220. К (епископу) антиохийскому 155

It would behoove you to reverently not change your thoughts based on what others say, but to investigate the truth with all caution in the multitude of lies. If you accept all gossip as truth, then everyone will be afraid; If the dark matter is investigated by the court and according to the laws, then I would willingly appear before your court, unless someone again directs new arrows of slander at me. I am afraid, finally afraid of shadows and ghosts, after you judge so. Friends have renounced friendship, “my neighbors stand afar off” (“neighbors... are far away... stasha”) (Psalm 37:12–13), and those who are far away are sharpening the arrows of slander. You made me wreck in the middle of the pier. But let them expel me from the city and excommunicate me from the church: I am ready to submit to any punishment. I preferred to philosophize and bravely endure troubles. I am sure, quite sure, that the desert will be safer for me than the city and wild animals more gentle than friends. Be healthy. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” That is, to the successor of St. Flavian, Porphyry, Bishop of Antioch, who was among the irreconcilable enemies of St. John Chrysostom. Based on the style of speech and judging by the very content of this letter, Tilmon thinks that it does not belong to St. John Chrysostom, and the presbyter of Antioch, Constantius, to whom the letters below belong, and who, being forced by Porphyry to leave Antioch, voluntarily shared with St. John Chrysostom his exile life. This opinion is not without some probability, especially since other letters of Constantius were also preserved between the letters of St. John Chrysostom. You might be interested in: