthly existence, we argue the same about its beginning. For how, according to the economy (salvation), He allowed the body to be dissolved from the soul, and the indivisible Divinity, once united with our nature, was not separated either from the soul or from the body, but being with the soul in paradise, through the thief opened the entrance to it for people, while with the body being in the heart of the earth, it destroyed the one who had the power of death (which is why the body itself is called Lord due to the presence of the Divine in it); Likewise, he argues about the soul that the power of the Most High, through the influx of the Holy Spirit, mixed with our entire nature, began to exist in our soul, as it befits it to be in the soul, and united with the body, so that our salvation would be complete in all respects; Moreover, both at the beginning of human life and at the end of it, the Divinity retains divine and high immortality. For neither the beginning of His life is like the beginning of ours, nor the end of it is like our end, but both there and here He demonstrated Divine power, since its beginning was not defiled by passion, nor the end ended in corruption. So, if we proclaim and testify that Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, always unchangeable, always incorruptible, although He dwelt in a corruptible body, Himself undefiled, but cleansing what was defiled, what is wrong with that and why are we hated? And what does this construction of new altars against us mean? Do we preach a different Jesus or point to a different one? Do we explain other scriptures? Did any of us dare to call the Holy Virgin Mother of God the Mother of Man, as we hear some of them boldly call her? Are we talking about three resurrections? Or are we proclaiming a thousand-year gluttony? Or are we talking about reinstating the Jewish slaughter of animals? Do we turn the hopes of people towards the Jerusalem below, conceiving its restoration from a substance more beautiful than stones? Is there anything behind us for which, in the opinion of some, they should flee from us and build another altar against us, as if we were desecrating a holy thing? Feeling irritation and sorrow in my heart from such (injustices), I immediately upon returning to my main regional city decided to write to your love in order to free my soul from bitterness. But abide in that to which the Holy Spirit will lead you, walking after God, without being attached to flesh and blood, without giving any reason to boast (of you), so that they do not boast in you and their love of glory does not increase because of your life. Remember the holy fathers to whom you were entrusted by your blessed father and whom we have been honored by the grace of God to be successors. Do not transgress the limits which our fathers laid down, do not despise the language of simpler preaching, and do not give preference to various subsequent doctrines, but conform to the ancient rule of faith, and may the God of peace be with you, sound in soul and body. May the Lord keep you incorruption, for which we pray. 1. When in winter the length of the day begins to increase, with the gradual rise of the sun in the sky, then we celebrate the Epiphany of the true light that has shone upon human life in the flesh; now, when the luminary has already reached in (its) course the middle of the sky, so that both day and night in relation to one another have an equal measure of duration, the ascent of human nature from death to life becomes for us the subject of that great and universal holiday, which is celebrated at this time by the entire human race, having accepted the sacrament of the Resurrection. 2. What will be the subject of my message? Since there is a custom during these national sacred months to express in all ways the disposition inherent in our souls, and many commemorate their joy by bringing gifts from themselves, we also considered that it was not fitting for us to pass by you without bestowing our gifts, but [that we should] greet your lofty and great-wise soul with a poor offering from our poverty. 3. We offer you our offering in this letter, and this is a letter of such a kind that there is not a single word in it, adorned with euphonious and skillfully composed expressions, for which the letter could be considered a gift from the wordsmiths, but may you be given a gift of mysterious gold, wrapped, as if with some kind of payment, in the Christian faith. I will try, through this letter, as much as possible, to reveal and discover its hidden brilliance. 4. So, we need to turn again to the beginning [of the letter]. What does it mean that precisely at the time when the night has reached its highest limit and ceases to increase in its duration, He who embraces everything and rules over everything with His power appears to us in the flesh, not embraced by everything, but containing everything and dwelling in the closest [dwelling], so that great power contributes to good will, and in the same way, wherever the will bends, there also power reveals itself. At the same time, neither in creation does the force turn out to be weaker than desire, nor in the intention to descend to our humiliated nature, by doing good to people, does it turn out to be powerless for this purpose, but, appearing in this state, does not leave the universe without control. 5. But since, without a doubt, there is some reason [for the timing of holidays] at one and another time, why does Christ appear in the flesh at that time, and at the equinox - again restores to life a person who was once resolved into the earth through sin (cf. Gen. 3:19)? Having stated [the reason for this] in words, as briefly as possible, I will present to you the Scripture itself as a gift. 6. Surely, with your insight, you have already seen the secret that the gradual increase in night ceases with the increase of light and darkness begins to decrease with the gradual increase in daylight? And for many others it is also perhaps clear that darkness has something akin to sin, which is why evil is called by this name in Scripture (cf. John 3:19; Rom. 13:12). 7. Therefore, the time at which the mystery of our [salvation] begins can serve as some explanation of the economy of our souls. For, with the already immeasurable spread of evil, it was necessary that the day of a virtuous life begin for us, with the help of the One who put such light into our souls, so that the bright life, increasing by success in good, would expand as widely as possible, and the life in evil, through a gradual decrease, would be reduced to the smallest dimensions. For an increase in good is a decrease in evil. 8. The equinox, which occurs on the Feast of the Resurrection, makes it clear that evil, having entered into a struggle with good with equal strength, will no longer oppose it as an equal, but bright life will overcome, with the cessation of the darkness of idolatry, with the increase of the day. 9. Why is it that the moon, having completed its secret course for fourteen days, turns its face to the sun’s rays, completely taking on all the abundance of brilliance and leaving no room for darkness in any part [of the night]. For, having received upon itself [the light] of the setting sun, it itself sets no earlier than its own [light] is mixed with the true rays of the sun, so that the light is always preserved, nowhere interrupted by the fall of darkness throughout the day and night. 10. This is for you, O Dear Head, a verbal offering to my weak hand, and may your whole life be a holiday and a great day, completely cleared of the darkness of the night. 5. Message to those who do not trust the Orthodox faith, at the request of [Christians] Sebaste [written] 1. Some of the brothers who are unanimous with us informed us about the slander against us spread by people who “hate the world” (Ps. 119:6), “who slander the secrets of their sincere ones” (Ps. 100:5) and who are not afraid of the terrible and great judgment seat of the One who announced that an account will be required even in idle words at the future judgment of our lives (cf. Matt. 12, 36). They say that our faults, which are spread by rumor, are as follows: that we think contrary to [the fathers] who expounded in Nicaea the right and “sound faith” (cf. 2 Tim. 4:3; Titus 1:13), and that we, without reasoning and testing, accepted into the communion of the universal Church people who once had meetings in Ancyra, [called] by the name of Marcellus. 2. Therefore, so that falsehood does not triumph over the truth, we have presented in other writings sufficient justification for the accusations brought against us and affirmed, [calling as witnesses] the Lord, that we did not depart from the faith of the holy fathers and did not do anything without reasoning and testing regarding those who were accepted into church communion from the congregation of Marcellus. But we did everything in agreement with the Orthodox and our co-servants in the East, who instructed us to take care of the work of these people and approved of what we had done. 3. Since, while we published this apology in writing, some of our like-minded brothers again demanded that we separately and in our own words present a statement of faith, which would fully convince that we follow in everything the inspired Scriptures and the tradition of the fathers, we considered it necessary to briefly discuss this. 4. We confess that the teaching of the Lord, which He offered to the disciples, giving them the sacrament of piety, is the basis and root of a right and sound faith, and we believe that there is nothing higher or firmer than this tradition. The teaching of the Lord is this: “As you go,” he says, “teach all tongues, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). So, since the life-giving power during rebirth from death to eternal life acts through the Holy Trinity in those worthy of grace with faith, and grace is equally imperfect when one of the names of the Holy Trinity is omitted in saving baptism (for it is not without the Spirit in the one Son and Father that the sacrament of rebirth is accomplished; nor without the mention of the Son in the Father and Spirit is the fulfillment of life in baptism; neither is the grace of resurrection achieved in the Father and the Son alone with the descent of the Spirit); therefore, we have all the hope and confidence in the salvation of our souls in the three Persons signified by these names, and we believe in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the source of life, and in the only begotten Son of the Father, who is the “Author of life,” as the Apostle says (Acts 3:15), and in the Holy Spirit of God, about whom the Lord said that “there is a Spirit who gives life” (Jn. 6, 63). And since for us, redeemed from death, the grace of incorruptibility, as we said, is accomplished in saving baptism through faith in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then, guided by this, we believe that nothing auxiliary, nothing created, nothing unworthy of the greatness of the Father is included in the Holy Trinity; since our life is one, which we achieve through faith in the Holy Trinity, flowing from the Father of all, occurring through the Son and accomplished in the Holy Spirit. Having this conviction, we are baptized as is customary, we believe as we are baptized, and we glorify as we believe, so that baptism, faith, and glorification happen unanimously in (the name of) the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If anyone says that there are two or three Gods or three Deities, let him be anathema. And whoever, in accordance with the corrupt teaching of Arius, says that the Son or the Holy Spirit came from the non-existent, let him be anathema. Those who agree with the rule of truth and confess the three Hypostases, recognized piously in their own properties; and they believe that there is one Divinity, one grace, one principle, and power, and strength, those who do not reject the powers of unity of command and do not fall into polytheism, do not merge the Hypostases and do not compose the Holy Trinity from foreign and dissimilar (entities), but in simplicity accept the dogma of faith, entrusting all hope of salvation to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - such, in our judgment, think the same way as us; with them we also pray to have a part in the Lord. As one would expect, the Lord preserved us, guided by your prayers, and I will tell you about the clear evidence of God’s favor towards us. For as soon as the sun appeared above the place that we had left behind us, we found large clouds and the clear weather gave way to deep darkness. A cold wind blowing from a cloud, wet, dampened our bodies, and threatened rain like never before; on the left side incessant thunder could be heard, and dazzling and continuous lightning preceded the thunderclaps; yet the mountains, both in front and behind, and on all sides, were covered with clouds. But the small cloud that was over our heads cleared up into rain after being blown away by a strong wind, and we, like the Israelites, miraculously led by God, surrounded on all sides by waters, quietly made our way to Vestina. Already when we stopped here and gave the mules a rest, God allowed the pouring rain to fall. After we had been here three or four hours and had rested sufficiently, God again held back the rain, and the cart rolled even faster than before, because the wheels rolled much more easily on the damp and slightly rain-wet ground. The road from this place to our city runs entirely along the river bank, following its current. Along the banks of the river there are constantly settlements, all of them are located along the road and are located at a short distance from each other. This entire road, due to the frequent dwellings on it, is constantly filled with people who either met or accompanied us and mixed copious tears with their joy. A little rain freshened the air, and not far from the town the hanging cloud cleared up into a heavy downpour, so that our arrival took place quietly, when no one expected our arrival. But as soon as we drove under the portico and the noise was heard from our cart due to the dryness of the soil, I don’t know where or how, as if by some miracle, people appeared in large numbers, crowding around us on all sides, so that it was impossible for us to even get off the cart, for it was impossible to find a place not occupied by people. We barely managed to beg to be given the opportunity to get out of the cart and give way to our mules; We were so pressed on all sides by the flocking people that their excessive affection for us almost became the cause of fainting. When, walking along the gallery, we found ourselves not far from the entrance (to the church), we saw a fiery stream flowing into the church; for the choir of virgins, carrying wax candles in their hands, moved in regular rows towards the entrance of the Church, illuminated from all sides by lights. Having entered the church and sharing both joy and tears with the people (for it was impossible not to experience both, seeing the expression of the same feelings), I finished my prayers together, and, tormented by thirst, hastened to write this letter to your holiness, so that after the letter I could begin to satisfy the needs of my body. We have a law commanding us to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice (Rom. 12:15); but of the two parts of this law, only one usually finds application in life, because there are very few people who rejoice, so it is not easy to find those with whom we could sympathize in their happiness; those who fulfill the other part are a great multitude. I say this as a preface to that unfortunate tragedy that some evil demon played out among those who have long been known for their nobility. A young man of noble birth, named Synesius, not alien to my family, in the prime of his years, almost not yet beginning to live, is in great danger, from which only God can save him, and after God you, to whom the power has been entrusted to confirm the verdict of death and life. The misfortune happened involuntarily, and who voluntarily wants to be unhappy? And now the misfortune is being charged to him as a crime by those who started this criminal trial against him. But I will try to convince these with my own letters to leave their anger; I ask you, so that your benevolence is inseparable from justice in relation to us, so that your philanthropy prevails over the misfortune of the young man, to invent all means so that the young man gets rid of danger, having defeated, with your assistance, the evil demon rebelling against him. In short, I have said everything I wish; I will not discuss in detail how best to bring this matter to an end; for it is not for me to talk about this, and it is not for you to listen to instructions. What especially excites the astonishment of the wise men about the king of Macedon (for they are surprised not so much at his victories in Media and his exploits in India and along the shores of the ocean, but at his saying that his treasure lies in his friends), I myself dare to exalt myself; As for this wondrous saying of his, it is fitting for me to say the same words. Because I am rich in friends and, perhaps, in this acquisition I surpass even the one who boasted about it. Did he have a friend like you, who strives to surpass himself in every kind of virtue? No one, of course, can suspect these words of mine as flattery if they pay attention to my years and your life; for flattery no longer suits gray hair and old age is incapable of flattering speech; praise for you, even if it was just flattery, cannot be suspected of flattery, when life speaks better than any words about your merits. And since the rich are characterized by the ability to use the benefits that they have; the best use of wealth is to offer friends the goods that you own; the friend closest to me in terms of nobility in all respects is my beloved son Alexander; then let me show him my treasure, and not only show him, but also give him the opportunity to be abundantly satisfied with it when you provide him with your assistance in that for which he comes to you, needing your protection. But he will tell everything himself, because it will be much more decent than for me to write about everything in detail in this letter. They say that actors in theaters produce such wonderful things: having taken a story from history or some of the ancient narratives as the content of their amazing performance, they themselves tell the audience a story and thus represent historical events in person. By putting on costumes and masks and, with the help of curtains, presenting some semblance of a city near the orchestra, and adapting the open area of ​​the stage for a live imitation of the actions, they excite wonder in the audience; they themselves imitate historical acts, and the curtains represent, as it were, a city. But why am I talking about this? Since we do not need to show the city to those who come as if it were a city, I ask you to become a resident of our city for a while, if only to appear to them (I will try to make the deserted place seem like a city); because for you the path is small, and the pleasure that you will bring is very significant. For we wish to show ourselves to the guests in the greatest possible splendor, adorning ourselves, instead of any other decoration, with your splendor. 10. Otreius, Bishop of Melitina What flowers, what voices of songbirds are so pleasant in spring, is the calm sea caressed so much by light and pleasant winds, does a field either abundant with crops or waving with fruitful ears amuse the farmer, how much is the spiritual spring, arising from your pacifying light, thanks to the brilliance of your letters, joyful in the midst of sorrow for our life? Thus, perhaps, it would be fitting for us to apply the prophetic word to real blessings: “Because of the multitude of my illnesses in my heart, the consolations” of God, thanks to Your kindness, “rejoiced our soul” (Ps. 93:19), like the rays of the sun, warming our life, frozen from the cold. For both have equally reached their highest degree, I speak of the burden of our sorrows and the sweetness of your kindness. And if only with the good news of your arrival you rejoiced us so much that in all of us extreme sadness was replaced by bright joy, then what will your appearance alone not do when you arrive to us, a venerable and kind man. What consolation our soul will receive by listening to your sweet voice! But may all this be fulfilled as soon as possible with the help of God, who gives peace to the faint-hearted and consolation to the contrite! But know about us that when we look at ourselves, we greatly grieve over the present circumstances, and our enemies do not cease (to persecute us); but when we turn our thoughts to your venerability, we confess that great is the mercy of the Lord who arranges everything for the good, because we are allowed in the neighborhood to enjoy your pleasant and kind disposition towards us and to be satisfied as much as we want with such food, if only it were possible to ever be satisfied with it! “Good gods, what a day you have given me! O joy! I hear my son and my grandson arguing with each other about courage” (Odyssey. Song 24, v. 510). Looking for a decent beginning that would be directly characteristic of writing, in my usual readings, talking about (sacred) Scripture, I could not find anything that could be used; not because I could not find anything suitable there, but because I consider it unnecessary to write such things to those who do not know (the Scriptures). For studying external sciences serves as proof to us that you do not have the slightest concern for the divine sciences. So, I will not talk to you about them, but will begin with your learning about what is familiar to you. The teacher of your science depicts how someone, according to the custom of the elders, rejoiced after his long sorrow, seeing before him his son and together the grandson from this son, who serves as an object of joy. The competition between Odysseus and Telemachus for superiority in courage, which is still remembered by the Cephallines, is very suitable for the purpose of our word. Because you and your amazing father, having now divided me between each other, like those of Laertes, are trying to surpass all noble men in respect and favor towards me, he is from there, and you are from Cappadocia, showering me with letters. What am I, old man? I consider the happiest day when I see such competition between a son and his father. So, never cease to justify the just desires of your kind and wondrous father for you and try to surpass your father’s glory with wonderful deeds. For both of you I will be a pleasant judge: giving preference to you over your father, and to your father before you. We will imagine Ithaca, a country rough not so much because of the rocky soil, but because of the roughness of the morals of the inhabitants; in it there are many suitors and destroyers of the property of the woman for whom they are wooing, and thereby insulting the bride, who threaten chastity with marriage, acting, as I think, worthy of some Melanthe (Penelope’s maid) or another similar one. And there is no one who can master a bow perfectly anywhere! How I started talking, as is my old age’s custom, about subjects that are not at all decent for us! But may this be forgiven me condescendingly for the sake of my old age! For it is natural that in old people, just as the eyesight weakens and all the limbs droop from the relaxation of the senile, so talkativeness appears in conversation. You, as befits a young man, by greeting us with quick and lively speeches, you will, as it were, rejuvenate old age, helping the elderly with wonderful and decent care for old age. 1. Usually the beauty of spring does not come suddenly, but the harbingers of this time of year are the rays of the sun, gently warming the hardened soil, flowers half-covered by the earth, and the wind blowing around the earth so that the productive and life-giving power of the air penetrates deeply into it. You can see barely green grass, and the return of birds that were driven out by the winter cold, and much more that can be called signs of spring rather than spring itself. But all this is pleasant, because it serves as a harbinger of even more pleasant things. 2. To what am I directing my speech? since the harbinger of what is precious in you, your favor, which has reached us through letters, is a good beginning of what we can expect from you; then we accept the love manifested in these letters, like the first flower of spring, and we beg you to give us the opportunity to quickly enjoy full spring in you. 3. For, as you well know, we suffered a lot of grief from the harshness and rudeness of the morals of the local inhabitants. And just as the ice on the roofs of houses gradually increases from the incoming water (I borrow a comparison from what happens with us), and the newly inflowing moisture, if it spreads over the frozen surface, itself freezes on the ice and increases its mass; so something similar is seen in the morals of the majority of the inhabitants of this place, so that they constantly come up with and invent something to upset them and add another to the evil committed before, and to this another, and again something new, and this happens continuously, and there is no limit to hatred and the increase of evil. So we need to pray a lot so that the grace of the Spirit will soon blow in, destroy the bitterness of hatred and break the hard ice of their malice. 4. Therefore, although spring is pleasant by its very nature, it is more desirable than itself for those who are waiting for you after such a winter. 5. So, let this joy not be slow to appear. In addition, when the day that is already sacred for us approaches, it would be more decent for the fatherland to adorn itself with its own, than for Pontus with our [virtues]. So, come, Beloved Head, bringing us an abundance of benefits - yourself; for this will be the fullness of our blessings. 1. I heard from one doctor a story about some strange action of nature. This is what he said: someone, he said, suffered from one of the most intractable diseases and reproached the art of medicine for the fact that it could do less than it promised. For no matter what they came up with to cure his illness, nothing was successful. Then, when he unexpectedly received some good news, a happy accident replaced the [medical] art and freed this man from the disease, whether because the soul at the same time affected the state of the body with an excess of joy, or for some other reason - I can’t say: I don’t have time to philosophize about such things, and the one who told about it did not indicate the reason [for such a phenomenon]. 2. But it seems to me that I now remembered this story in good time. For, feeling not as good as I would have liked (now there is no need to list exactly the reasons for all the sorrows that have befallen me since I was with you until now), I unexpectedly heard from someone about your letter, O only mentor, and then immediately received it and, having scanned what was written, immediately came to such a state of mind as if I had received praise from the whole world for some wonderful deeds. I so highly honor your commendable review, which you pleased us with in your letter. After that, the condition of my body immediately changed for the better, and now I myself am telling you the same strange story, because I read the same letter, first when I was sick, and then when completely healthy. 3. But enough of that. since Cynihius was the cause of this joy for me, how great are you, having the opportunity in the abundance of your good deeds to do good not only to us, but also to our benefactors! This benefactor of ours, as I said, was the reason and reason why we received a letter from you, and is therefore worthy of good deeds. If you want to know about our teachers, from whom, it seems, we have learned something, then you will find that they are Paul and John and other apostles and prophets, unless it seems impudent on our part to appropriate instruction from such men. If you speak about your wisdom, then those who know how to judge say that it flows from you, then spreading to everyone who is not alien to the art of eloquence. For I heard your disciple, my father and mentor, the wonderful Vasily, say this in front of everyone. Know that I did not benefit much from the instructions of teachers, that I did not live much in the community of my brother, and was only as much instructed by his divine language as was necessary to understand the ignorance of those who are not initiated into the secrets of eloquence; Then I myself, when I found free time, doing it with all diligence, was a passionate admirer of the beauty of your speech, and yet I could never achieve what I wanted. So, on the one hand, as soon as I judge myself, we did not have a single teacher (of eloquence); on the other hand, it would be impermissible to admit that your opinion about us is incorrect. In this case, of course, your words are also true, and we do not deserve to be rejected by the judge, like you. Let me have the courage to attribute to you the reason for such (successes). For if Vasily is the culprit of our eloquence, and he received the wealth of his words from your treasures; then we also own your riches, although we received them through others. This wealth is not great, but there is little water in the amphorae, but this water is from the Nile. According to some domestic institution, the Romans usually celebrate the holiday around that time of winter, when the sun, rising into the upper spaces of the sky, begins to increase the length of the day. The beginning of this month was considered sacred, and on this day, when guessing about the whole year, they carefully note various happy circumstances, joys and benefits. What do I mean by starting my letter this way? The fact that I spent this holiday, like those, rejoiced at receiving gold; for on that day there was gold in my hands, but not this ordinary gold that rulers love and which the rich give - a difficult, shameful and soulless acquisition, but that which for people with intelligence is above all wealth, truly the most beautiful gift, according to Pindar; I'm talking about your letter and the great wealth it contains. For it so happened that, going on that day to the main city of the Cappadocians, I met one of my friends, who gave me this gift - a letter, as if some kind of evidence of the holiday. I, very pleased with this happy circumstance, offered this treasure to everyone who was with me, and everyone used it fully, without any competition, and I did not suffer any damage from this; for, passing from hand to hand, the letter became everyone’s own wealth, because some, through constant reading, retained the sayings in their memory, while others entered them into notebooks; and, finally, it was again in my hands, giving me more pleasure than gold to the eyes of the rich. since in farmers (I take the comparison from the economic circle), praise for the previous ones arouses a greater desire to endure further labor; then allow us to repay you with what you yourself gave and therefore write to you in order to invite you to further correspondence. For the general benefit, I beg you not to think any more about what you threatened us with in hints at the end of the letter. For I say that your decision cannot be called good, that you condemn eloquence and decide to remain silent for the rest of your life only because some do bad things, betraying the Greek language for the sake of the barbarian and becoming hired soldiers, preferring military pay to the glory of eloquence. For who will speak if you carry out your cruel threat to eloquence? But it may be appropriate to recall here something from our Scripture. For our law commands those who have the opportunity to do good, not to look at the disposition of those to whom the benefit is shown; not so as to care only about the grateful and refuse to do good to the ungrateful, but to imitate the Provider of the universe, who allows everyone to participate in the blessings of creation - both good and evil (Matthew 5:45). With this in mind, wonderful husband, remain forever in life as you were in the past. For those who do not see the sun's light cannot prevent the existence of the sun. So, it is impossible to allow the brilliance of your eloquence to be darkened by the fact that there are people with darkened feelings of the soul. I beg Kinigius to avoid as much as possible the common illness that young men now suffer from, and to voluntarily engage in the science of eloquence. If he thinks differently about this, then it is fair to force him to do this and involuntarily, because those who have not previously studied the science of eloquence are now truly pitiful creatures and suffer great shame. And we Cappadocians are in need of almost all the things that make their owners happy, and we especially lack scribes. This circumstance was the reason for the long silence. For a lot of time has passed since I composed the “Condemnation of Heresy,” but I did not have a copyist; Such a lack of scribes rightly leads us to suspect laziness or inability to write anything. But since now, by the grace of God, a scribe and corrector of what was written has been found, I am sending you this work, not as a gift, as Isocrates says; for I do not think that it was of such a kind that the one who received it could consider it a valuable acquisition, but for the purpose that we could arouse (you) currently blooming with the forces of youth to fight against opponents, arousing youthful courage through the struggle itself. Perhaps something in this work will seem to you worthy of attention if you consider some of its parts, especially those that precede the controversy, in so far as they relate to the same subject; Likewise, some dogmatic research will not seem bad to you. But whatever you find there, read it exactly as it should to a mentor and corrector. This is what ball players usually do: positioned in a triangle, they throw the ball to each other, deftly taking it from one another on the fly, and deceiving the one who is in the middle; with a feigned movement of the face and some kind of hand sign, they pretend to the one who wants to catch the ball that they want to throw it to the right or left, but in fact they throw the ball in the direction opposite to where it will rush after him - and by cunning they destroy his hope. Many of us are doing exactly the same thing today; not caring about the matter, we skillfully play a ball game with people: instead of the true hopes that we arouse, by the cunning of our actions we deceive the souls of those who hoped in us. Letters filled with peacefulness, expressions of goodwill, signs of friendship, gifts, kind explanations in letters - all this is a feigned throwing of a ball apparently to the right side; but instead of the consequences expected from friendliness - accusations, intrigues, slander, gossip, censure, cunning luring of unilateral decisions. Blessed are you in your hopes, through which you acquire boldness towards God! But we beg you to turn your attention not to what is happening among us, but to the Master’s teaching in the Gospel; for what consolation in sorrows and hope that affairs will receive the desired outcome can one who surpasses him in misfortunes give to another? Scripture says: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). But you, most honorable man, act worthy of yourself, trust in God, and let the example of our misfortunes not prevent you from being beautiful and kind; entrust the beneficial and righteous outcome of affairs to the just God and act as Divine wisdom guides you. And Joseph, of course, was not upset by the envy of his brothers, therefore the anger of his half-bloods was for him the path to the kingdom. 17. To the Elders of Nicomedia “Father of generous gifts and God of all joy” (2 Cor. 1:3), who wisely arranges all things for good, may he guide you with his grace, may he draw you to himself, doing in you what is pleasing to himself, and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit descend upon you to heal you from all sorrow and grief, to excel in all good things, to pacify the Church and for the edification of your souls and to the praise of the glory of His name. We, in justifying ourselves with your love, say that we were not negligent in fulfilling the duties of (pastoral) supervision either in the previous time or after the death of Blessed Patrick; but there was a lot of turmoil among our churches, great is the decrepitude of the body, increasing, as it should, along with the years moving forward, great is your neglect towards us, because there was never a single stimulating word in the letter and no relation to our church, while blessed Euphrasius the bishop, with love, as if by some bonds, connected me, thanks to his high holiness, with himself and you. But even if before this the duty of love was not fulfilled either by us through supervision, or by your piety by inciting us to do so; but now we, calling for help to our strong desire and your prayer to God, pray to God that we can come to you as soon as possible, together receive consolation and try, with the guidance of God, to find means both to correct the misfortunes that have already occurred, and to protect ourselves from them in the future; so that you, divided by such disagreement that one seeks in one way or another to separate from the Church, will no longer be an object of ridicule for the devil, whose desires and actions, in contrast to Divine will, are that no one should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For you, brothers, know how we grieve, hearing from those who inform us about your affairs that there has been no change in the present situation, but the will of those who have once deviated (from the right path) is constantly carried away by the same desire. If water in a canal often overflows over an adjacent dam and, spilling on the sides, flows away from the riverbed; then, without filling up the place that caused the spill, it is difficult to return it to its previous flow, since it has already washed out the depression in the soil. Likewise, the desire of apostates, having once deviated from the direct and right faith out of a passion for controversy, goes deeper and deeper from habit and does not easily return to the former grace. Therefore, your affairs require a wise and great steward who knows how to manage them well, so that he is able to bring the disorderly deviation of this current back to the previous order, so that your pastures of piety will again bear rich fruits when irrigated by the influx of peace. Therefore, a lot of care and diligence in this matter is required from all of you, so that the Holy Spirit would indicate such a primate who would direct all his attention only to the work of God, without fixing his gaze on anything that is cared about in this life. For this, I think, is why the old law removed Levite from the inheritance of land property, so that he would have only God as the object of his acquisition, and would constantly keep this acquisition within himself, having no attachment to anything material; if some and we ourselves are indifferent to this, then let no one, with this in mind, do what he should not do. For what others do is not a law for ordinary people to do what is improper; but you need to pay attention to your own affairs, so that they are arranged as best as possible, so that those who have separated again enter into the harmony of the one body, and so that the spiritual world is restored by those who piously glorify God. For this, I think, when electing, it is most decent to pay attention to the good qualities that should distinguish the one appointed for primacy, and the apostolic word did not legitimize the inclusion of origin, wealth and worldly celebrity among the merits of a bishop. Although, of course, we do not reject all this if it naturally follows higher qualities, like a shadow follows a body, nevertheless we will value moral virtues more highly, even if they were not combined with external advantages. The prophet Amos was a goat shepherd, Peter was a fisherman, Andrew, his brother, and the exalted John were engaged in the same trade, Paul prepared tents, Matthew was a tax collector; like them, all the other apostles were neither consuls, nor military leaders, nor prefects, nor famous rhetoricians and philosophers, but poor and simple people, called to the apostleship from the most humble occupations. And despite all this, “their broadcasts went out into the whole earth and their words to the ends of the world” (Ps. 18:5). You see, he says, “your calling, brethren, is not to be much in wisdom according to the flesh, nor much in strength, nor much in nobleness: but God hath chosen the rest of the world” (1 Cor. 1:26-27). Perhaps even now someone in appearance, in the eyes of people, seems violent, as insignificant due to poverty or as not noble due to physical origin. But who knows whether the horn of the anointing of grace leans towards him, even if he were the least among high and noble people? What was more useful for Rome at the beginning, to elect to preside over one of the noble and most famous senators or the fisherman Peter, who had no worldly means to achieve celebrity? Did he have a house, did he have servants, land, whose income provided an abundance in everything? But being a stranger, without shelter and food, he was richer than all those who had it, because by having nothing he acquired for himself the whole of God. So the Mesopotamians, having famous rich men in their satrapies, recognized Thomas as the most worthy of all to preside among them, the Cretans - Titus, the Jerusalemites - Jacob; and we, Cappadocians, the centurion, who confessed the Divinity of the Lord during the sufferings of the cross, despite the fact that at that time there were many people famous for their origin, who had horses, and occupied first places in the council; and throughout the entire Church one can see that great people before God were preferred to those who had acquired worldly fame. I think that you should pay attention to the same thing at this time if you want to restore the ancient dignity of your church. For you know full well from the history of your city that from ancient times, until the city next to yours flourished, you had a capital and between the cities there was no one higher than yours; and now, although the beauty of the buildings has disappeared, but in terms of inhabitants, in terms of the number and celebrity of citizens, your city will not yield to the splendor of the ancient one. Therefore, it would be fitting that your way of thinking should not be below the dignity of the blessings that you possess, but that your care for the affairs before you should be equal to the celebrity of your city, so that you can find among the people a leader who would be worthy of you. For it is shameful, brothers, and completely foolish, if (the ship) does not have a helmsman, or the helmsman does not have knowledge in the art of steering the ship, and the one holding the helm of the church does not know how to guide the souls of those sailing with him to the harbor of God. For how many disastrous shipwrecks have already happened in the church due to the inexperience of the rulers! Who can count the misfortunes that have happened in our eyes that would not have happened if the leaders of the church had any government experience? And we entrust the iron for making things from it to those experienced in the art of blacksmithing, and not to those who do not know it; Likewise, souls must be entrusted to someone who understands well how to soften them with the fire of the Holy Spirit - to someone who, through the formation of rational organs, would prepare each of you as a vessel chosen and useful to God. The divine Apostle commands us to observe such prudence, in his Epistle to Timothy setting it as a law for all who hear him that “it is fitting for a bishop to be blameless” (1 Tim. 3:2). The Apostle is not only concerned about one thing, that the head of the priesthood should be just like that. And what special benefit would it be if this dignity resided in one person? The apostle knew that subordinates conform to the life of their superiors and the virtues of the leader are adopted by those who are with him. For as the teacher is, so is the student; because it is impossible for a student of blacksmithing to acquire knowledge in the art of weaving; a weaver's apprentice cannot be a rhetorician or a surveyor; but what the student sees in his mentor, he will learn for himself. Therefore, it is said (in Scripture): “Every disciple will be perfect, as is his teacher” (Luke 6:40). So, what, brothers? Is it really possible for someone who does not see these qualities in a teacher to become humble, meek in disposition and moderate, free from selfishness, knowledgeable in Divine affairs, experienced in a virtuous and decent lifestyle? But I don’t know how someone who has studied only worldly things can become spiritual? For how can those who imitate him be unlike him? What is the use for those who thirst for excellent work in a reservoir when there is no water in it? Let the water supply columns in various forms rise to the heavens with their tops; What would a thirsty person choose better for his needs - to look at the stones, beautifully formed, or to find the stream itself, even if it flowed along a wooden chute, as long as it provided clean and drinkable water? So, brethren, those who seek godliness should not pay attention to the appearance of the tabernacle; if someone has many friends, is proud of a long list of his merits, boasts that he receives a lot of annual income and, paying attention to his origin, is magnified and in every possible way puffed up with pride, then he should be bypassed like a reservoir that has no water, if he does not reveal the highest virtues in life; but on the contrary, using the torch of the Spirit for testing, we must seek, as far as possible, “the garden is closed, the source is sealed” (Song. 4:12), as Scripture says, so that through the laying on of hands a luxurious garden and a source of living water will be made, making it the common property of the universal church. Let it be so, and may the Lord grant that as soon as possible we find among you one who would be a vessel of election, a pillar of the church. We believe in the Lord that this will happen if only, with the help of the grace of like-mindedness, you want to agree to pay attention to what is good; preferring to our own desires the will of our Lord and that which is pleasing to Him, pleasing and (in His sight) perfect; so that what is happening among you would be of such a kind that we would rejoice, with which you too would be completely satisfied, and with which the God of all would be glorified, to whom belongs glory forever. 18. Otreius, Bishop of Melitina How beautiful are the images of beautiful things when they retain clearly the features of original beauty! I saw the clearest image of your truly beautiful soul in your pleasant letters, with which you delighted us, as the Gospel says somewhere, “...from the abundance of your heart” (Matthew 12:34). In them, it seemed to me, I saw you yourself and enjoyed your goodwill, in the friendliness of your letters: I often pick up these letters and, reading them, I feel an even greater desire to enjoy them again and do not feel satiated. Here, as with the enjoyment of certain other objects, beautiful and precious by nature, the pleasure cannot stop (from satiety). For just as constant contemplation of the sun does not dull the desire to see it, and constant enjoyment of health does not suppress the desire to use it; in the same way, the enjoyment of your goodwill, which we have personally experienced many times, and now learned from your letter, we are convinced, will not lead to satiety. But just as those who for some reason feel an unsatisfied thirst suffer, so the more we enjoy your good disposition, the more we thirst for it. If you do not suspect any deception and false flattery in such words (and you, of course, will not suspect it, always remaining as you really are and especially in relation to us - kind and sincere more than anyone else), then you will fully believe my words that the pleasantness of your letters, having acted on our eyes, like healing medicine, stopped the flow of tears; and we expect that, having confirmed our hope for healing with your holy prayers, we will soon and completely recover from such a disease of our soul. However, as for the circumstances in which we now find ourselves, we must spare the ears of those who love us and cover the truth with silence, so that those who sincerely love us do not unwittingly become accomplices of our misfortunes. For how soon will we think that we, deprived of that which is dearest and closest to us, revolve in the midst of battle and that those whom we are forced to leave are our children - children whom we were honored to give birth to God through our spiritual torments of childbirth, who are connected with us by the law of love, whose tender love for us through suffering during temptations has increased even more; to leave, moreover, our dear home, brothers, relatives, comrades, acquaintances, friends, hearth, meal, pantry, bed, chair, dress, community, tears - which are all so pleasant, but from habit they have become even more dear; then I think that there is no need to write about everything that you know; however, imagine everything else that we have instead, so that we don’t say unpleasant things. Being already at the end of life, I again begin to live and study; I recognize the now praised inconstancy of morals, but lately became acquainted with this malicious deceit, so that I always blush with shame, being so ignorant of this matter. Opponents, experienced in such wisdom, are capable of both preserving what they have learned and inventing what they have not yet learned; and so they fight from afar, throwing arrows, closely moving their phalanx for battle formation, thinking ahead about what is useful to them, stocking up on funds, surrounding themselves with allies from everywhere. A strong and irresistible cunning accompanies them with power, leading their army, like some one-handed fighter fighting in front of his army with both hands, now collecting tribute from the conquered, now overthrowing those who meet by chance. If you want to know our private life, you will find something else: a suffocating house, rich in cold, darkness, cramped space and all sorts of similar “beautiful” qualities; life observed by all; voice and gaze, putting on a dress, movement of hands, positioning of feet - everything is watched with extreme curiosity; and if it were not for severe shortness of breath, which often manifests itself, and if, along with shortness of breath, a constant groan did not alternate, and if our tunic did not slip from under the belt, so that there is no need to use the belt, and if the mantle did not fall off our left shoulder - if all this were not there, then a pretext would arise for war against us, and at the same time both neighbors and neighbors would rise up to fight with us one after another. distant peoples. But it is impossible for things to always go either good or bad; everyone’s life is mostly made up of opposites. If, by the grace of God, your (disposition) constantly remains with us, then we will endure all the many troubles in the hope of always enjoying your favor. So, never cease to give us pleasure by means of which you will reassure us, and you will prepare for yourself an even greater reward, promised in the Divine commandments. 19. Letter to a certain John about various subjects, also about the way and order of life of his sister Macrina I know that some painters show useless courtesy to their ugly friends who want to see their image depicted in a picture, doing something contrary to what they want. For by the very fact that they correct nature in their imitation, using bright colors to hide the unpleasant features of appearance in the picture, they change the characteristic features. But for those (from whom a portrait is being painted) there is no benefit from the fact that the picture shows golden and thick hair curling over the forehead and shiny, paint on the lips, blush on the cheeks, roundness of the eyelids, sparkle in the eyes, eyebrows glossy with blackness, a forehead shining with eyebrows, and everything else like that that achieves the beauty of the image; for if by nature the one who invites the painter to remove a portrait does not already have anything like this, then he will not receive any benefit from such philanthropy (of the painter). In the same way, it seems to me that if someone, out of friendship, showered a loved one with excessive praise and in words portrayed him not as he is, but as he should be in order to become perfect in all respects; Although he would outline an image of a correct life in his own words, he would not so much honor his friend with excessive praise as he would accuse him of the fact that in life he contradicts what is said about him, and turns out in reality to be different from what others think about him. Where is my speech going? I saw in your letter to your love the image of a certain statue, decorated with the greatest care; the name of this statue is I, for the letter pointed to me. But then, having examined my life with all care, as in a mirror, I became convinced that I was too far from the image that I had received in that letter. However, in this I found proof of your love for virtue; for by the very fact that you loved me the way you presented me (in your letter), you gave the clearest proof of the correctness of your moral rules; so, not feeling love for anything except virtue, you, believing that to some extent it is also characteristic of us, only for this reason you have us among your closest friends. Therefore, I thought that it was better to have knowledge about myself through myself than to be carried away by the opinions of others, even if these others were faithful witnesses in everything else; for the word of the parable says the same thing, which commands those who think to know themselves on the basis of what others say about them to examine themselves. But enough about this so that it does not seem that by rejecting your praise I am laughing at your praise. You also ordered us to work to write an answer to the questions you proposed with the goal that through this work we would bring some benefit to society; but know that for this we have almost as much leisure as the one about whom one of the prophets speaks, that having fallen into the hands of a lion and barely escaping from his mouth and sharp claws, as soon as he seemed to have escaped him, he unexpectedly fell into the mouth of a bear; then, having escaped with great difficulty this danger and leaning against the wall, he was insidiously bitten by a snake (Am. 5:19). In the same way, the succession of misfortunes that befell us one after another was such that the excessiveness of the newly arriving misfortunes seemed to make those that had already disappeared insignificant. And if it would not be impolite to sadden those who love us with sad stories, then I will briefly tell you this unkind story. We had a sister, a mentor in life, who after our mother replaced our mother - a sister who had such boldness towards God that she was for us a “pillar of strength” (Ps. 60:4) and a “weapon of goodwill” (Ps. 5:13), as Scripture says, and “a city of protection” (Ps. 30:22) and everything that is called a stronghold by virtue of its inherent to her, according to her life, boldness before God. She lived on the edge of Pontus, removed from the community of people. Near her was a numerous crowd of virgins, having given birth to them through the pains of spiritual childbirth and guiding them with every care towards perfection, she imitated the life of angels in a human body. For her there was no difference between day and night; but the night, spent in matters of light, was full of activity, and the day, in its serene life, represented the calm of the night. At all times her dwelling was full of sounds, resounding with psalmody day and night. You would see something even incredible to the eye: flesh that does not seek what is proper to itself, a belly such as one can guess it will be at the resurrection, sources of tears equal to the measure of drink, lips that have fully grasped the law, ears that exercise themselves in the divine, hands that tirelessly move to fulfill the commandments. But how can one clearly depict something that surpasses all description in words! So, after I moved from you to the Cappadocians, the rumor about her immediately alarmed us. The distance was ten days' journey; Having completed the entire journey as quickly as possible, I arrived in Pontus; and I saw it myself, and they saw me. But as if a traveler at noon, without any protection from the sun, ran to some source and, before touching the water, before cooling his tongue, found that the water had turned to dust, because the source before him had dried up; so I, having seen after ten years (separation) the one whom I passionately desired to see, who replaced my mother, teacher and every good thing, before my passionate desire was satisfied, I lost her, burying her on the third day. Such was my arrival in my fatherland after my return from Antioch. Then, before the traces of such a misfortune were erased, the neighbors of my church, the Galatians, secretly introduced into many places of my church a common illness for them - heresies, gave me a lot of work, so that only with the help of God everywhere I was able to overcome this illness. After that, something else was added to this. On the border of Pontus lies the city of Ivora, which has been faithful to us and our sound faith since ancient times. Since the bishop there had recently departed from this life, the citizens publicly turned to us with a request - not to hand them over and not to neglect their city, which was tormented by the hands of enemies. (At the same time) tears, falls, screams, pleas - all this served as the beginning of real evils for us. For when we were in Pontus and were properly concerned, with the assistance of God, with the affairs of their church, immediately at this place we were met by a similar kind of embassy from the Sebastian people, who wanted to forestall the attack of the heretics. But what followed was worthy of silence and unspeakable groaning, and unceasing shame, and crying, unceasing with time; since people easily endure all other misfortunes, getting used to them, those here, on the contrary, intensify over time with the increase of even greater sorrows. I participated in this matter together with other bishops summoned to gather votes regarding the ordination, but the lot (of election) fell on myself, and I, the unfortunate one, without knowing it, was caught with my own hands. For this, coercion, tears, attacks, guards, a detachment of soldiers, and the commander himself appointed over them leads the army against us, sets in motion the power of the mayor against us, concentrating against us all the means for violence against us. Meanwhile, fate brought us to the bad state of affairs among the Babylonians; For a long time, they had such disagreement over faith between people that this disease hardened and became incurable. They are dull-witted in mind, more than barbarians in language, their voice is rude and brutal; spending their lives like crafty beasts, they became so sophisticated in inventing evil that Archimedes, and even more so, Sisyphus, Kerkion and Sciron and others like those mentioned in history, are so sophisticated before them, since lies are closer to them than any truth; They are so persistent in their lies that those who are strong in truth do not defend the truth. And even if one of them is convicted of the greatest vices, then this very thing serves as a reason for praise for many; Insolence, arrogance, insensibility and foul language are considered by them to be the art of social life and something beautiful. We tell you a little of a lot, avoiding the prolixity of the letter, so that you do not accuse us of laziness, and now not having time to tell in detail. But if you truly have a desire for us to someday engage in this matter, then grant us both yourself and especially time for a meeting, unless the pleasures of the city delight you more than our love. And if you were held back by the same circumstances as we are (for I hear that the whole church is in the same situation), then you will provide us with sufficient help in the battle and if you begin to pray to God to give us some relief from our evils, and with God’s assistance, perhaps we will someday find such leisure and will not remain useless for the common cause. I am writing you this letter from the sacred Vanot, unless I offend that area by calling it in a native way. I say: I will not offend that country, because according to its name there is nothing pleasant in it, and this Galatian name will not give the slightest idea about the great beauty of this area; you need to see it to imagine all its charm. For I, who have already seen a lot and in many places, am already familiar with many things and from descriptions in ancient narratives, everything that I have seen and heard, I consider insignificant compared with the beauties of these places. This Helicon is insignificant, the islands of the blessed are a fable, the field of Sicyon is something insignificant, and the stories about Penaeus are nothing more than poetic idle talk; They say about it that, spreading in an abundant stream on the sides, it formed the much-famous Tempeian Valley in Thessaly. For what does each of these stories mean compared to the beauty that we saw in Vanot, in our homeland? For if anyone seeks the natural beauty of the area, he will have no need here for the beauties of art; if anyone means works of art, then there are so many of them here and they are such that they would be able to triumph over less happy nature. But this is what nature gave to this area, decorating the land with artless charm. The Galis River flows below, decorating the area with its banks; it sparkles like a golden ribbon on a bright purple robe, rolling waters red with silt. Above, a long ridge stretches a mountain, shady, densely overgrown on all sides, covered with oaks, more worthy of the praise of any Homer than that Mount Nirit on the island of Ithaca, about which this poet says that it is beautiful and covered with dense forest. The forest, planted by nature itself, descending along the slope of the mountain, at its base comes into contact with the products of agriculture. For right there the vineyards, spread out on the sides, along the slopes and depressions of the base of the mountain, cover, like green clothing, the entire area below. The beauty of the area is also enhanced by the time of year, presenting a wonderful spectacle of grape bunches. And this is all the more surprising because while in the neighboring area the fruits have not yet ripened, here you can eat grapes with pleasure and enjoy all these beauties as much as you like. Then from afar, like the flames of a great fire, the beauty of the buildings shone before us. On the left hand on our way we can see a prayer house built in honor of the martyrs; True, its construction has not yet been completed: it does not yet have a roof, but for all that it is brilliant. Along the straight path there are beautiful buildings, each of them representing something special, invented for pleasure; prominent towers, buildings for feasts, wide and high rows of trees crowning the entrance with vestibules. Then, near the houses, there are Phaeacian gardens, but no, let the beauty of Vanot not be degraded by comparing them with these gardens. Homer does not know the local apple tree, “rich in golden fruit,” with the brightness of its colors not inferior to the colors of its flower. He has not seen a pear that is whiter than newly polished ivory. And who will describe the variety and variety of the Persian apple tree and what happened to it from mixing and combining it with other species? For just as people, who in their fictions transcend the limits of the natural, talk about tragelafs, hippocentaurs and similar mixed creatures from various animals, the same must be said about this apple tree: nature, forced by art, has produced such a mixture that both by name and taste it seems now an almond tree, now a hazel, now a doracina. And in all these gardens, in addition to beauty, there was also an abundance of each type of tree, the order in their planting and harmonious picturesqueness. For truly this wondrous spectacle is more the work of a painter than of a farmer. To what extent nature easily obeyed the wishes of those who gave such order (to her works), I do not find it possible to convey in words. And the path under the vines tied to the trees, and the pleasant shadow from the grapes, and a new kind of walls on the sides made of rose bushes and grape branches, intertwined with each other and instead of walls blocking the passage on the sides, and at the end of this path there is a pond, and fish being fed in it - who can adequately describe all this. And in the midst of all this, the managers of the house of your nobility, with free friendliness and zeal, led me around and showed me around, separately explaining all the work done for you, as if through us they were giving pleasure to you yourself. Here one young man, like some miracle worker, showed us a spectacle that was not entirely ordinary in nature. For, having descended to the bottom of the reservoir, at his own discretion he took out the fish that he wanted, and they were not afraid of the touch of the catcher, like tame puppies, fed by the hand of a master and obeying him. Then they brought me to a certain house, designated as if for rest; for the porch made us think of home; but having crossed the threshold, we found ourselves not in a house, but in a gallery; the gallery stood on a hill, rising very high above a deep pond; the water hit the foundation that supported the gallery, which served as a threshold to inner luxury. For on the right hand the gallery ended with a house with a high roof, illuminated from everywhere by the sun's rays, defaced with various picturesque images; so that we, being in this place, almost forgot what we had seen before. The house was attractive, and the gallery above the pond was also a special sight. For the best breeds of fish, as if deliberately playing with us standing on the ground, swam from the depths to the surface, like some birds jumping up into the air, becoming half visible and sticking their heads out into the air, then again disappeared into the depths. Others, following each other in flocks and rows, presented a (curious) sight for those unaccustomed to it. In another place one could see a whole school of fish, like a bunch of grapes, densely crowded around a piece of bread; one of them drove the other away, one ran up, the other went down. But even this was made us forget by the grapes brought to us on branches and in baskets, the treat of various fruits, the prepared breakfast, various dishes, delicacies, cookies, cups of hospitality and bowls. Then, when, having had my fill, I intended to go to bed, I placed a scribe near me, as if in some kind of daydream, and jotted down this letter to you. But I would like, not on paper and with the help of ink, but in my own voice and tongue to tell you in detail, myself and those who love you, about everything that I saw beautiful in you. There is this kind of art to catching pigeons. When those engaged in such a hunt catch one pigeon and make it tame and their companion, then, having anointed its wings with fragrant oil, they let it fly in the same flock with other pigeons. The dove, with the scent of oil, lures this free flock to the one who sent it. Because after those doves that produce incense, others fly and settle with them. Why am I making this preface? To the fact that I sent my son Vasily to your holiness, having anointed the wings of his soul with the divine world, with the goal that you too would fly with him to the heights and occupy the nest that the above-mentioned had built. If this were fulfilled, and during my lifetime I saw that your nobility had chosen a higher life, then I would fully give due thanks to God! For three days only the Prophet was in the belly of the whale; however, Jonah was grieved in spirit. I, having been among the unrepentant Ninevites for so long, contained in the entrails of this beast, still cannot be spewed out of this wide gaping mouth. So, pray to the Lord for His mercy to come true, so that a command will come out that would free me from these bonds and I would reach my shelter and rest under it. I spare you many words because I spare your fatigue. Remember your (responsibilities) and you will have everything in a brilliant position. Quick grace needed. This concludes our exhortation. The word of sound faith, to those who wisely receive inspired words, has power in simplicity, and does not require any verbal wisdom to confirm the truth; since it in itself is intelligible and clear according to the first tradition, which we received from the word of the Lord, who betrayed the sacrament of salvation in the bath of rebirth. “As you went on,” He says, “teach all tongues, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to keep all the commandments given to you” (Matthew 28:19-20). Dividing the Christian life into two parts - moral and strict observance of dogmas, He confirmed the saving teaching by the establishment of baptism, and showed the way to the improvement of life in the fulfillment of His commandments. But that part that relates to the commandments, since from this side less harm to the soul can occur, is left untouched by the devil. All the enemy’s concern is focused more on the main and most important part, in order to seduce the souls of many in such a way that there would be no benefit for them, even if they achieved some perfection through keeping the commandments; since for those who are involved in error regarding dogmas, this great and first hope (salvation) no longer remains. Therefore, we advise those who care about their salvation not to deviate from the simplicity of the first sayings of faith, but, accepting in their souls the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, not to think that this is one hypostasis with many names. For it is impossible for the Father to be called the Father of Himself; for the Father the name of the Son, who came from Him, would be untrue. It is equally impossible to think that the Spirit is one and the same as the other mentioned Persons, so that the name Spirit seems to lead the hearer to the concept of the Father or the Son. But in each of the names, the Hypostasis signified by the names is actually and separately implied. When we hear about the Father, we mean the cause of everything; Having learned about the Son, we recognize the power that shone from the first cause for the structure of the universe; Having learned about the Spirit, we understand the perfecting power of that which is brought into being by creation from the Father through the Son. So, the Hypostases, in accordance with what has been said, are inextricably separated from one another, I mean the Hypostases of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and their essence, whatever it is (for it is not expressible in words and is not comprehended by thought), is not divided into any otherness of nature. Therefore, incomprehensibility, unthinkability, incomprehensibility by thought equally befits each of the Persons revered in the Trinity. Consequently, the one who is asked what the Father is in essence will say judiciously and truly that this question is above knowledge. In the same way, regarding the Only Begotten Son, it will be agreed that no word can comprehend His essence, for it is said: “Who will confess His generation” (Is. 53:8). In a similar way, regarding the Holy Spirit, the word of the Lord shows the same impossibility of comprehension, saying: “You hear His voice, but do not consider where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3:8). So, since we do not recognize any difference in the incomprehensibility of the three Persons (because one Person is not more incomprehensible, and the other less, but the same concept of incomprehensibility in the Trinity), then, guided by the very incomprehensibility and incomprehensibility, we say that we do not find any difference of essence in the Holy Trinity, except for the order of the Persons and the confession of the Hypostases. The order of Persons, according to which faith, beginning in the Father, through the Son, ends in the Holy Spirit, is given to us in the Gospel. And the difference of Persons, revealed in the very order of their separation in the devotional teaching, does not inspire any thought about their merging for those who can follow the meaning of the words, since the name of the Father shows the peculiarity of the concept (of the Father), and the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit is also a special concept, so that (the Persons) denoted by names do not in any way merge with one another. So, we are baptized, as we received, into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we believe as we are baptized, for faith must be in agreement with confession. We glorify as we believe, for it is not common for glorification to contradict faith. So, since faith is in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and faith, doxology and baptism follow each other, then the doxology of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit does not differ. The very doxology that we send up is, by its nature, nothing more than a confession of the benefits inherent in the greatness of the Divine nature. For we do not arbitrarily attribute honor to the unhonorable Nature, but by confessing in Him what belongs to Him, we thereby fully render honor. And since each of the Persons we confess in the Holy Trinity belongs to incorruptibility, eternity, immortality, goodness, power, holiness, wisdom - everything that we can only imagine that is majestic and lofty, then, by confessing in words these perfections inherent in Them alone, we thereby give due glorification. If, however, everything that is characteristic of the Father is possessed by the Son, and all the perfections of the Son are seen in the Spirit, then we do not find in the Holy Trinity any difference regarding the height of honor between Her Persons. But not by any physical comparison, one is higher and the other lower, because what is invisible and has no outline cannot be comprehended by measure. Likewise, in relation to omnipotence and goodness, there is no comparative difference in the Holy Trinity, so that it can be said that there is a difference of greater or lesser in them. For whoever says that one is more powerful than another, silently admits that the one that is diminished in strength is weaker than the stronger. And this is the extreme degree of wickedness - to imagine in the mind any sign of weakness or powerlessness, whether small or large, regarding the Only Begotten God and the Spirit of God. For the word of truth betrays that both the Son and the Spirit are perfect in power, goodness, incorruptibility and in everything that is not thought high. So, if the perfection of every good is piously confessed in each of the Persons venerated in the Holy Trinity, then it is not natural to call the same thing both perfect and again comparatively imperfect. For to admit less in the greatness of power and goodness is nothing more than to strengthen the assertion that (it) is imperfect. Therefore, if the Son is perfect, the Spirit is also perfect. For reason does not recognize (degrees of) perfection in Him Who is all-perfect, and does not consider Him either less perfect or more perfect. And from the actions (of the Persons of the Holy Trinity) we learn the inseparability of their glory. The Father “lives,” as the Gospel says (John 5:21), the Son also gives life, and the Spirit also gives life, according to the testimony of the Lord, who said that “there is a Spirit who gives life” (John 6:63). So, we must imagine the power beginning from the Father, passing through the Son and accomplished in the Spirit; for we are taught that everything came from God and everything through the Only Begotten and “stands by Him” (Col. 1:16-17), and that the power of the Father penetrates through everything, acting “all in all” as He wills, as the Apostle says (1 Cor. 12:6). I am already sure that by the grace of God my intention regarding the church in honor of the martyrs will be fulfilled. If you wanted, the undertaking would be accomplished by the power of God, who can, when he speaks, bring words into action. since, as the Apostle says, “the one who begins the work is good and will complete it” (Phil. 1:6), you too agree in this matter to be an imitator of the great Paul and to fulfill our hopes by sending to us so many masters so that there are enough of them for this work. And so that your perfection knows for the sake of understanding the dimensions of this entire building, I will try to explain to you in writing the entire structure. The appearance of this church is represented by a cross, composed, as usual, of four buildings on all sides. Closed to each other, these buildings hold each other through connections, as we see everywhere with the cruciform shape of buildings. This cross contains a circle divided by eight corners. I called this octagonal figure a circle because of its rounded outline, so that each two sides of this octagon, opposite each other, through vaults connect this circle with the buildings adjacent on four sides. The other four sides of the octagon, which lie between the quadrangular buildings, will not extend continuously to the buildings, but each of these sides will be surrounded by a semicircle, ending at the top with a vault, in the form of a shell. Thus, a total of eight arches will be made, through which both the quadrangles opposite each other and the semicircles themselves will be connected to each other in the middle. In the middle, between the corner pillars, an equal number of columns will be placed for decoration and strength. They will also support the vaults above them, constructed in the same way as the internal ones. Above these eight vaults, corresponding to the windows lying above them, an octagonal superstructure will rise four braccia. The top above it should be cone-shaped, in the form of a roof, tapering, starting from the base, and ending with a pointed point. At the bottom, the size of each of the quadrangular compartments will be eight cubits in width, one and a half times more in length, and in height as required in proportion to the width. Semicircles will have the same measure. In the same way, the space between the pillars is determined to be eight cubits. As much as the outline of a compass, installed in the middle of one of the sides, as if in the center, and extending to its edge, will show, the same will be the latitude. And the height will be indicated by the same proportionality with the latitude. The thickness of the wall along the entire length of the building will be three feet, measuring the distance from the inside. I wrote this with care to your goodness with the purpose that both by the thickness of the walls and by the intermediate distances you would determine with accuracy what the general measure of the number of cubits would be. Therefore, if you wish, with the good guidance of God’s grace, in this matter it will be easy for you to understand everything and it will be possible, through an accurate calculation, to find out the total monetary value of all materials, so that no more or less than what is needed, you send us craftsmen. In this case, I would like to convince you to take special care to ensure that among them there are those who know the structure of the foundation on the vaults. For I know that a building built this way is stronger than one that is supported on pillars. The lack of wood leads us to the following idea: to cover the entire building with tiles, since in these places there is no material suitable for roofing. Let your undeceitful soul believe that thirty local craftsmen agreed to build a square building for a zlatinka per day, with the addition, of course, of a zlatinka and the agreed upon food. We have no other stone material except bricks made of baked clay, only this substance will be used for the construction and also random stones, so there is no need to waste time processing the front side of the stones to properly connect them to each other. Regarding experience in art and moderation of prices, I learned that those here are better than those who came here to bargain on the occasion of our business. And the labor of stonemasons is needed not only for the eight columns, which must be decorated and brought into better shape, but the same labor is required for the bases of the columns, which have the appearance of an altar, and for the capitals, which must be decorated in the Corinthian style. The entrance will be made of marble stones, decorated with decent decorations. Above the entrances there are niches with some drawings made clearly along the projection of the cornice, as is usually the case. For all this, the material will obviously be prepared by us, but art will give the form to this material. In addition, in the outer gallery (peristyle) there will be at least forty columns, and these are generally subject to processing by stonemasons. So, if my speech has accurately explained this matter, then may it be possible for your piety, at the discretion of what this matter consists of, to reassure us in everything regarding the masters. If the master intends to negotiate with us, then let him, if possible, clearly define the measure of daily work, so that if he spends time doing nothing, then, not being able to prove by the performance of the work that he completed the work on exactly that many days, he will not demand payment for the days on which there was no work. I know that many will consider us some kind of petty people for defining conditions with such precision. But make sure you agree with me. Because this Mamon, who had heard many and often bad reviews about himself from us, finally moved very far from us, hating, I think, the constant ridicule of himself. And by some kind of impassable abyss, that is, poverty, he fenced himself off from us, so that neither he nor we could cross over to him. That is why, for me, compliance in the price of the masters is very important, so that it can give us the opportunity to fulfill the intended intention without any obstacle from poverty - this laudable and desirable evil. However, there is a small part of the joke mixed in with these speeches. “But you, O man of God” (1 Tim. 6:11), having made an agreement with people, as far as possible and lawfully, boldly announce to all of them our favor and the payment of the agreed payment. We will give everything without reserve when God, through your prayers, opens the hand of blessing to us. 26. Sophista Stagiria to Gregory the Bishop 1. Every bishop is an elusive creature (δυσγριπιστον). You, as much as you surpass everyone in eloquence, inspire fear in me so much more that in response [to my request] you will resist fully armed. 2. But, leaving the art of argument, find, O wondrous one, the opportunity to share, and if we ask for rafters for the roof of a house (another sophist would rather say “supports” (καμακας) or “supports” (χαρακας), more decorating speech with words than guided by necessity), grant a hundredfold gift. After all, even if you wanted to deliver it from heaven, you could. If you don’t let me, I’ll have to spend the winter in the open air. Be generous, O wondrous one, and send a letter to Presbyter Osien with orders for the gift. 27. Answer of Saint Gregory to the Sophist 1. If “to catch” (γριπιζειν) means to “be enriched” and this is the meaning of the word that Your sophistic Wisdom offered us, [having drawn] from the inaccessible [depths] of Plato, then think, O wondrous one, who is more “elusive” (αγριπιστος): we, so easily deprived of support (αποχαρακουμενοι) through written wisdom, or a race of sophists who master the art of verbal ordeal (το τελονειν). 2. For which of the bishops imposed a tax on words? Who charged the students? This is what the sophists are famous for, who made their own art an object of purchase, like gingerbread from honey makers. 3. Do you see what you do with your secret and the musical power of words, that you make me, an old man, jump, and encourage those who are inexperienced in dancing to dance? 4. I, who represents the Median processions in [everyday] affairs, ordered that rafters be given to you according to the number of soldiers who fought at Thermopylae, all of a good size and, as your Homer says, “long-walled,” about which the said saint [father] reported that he sent them safe and sound - that is, not ten or twenty thousand, but as many as, having asked, are easy to use, and having taken - to give. 1. Lovers of roses, as is typical for connoisseurs of beauty, do not express indignation at the thorns among which the flower grows. I even happened to hear that someone, jokingly or in reality, said something like this about roses, namely: just as lovers experience the torment of love, so the nature of the flower gave [him] these thin needles, with their indestructible thorns arousing in the one who picks the flower even greater lust for it. 2. But what does this mention of a rose mean in my letter? Of course, there is no need to interpret this to you, who remembers your own letter, which contained the color of your word, blossoming for us in a whole spring of sweet speech, but at the same time, like needles, pricked me with some reproaches and accusations. 3. However, I also enjoy the thorns of your letters - they ignite in me an even greater desire for your friendship. So write, and write all the time, as you wish to do it: if you want, extolling, as is typical for you, and if you want, slightly annoying with reproaches. 4. Our concern will be never to give you a legitimate reason for reproach, just as we did not give it to you now, having done for you before our departure to [the country] the morning dawn everything that you wanted and was due in fairness. And [to all] this is witnessed by the most venerable and close brother Evagrius (who also really wanted this letter and accepted all your teachings - by chance, we were together): and our zeal for justice in the arrangement of your affairs, and [our] gratitude for everything that happened. 29. To his brother Peter, Bishop of Sebaste 1. Having barely found a little [time] for leisure and treatment of the body after my return from Armenia, I was able to concentrate and collect [my] memos against Eunomius, which, by the will of Your Reasonableness, I dictated. So all that remains for me is the work of finishing the word, and the word will already become a finished book. 2. However, I did not write [the answer] to both words; I did not have enough time, since the one who lent me the heretical book very impolitely demanded it back, without giving me either [the opportunity] to rewrite it or time to work. So, having only fifteen days, I could not answer both words in such a short time. 3. And since people who had a certain zeal for the truth often pestered me, and I do not know how the rumor spread that I had written a rebuke to blasphemy, I considered it best first of all to take the advice of Your Reason [on the subject] whether I should trust what I hear from many, or make some other decision. 4. And this is what inspires me with doubt: I received the word of Eunomius immediately after the death of Saint Basil, when my soul was still burning with grief and it was painful for the misfortune of the entire Church, and Eunomius wrote not only what was the essence of his convictions, but most of all he refined his pen in warfare against our father. Therefore, I, irritated by the impudence of what he said, discovered [in my answer] a certain anger against the writer [himself] and a wounded heart. 5. And since the majority knows us from a completely different [side]: that we are accustomed to patiently enduring the attacks of those who revile us [and that we, following the instructions of this saint, have, as far as possible, cultivated in ourselves moderation of character, I am afraid that from what we have written we may seem to the readers to be somehow immature for the reason that we are easily irritated by the insolence of the proud. 6. Nevertheless, if we seem like this, we may be excused because we are angry because of what was said not about us, but about our father. Indeed, in such [cases], perhaps, moderation in anger is more unforgivable. 7. If the beginning of a word seems in some way irrelevant, I think that whoever examines this word judiciously will make such a judgment about it. One should neither leave the opinion of the great [husband] to be mocked by the adversary without any objections, nor mix a dispute with him into [one’s] word, renewing it here and there. Since the enemy’s word pursued two goals: to slander us and to challenge sound teaching (δογμα), it was necessary that our word give a corresponding rebuff. 8. And for the sake of clarity, and also so that the coherence of the study of the doctrines was not interrupted by objections to his slander, having necessarily divided the subject into two, we first undertook a defense against what was being raised against us, and then, if possible, objected to what was said against the doctrine. 9. The Word contains not only a refutation of heretical opinions, but also instruction and exposition of our teaching. For we considered it shameful and completely ignoble for ourselves not to dare to speak the truth, despite the fact that the enemies do not hide the absurdity [of their teaching]. 10. May the Lord protect you for the Church in spiritual and physical strength. 30. Peter, Bishop of Sebaste, to Gregory of Nyssa, his brother 1. To the most God-loving brother Gregory, Peter [wants] to “rejoice in the Lord” (Acts 15:23). Having received a letter from Your Reverence and seeing in the word against heresy also zeal for our Holy Father, I thought that this was not the work of Your power, but of Him who economically allowed His truth to be proclaimed by His servants. 2. And just as I say that this word in defense of truth should rightly be attributed to the Spirit of truth Himself, in the same way it seems to me that the fight against “sound faith” (cf. Titus 2:2) does not belong to Eunomius [belongs], but to the “father of lies” himself (cf. John 8:44). 3. And it seems that “from time immemorial the murderer” (cf. John 8:44), who spoke through his lips, sharpened the sword against himself. For if he had not dared to speak out against the truth with such [insolence], no one would have encouraged you to talk about the doctrine of piety. “He has caused the wise to stumble in their deceit” (1 Cor. 3:19; cf. Job 5:13) so that the weakness and inconsistency of their teaching will be exposed and [so that] they will “stagger” in the truth and “learn in vain” (cf. Acts 4:25; Ps. 2:1) in this “vain” work. good... will accomplish it” (Phil. 1:6) - may you not weaken, serving the “power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14), may you not abandon the unconquerable audacity of those who fight against the glory of Christ, but imitate your noble father, who, like the zealot Phinehas (cf. Num. 25:7-8), struck both student and teacher with a single blow of reproof. in a word, [as] with your hand, powerfully erect a “spiritual sword” (Eph. 6:17) on both heretical books, so that the snake, whose “head” is “crushed” (Ps. 73:14), does not frighten the inexperienced with the convulsive movements of its tail. 4. After all, if the first [part] of the work is exposed, and the last remains unexamined, the majority will believe that it still has some force against the truth. 5. And the anger expressed in [your] word will bring the taste of salt to the sensibilities of the soul. And just as “bread without salt will not be taken away,” according to [the word] of Job” (Job 6:6), so the composition would have been devoid of [the force of] blow and ineffective if it had not been flavored with the burning words of God. 6. So, be of good cheer, having become an excellent example for the future life, teaching how reverent children should behave in relation to good fathers. If the saint had not yet parted with humanity life, and you would have taken up arms with such zeal against the opponents of his opinion, then perhaps you would not have escaped [false] accusations that you are behaving like a flatterer. But now your jealousy for the departed and your indignation against his enemies reveal the nobility and truthfulness of your soul, and all the goodwill you have towards the one who, in the throes of spiritual battles, brought you into the world. Currently, a number of scientists attribute to St. Gregory of Nyssa letters 38 and 124 St. Basil the Great, the Greek text of which is nevertheless still included in the corpus of letters of St. Vasily (Ed. Y. Courtonne. Vol. 1. Paris, 1957. R. 81–92; Vol. 2 Paris, 1961, R. 29–30). The translation is verified against this edition, and the numbering of chapters and pages is given according to it. 1. Since many in the mysterious dogmas, without making a distinction between the essence [which is] common, and the concept of hypostases, are confused by the same meaning and think that it is indifferent whether to say “essence” or “hypostasis” (which is why some of those who use these words indiscriminately even thought of asserting that if there is one essence, then there is one hypostasis, and on the contrary, those who recognize three hypostases think that as a result of such a confession one should admit division of entities into the corresponding number). For this reason, so that you would not fall into anything similar, I briefly composed a word about this as a reminder for you. So, to present in a few [words], the content of the named [concepts] is as follows. 2. Among all names, those applied to most things, differing in number, have a certain general meaning, such as, for example, the name “man.” After all, the one who uttered this word, denoting a general nature by a name, did not by this statement define one particular person, actually denoted by this name, because Peter is no more a man than Andrew, John or James. Therefore, the community of the signified, equally extending to all those subsumed under the same name, needs an auxiliary division, with the help of which we recognize not man in general, but Peter or John. Other names have a particular meaning, which does not mean a commonality of nature in the denoted, but a description of an object according to its distinctive property that does not have even the slightest commonality with a homogeneous object, such as, for example, the name Paul or Timothy. For such a word does not in any way relate to general nature, but through names it represents the concept of certain specific objects, separating them from the collective meaning. Therefore, when suddenly two or more are taken, for example: Paul, Silouan, Timothy, then it is necessary [to formulate] a concept of the essence of people, because no one will give one concept of essence in Paul, another in Silouan and a third in Timothy, but with what words the essence of Paul is designated, the same words will suit others, for the essences subsumed under one concept are consubstantial with each other. When, having studied the general, someone turns to the consideration of the distinctive, by which one is separated from the other, then the concept leading to the knowledge of one object will not in all respects correspond to the concept of another object, although in some features there is something common between them. 3. Therefore we say this: what is named is actually expressed by the word “hypostasis.” For the one who uttered [the word] “man” conveyed to the ear a certain broad concept through the uncertainty of meaning, so that, although the nature is evident from this name, it does not designate the subject and actually named object. And he who uttered [the word] “Paul”, in the object designated by this name, indicated the proper nature. So, “hypostasis” is not an indefinite concept of essence, which does not stop at anything by the generality of what is designated, but a concept that depicts and describes the general and indefinite in any object with the help of visible distinctive properties. This is how Scripture usually does it, as in many other cases, and in the story of Job. For, starting to tell the story about him, [Scripture], first mentioning the general and saying “man” (Job 1:1), then separates [him] by what constitutes his particularity, adding [the word] “some.” The description of the essence [Scripture] passed over in silence, since it is useless for the stated purpose of the word, but it endows the concept “someone” with distinctive features, naming the place, characteristics of character and all those externally borrowed [signs!] with which it wanted to separate it from the general meaning that the description of the person about whom it is narrated was clear in everything: by name, and by place, and by spiritual properties, and by what is observed outside of it. And if it expounded the concept of essence, then when explaining nature there would be no mention of what was said, because the concept would be the same in relation to Baldad of Sabhaea, and Zophar of Minaea (cf. Job 2:11), and any of the people mentioned there. Therefore, whatever concept you have acquired about the difference between essence and hypostasis in us, transfer the same to divine dogmas and you will not sin. Whatever the thought of the being of the Father ever presents to you (for the soul cannot rest on one separate thought, being sure that this being is above all thought), imagine the same about the Son, and the same about the Holy Spirit. The concept of the uncreated and incomprehensible is one and the same in relation to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One is no more incomprehensible and uncreated, and the other is no less. But when in relation to the Trinity it is necessary to formulate an unfused difference based on distinctive features, then for the definition of the distinctive we will take what is not generally represented, such as, for example, uncreatedness, or inaccessibility by any concept, or something similar to this, but we will seek that one thing by which the concept of each is clearly and without confusion separated from what is contemplated together. 4. Therefore, it seems to me that this concept is perfectly revealed in this way. We call every good thing that descends to us from God’s power an action (ενεργεια) of all-producing grace in all, as the Apostle says: “But all this works one and the same Spirit, dividing each as he wills” (1 Cor. 12:11). But delving into whether, having received the beginning from the Holy Spirit alone, the giving of goods thus descends to the worthy, again, according to the instructions of the Scriptures, we believe that the “Only Begotten” God is the leader and author of the giving of goods that are revealed in us through the action of the Spirit. For Holy Scripture teaches us about the Only Begotten that “all things were in Him” (John 1:3) and “all things are accomplished in Him” (Col. 1:17). So, when we are brought to this thought, again led by God’s inspired guidance, we learn that, although by that same power everything is brought from non-existence into being, it is not without beginning, but there is a certain Power that exists unbornly and without beginning, and It is the cause of the cause of all that exists. For from the Father is the Son, through whom all things [received being] and with whom the idea of ​​the Holy Spirit is always inseparably connected. He cannot even think about the Son without being illuminated [first] by the Spirit. So, since the Holy Spirit, from Whom every gift of good is poured out upon creation, just as it is united with the Son, with Whom it is inseparably perceived, in the same way has an existence dependent on the Cause - the Father, from Whom He proceeds, then the distinctive sign of His hypostatic property is that it is known through the Son and with the Son, and has existence from the Father. The Son, who by Himself and together with Himself makes the Spirit proceeding from the Father known, having alone shone forth from the unborn Light, according to His distinctive characteristics has nothing in common with the Father or with the Holy Spirit, but alone is known by the mentioned properties. And the God who exists above all alone has that predominant sign of His hypostasis, that He is the Father, and His existence is not due to any reason, and, again, by this sign He is actually known. For this reason we say that in the general concept of essence the signs contemplated in the Trinity are not united and are not united, by which the distinctive property of the Persons about whom faith teaches us is expressed, because each Person appears to us to be different according to His own signs, so that the difference of hypostases is known from the mentioned signs. And as for infinity, incomprehensibility, uncreatedness, non-embedding by space and all the like, then there is no difference in the life-giving Nature, I mean the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but a certain continuous and indissoluble communion is contemplated in Them. And in whatever concepts anyone can imagine the greatness of one of the Persons confessed in the Holy Trinity, let him proceed – without distinction – to the contemplation of glory in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, without wandering in thought along any gap between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For there is nothing inserted between them, nor anything independent and different from God’s nature, so that this nature could be separated from Itself by the insertion of an extraneous thing, nor is there any emptiness of any unfilled space that would cause interruptions in the unity of God’s essence with Itself, dividing the continuous with empty intervals. But whoever imagined the Father in his mind, he also imagined Him in Himself and at the same time characterized him with the thought of the Son. And whoever has the Son in his thoughts does not separate from the Son and the Spirit, but in relation to order - sequentially, and in relation to nature - united, he imprints in himself a united faith in the three Persons. And whoever named only the Spirit, in this confession also embraces Him whose Spirit it is. Since the “Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9) is “Spirit from God,” as the Apostle Paul says (1 Cor. 2:12), then just as he who takes one end of a chain draws its other end, so, according to the word of the prophet, “he who draws the Spirit” (Ps. 118:131) through Him draws together both the Son and the Father. And whoever truly receives the Son will have Him in himself, producing both His Father and His own Spirit. For He who is always in the Father cannot be cut off from the Father, and he who produces everything about Him can never be separated from his own Spirit. In the same way, whoever received the Father actually received both the Son and the Spirit together. For it is impossible to imagine mentally any kind of cutting off or division, so that either the Son is conceivable without the Father, or the Spirit is separated from the Son, but, on the contrary, we find between Them some kind of inexpressible and incomprehensible both communication and distinction, and neither the difference of hypostases dissolves the continuity of nature, nor does the commonality of the essence of distinctive features eliminate. But do not be surprised if we say that the same thing is both united and divided, and if we imagine mentally, as if in fortune-telling, some new and extraordinary, both a united division and a divided unity. For whoever listens to the word without the intention of disputing and ridiculing it, something similar can be found in the sensory [world]. 5. And you will accept my word as a likeness and shadow of the truth, and not as the actual truth itself. For it is impossible for what is represented in similarities to be in every way similar to what it is taken to represent. So, on what basis do we say that what appears to our senses represents to us a kind of semblance of something divided and united together? Have you ever seen the glow of an arc in the clouds in the spring? I mean the arc that, according to common usage, we are accustomed to calling a rainbow. Experts say that it appears when some kind of moisture is dissolved in the air, when the force of the winds turns everything wet and condensed in evaporation, which has already formed clouds, into rain. And [a rainbow] turns out, they say, in this way. When a sunbeam, obliquely passing through the thickness and darkness of the clouds, then directly rests its circle on a certain cloud, then a kind of bend occurs and the light returns to itself, because the light from the wet and shiny goes back in the opposite direction. Since the reflections of a flame by nature have the property of being reflected when they fall on something smooth, and since the rays [of the sun] leave a circular image on moist and smooth air, then, of necessity, on the air adjacent to the cloud the glowing radiance describes something similar to the image of a solar circle. Thus, the same light is both continuous in itself and divided. Being multi-colored and multi-shaped, it is imperceptibly painted with different colors, hiding from our eyes the transition from one color to another, so that between blue and fiery color, or between fiery and purple, or between this latter and amber, it is impossible to recognize the middle in which different colors are mixed and separated from one another. For the reflections of all [colors], visible together, are radiant and, concealing the signs of mutual contact, remain indistinguishable, so that it is impossible to find where the fiery or emerald ray in the rainbow ends and where it begins to be no longer the same as we see in the radiant [radiance]. Therefore, just as in this comparison, we clearly recognize the differences in colors, and cannot sensually discern the difference between one color and another, so we also reason about the possibility of imagining something similar regarding divine dogmas. Although the hypostatic properties, like [each] color visible in the rainbow, shine in each of the Persons confessed in the Holy Trinity, however, in reasoning about the natural properties, it is impossible to imagine any difference in one Person with another, but with a common essence, distinctive properties shine in each Person. For even there, in comparison, there was one essence that had this multi-colored radiance and was only refracted in the sun’s ray, but the color of the phenomenon is multi-faceted. Likewise, through creation, reason teaches us not to find the teaching of dogma strange when, having encountered something difficult to understand, we become perplexed as to whether to agree to what is said. Just as in the case of what is visible to the eye it turned out that experience is better than the concept of cause, so in dogmas that exceed reason, in comparison with what the understanding comprehends, faith is better, which teaches us about the separate in hypostasis and about the united essence. So, since our word revealed both the general and the distinctive in the Holy Trinity, the concept of community is raised to “essence,” and “hypostasis” is the distinctive attribute of each Person. 6. But perhaps someone will think that the proposed concept of hypostasis does not agree with the meaning of the apostolic scripture, where the apostle says of the Lord that He is “the radiance of glory and the image of His hypostasis” (Heb. 1:3). For if we have called hypostasis the totality of distinctive properties contemplated in Each, and just as we acknowledge about the Father that there is something actually contemplated in Him, through which He alone is known, so we confess the same about the Only Begotten, then how does Scripture in this place attribute the name of hypostasis to the Father alone, and calls the Son the image of hypostasis, which is designated not by His own, but Fatherly features? If the hypostasis is a distinctive sign of the existence of Each and is recognized as the property of the Father - to be unborn, the Son depicts in Himself the distinctive properties of the Father, so that He alone is primarily called the unborn, unless by what distinguishes the Father the existence of the Only Begotten is designated. 7. But we affirm that here the word of the apostle fulfills another purpose, meaning which he used these words: “the radiance of glory and the image of the hypostasis.” And whoever has carefully comprehended this goal will not find anything contradicting what we have said, but only that the speech is directed towards some special thought. For the apostolic word does not discuss how to distinguish hypostases from each other according to visible signs, but about how to understand the co-nature, inseparability and unity in the relationship of the Son to the Father. Thus, he did not say: “like this” is the glory of the Father (although this is really so), but, leaving this as recognized by everyone, teaching not to imagine another image of glory in the Father, another in the Son, he determines that the glory of the Only Begotten is the radiance of the very glory of the Father, leading in the likeness of light to represent the Son inseparably from the Father. For just as radiance, although from a flame, is not later than the flame, but the flame flares up, and the light from it begins to shine, so, at the request of the Apostle, one should represent the Son from the Father, not separating the Only Begotten by some separating distance from the existence of the Father, but together with the Cause always represent what is from Her. Therefore, in the same way, as if interpreting the thought now proposed, he also calls it “the image of hypostasis,” directing us through material comparisons to comprehend the invisible. For, just as a body necessarily has the outlines and concept of a body; and whoever defines one of these two does not yet begin to define the other; Meanwhile, although in the mind you separate the outline from the body, yet nature does not allow separation, but one with the other appears to be united, so, the apostle believes, it should be understood that the teaching of faith, although it teaches us the Unmerged and indivisible concept of hypostases, nevertheless in the given place depicts the continuity and, as it were, inseparability of the Only Begotten with the Father, not because the Only Begotten has no hypostasis, but because in His unity with the Father does not allow anything in between. Therefore, he who fixes his soul's eyes on the image of the Only Begotten has the thought of the hypostasis of the Father, not as a result of a change or confusion of the distinctive properties contemplated in Them, either in the Father representing begottenness or in the Son unbegottenness, but because he who remained after the separation of One from the Other cannot be represented alone by Himself. For it is impossible that he who named the name of the Son should not have thoughts about the Father, because this name also points to the Father. 8. So, since “he who sees the Son sees the Father,” as the Lord says in the Gospel (John 14:9), it is therefore said that the Only Begotten is the “image of the hypostasis” of the Father. And in order to better understand this idea, let us add other sayings of the Apostle, in which he calls the Son “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15) and also the image of His goodness, not in the sense that the image is different from the prototype in relation to invisibility and goodness, but wanting to show that the Son is identical with the prototype, although different, because the concept of the image would not have been preserved if He had not had a clear and without differences identity. Consequently, he who has imagined the goodness of the image already has the thought of the prototype. sees the unbornness of the Father (in this case it would be completely identical and not different), but because he contemplates the unborn Kindness in the born. For just as someone who has looked at the image of a face presented in a clean mirror receives clear knowledge of the person depicted, so he who has come to know the Father with this very knowledge of the Son has accepted in his heart the image of the Father’s hypostasis. For everything that belongs to the Father is also contemplated in the Son, and everything that belongs to the Son also belongs to the Father, because the whole Son abides in the Father and again has the whole Father in Himself. So the hypostasis of the Son serves, as it were, as an image and face to the knowledge of the Father, and the hypostasis of the Father is recognized in the image of the Son, while the distinctive property visible in Them remains for a clear distinction of hypostases. About passionate lovers, when they are separated due to some irresistible inevitability, some say that if they look at the image of their beloved face, then with this delight of their eyes they will quench their painful melancholy. I cannot say whether this is true or not, but approximately the same thing happens to me in relation to Your Goodness. For a certain, I would say, love attraction for your holy and undeceitful soul has been reborn in me, but I have no opportunity to enjoy what I desire, like any other good, because my sins oppose it. Therefore, I thought that in the faces of our most reverent brethren I see the most clear image of Your Goodness. And if I had a chance to meet Your Nobility without them, then I would decide that I see them in you too. And this is because in each of you there is such a measure of love that you all discover in yourself an equal desire to succeed in it more and more. For this I thanked the Holy God and pray to Him that, if there is still any time left for me to live, it will become pleasant for me thanks to you; Now, separated from those dearest to me, I consider my life both pitiful and unbearable. For he who is separated from those who truly love, in my opinion, has no reason to be complacent. You might be interested in: