144. К епископам, прибывшим с запада 116

And before we were amazed at your zeal, your care for the restoration of church welfare, your strong and sincere love, your courage, unshakable patience and the constancy that you have endured for such a long time. Now, after you have decided to undertake such a long sea voyage, fraught with incredible difficulties and hardships, for the good of the church, we are completely amazed at the greatness of your unyielding perseverance. It would be desirable for us to constantly write to you and bring due greetings to your reverence. But this is impossible (due to our residence in a place that is blocked on all sides by the desert and, as a result, almost completely inaccessible). Using at this time the services of my lord, the most honest and reverent presbyter, we turn to your love and earnestly ask you to crown your work with an end corresponding to the beginning. You know what reward awaits you for patience and what great rewards the humane God has in store for people who work and take on such feats for general peace. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” The present and the three following letters to the bishops who arrived from the west, with some differences in expression, are essentially all of the same content and written on the same occasion. One might think that St. John Chrysostom, addressing in each of them all the bishops who arrived from the west, at the same time wished that each of those who arrived, or at least each of the more influential among them, should be given a special copy of his letter. The same should be noted regarding letters: 152nd. 153rd and 154th. You might be interested in: