99. К епископу Феодору 66

If we could go and embrace you with reverence and enjoy a personal meeting with your love, we would do it with lively zeal and with all possible speed. But since this is no longer in our power, we do the same thing through writing. Even if we are imprisoned in the most extreme limits of the universe, we can never forget your love, sincere, ardent, genuine and ingenuous, which you showed to us from time immemorial and from the beginning, as you have shown it now. We are not unaware of how firmly you stood, both in word and in deed, my most honest and most God-loving master. If nothing comes of this, in any case, God himself will pay you for your efforts and diligence with the fullest reward. For our part, we will never cease to be grateful to your holiness and to glorify your reverence before everyone, earnestly asking you to unremittingly preserve the same love for us forever. Despite our imprisonment in the desert, we feel extraordinary consolation at the thought that in our hearts 67 we have such a great treasure and wealth - the love of your ever-vigilant and noble soul. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” Probably to Theodore of Mopsuestia, a close friend from a young age, a fellow citizen in his homeland and a companion of St. John Chrysostom at the Antioch School of St. scriptures. "In the heart" (en kardía). Montfaucon and others find another reading more correct: “in Cilicia” (en Kilikía). Of the four Greek codes that Montfaucon used to check the text of previous editions in the present case, only two, namely, one of the Vatican codes and the codex of the royal Parisian library, have a reading en kardía, while the other two, of which one is older than all the others, do not confirm this reading. Moreover, in one codex of the Saint-Germain library under No. 326, whose antiquity dates back to the ninth century, among other things, an ancient Latin translation of this letter has been preserved, remarkable in that not only in its text is the reading: in Cilicia, but also in the title itself the name of Theodore of Mopsueste is placed: “incipit Johannis Constantinopolitani ad Theodorum “Mopsuestenum” Episcopnm.” Finally, Facundus, bishop of Hermian, the famous defender of Theodore of Mopsuestia, read this passage just as accurately, attributing the letter itself to the person of Theodore of Mopsuestia, as can be seen from his work “pro defensione trium capitulorum”, written around the year 542 (see book 7, chapter 7, p. 633 according to Sirmond’s edition). In fact, if we accept this reading, then there is no doubt that the letter was really written to Theodore of Mopsuestia. However, notes Tillemon, if one does not accept it, remaining with a different reading, then one must again adhere to the same opinion. Of all the bishops who bore the name of Theodore, only two are known to whom this letter could have been addressed, namely: Tyana in Cappadocia and Mopsuest in Cilicia. But with Theodore of Tyana, St. John Chrysostom was never on such friendly terms, much less “from time immemorial”, as he expresses to the person to whom he is writing this letter, and as he really was with Theodore of Mopsuestia. It must be added, however, that this opinion was rejected at the fifth ecumenical council - unfortunately, without indicating any reason (see "Labbaei" Concilior. coll. torn. 5, pag. 490). You might be interested in: