Letters 46–51

To a fallen virgin. 1. Now is the time to cry out that prophetic word and say: “Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes, and I will weep for the wounded of the daughter of my people?” For even if a deep silence holds them, and they lie once and for all stupefied by the calamity, robbed by the deadliness of the blow of the very sense of their suffering, yet we must not pass by so great a fall without tears. For if Jeremiah judged those wounded in body in war worthy of countless laments, what could one say at so great a disaster of souls? “Your wounded,” he says, “are not wounded by the sword, and your dead are not dead in war.” But I lament the sting of true death, grievous sin, and the fiery darts of the evil one, which have burned up souls together with bodies like barbarians. Surely the laws of God would groan greatly, beholding so great a pollution on earth, they who always forbid and cry out, of old, “You shall not covet your neighbor's wife,” and through the holy Gospels, “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And now they see the very bride of the Master, whose head is Christ, committing adultery without fear. Even the spirits of the saints would groan: Phinehas the zealot, because it is not permitted him now too to take the spear in his hands and avenge the abomination bodily; and John the Baptist, because he cannot leave the dwellings above, as he once left the desert, and run to rebuke the lawlessness, and, if he had to suffer anything, lay down his head rather than his boldness. Or rather, since for us too, like blessed Abel, “though dead he still speaks,” John now also cries and shouts louder than he did then about Herodias: “It is not lawful for you to have her.” For even if John's body, by the necessity of nature, received the divine limit, and his tongue is silent, yet “the word of God is not bound.” For he who carried his boldness as far as death when the marriage of a fellow servant was being violated, what would he feel on beholding so great an outrage against the holy bridal chamber of the Lord? 2. But you, having thrown off the yoke of that divine union, having run away from the undefiled bridal chamber of the true King, and having fallen shamefully into this dishonorable and impious corruption, since you have no way of escaping this bitter accusation, nor any means or device of covering up this terrible deed, you advance boldly in your daring. And since “when the ungodly man comes into the depth of evils, he despises,” you deny the very covenant with the true Bridegroom, crying that you were not a virgin and never promised it, you who received and displayed many tokens of virginity. Remember the good confession that you confessed before God and angels and men. Remember the reverent company and the sacred choir of virgins, the assembly of the Lord, the church of the holy; and your grandmother, aged in Christ, still young and flourishing in virtue; and your mother in the Lord, vying with her and striving by strange and unaccustomed labors to break down the ways of custom; and your sister likewise, imitating them in some things and ambitious to surpass them in others, outstripping her ancestors' achievements by her virginal advantages, and diligently calling you, her sister, as she thought, to rivalry in the same things by word and life. Remember these, and the angelic choir about God with them, and the spiritual life in the flesh, and the heavenly citizenship on earth. Remember the untroubled days, the illumined nights, the spiritual songs, the melodious psalmody, the holy prayers, the chaste and undefiled bed, the virginal procession, the temperate table, and her who prayed well that your virginity might be kept uncorrupted. Where is that reverent appearance of yours, where the modest character, and the simple dress befitting a virgin, the beautiful blush of modesty, and the comely pallor blooming from self-control and vigils, shining more gracefully than any fine complexion? How often in prayers, perhaps, did you shed tears that you might keep your virginity spotless? How many letters did you write to the saints, asking them to pray for you, not that you might obtain human marriage, or rather this dishonorable corruption, but that you might not fall away from the Lord Jesus? How often did you receive the Bridegroom's gifts? What need is there to speak of the honors you received for his sake from those who are his, of your life with virgins, your processions with them, your welcomes by virgins, the praises of your virginity, the virginal blessings, the letters written to you as to a virgin? But now, having received a little breath of the spirit of the air, “that now works in the sons of disobedience,” you have denied all those things, and have exchanged that precious and much-sought possession for a brief pleasure, which for a while makes your throat smooth, but afterward you will find it more bitter than gall. 3. At this, who would not mourn and say, “How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot?” And how would not the Lord himself say to one of those who now walk in the spirit of Jeremiah, “Have you seen what the virgin of Israel has done to me? I betrothed her to myself in faith and incorruption, in righteousness and in judgment, in mercy and compassion,” as I promised her through Hosea the prophet; “but she has loved strangers, and while I, her husband, am living, she is called an adulteress, and is not afraid of becoming another man's.” And what of the bride's escort, the divine and blessed Paul, both that ancient one and this new one, under whose mediation and teaching you left your father's house and were joined to the Lord? Would not each of them, deeply grieved at so great an evil, say, “The fear that I feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has met me. For I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ, and I was always afraid lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts should one day be corrupted.” That is why I always tried to calm the tumult of the passions with countless charms, and to guard the Lord's bride with countless safeguards; and I always set forth the life of the unmarried woman, that only the unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and spirit; and I explained the dignity of virginity, and, calling you a temple of God, I gave wings, as it were, to your zeal, lifting it toward Jesus; and I helped you by the fear of the dreadful not to fall, saying, “If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.” And I added the safety of my prayers, that your whole body and soul and spirit might be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But I have labored over you in vain in all this; the end of those sweet labors has turned out bitter for me; and I must groan again over that in which I ought to rejoice. For behold, you have been deceived by the serpent more bitterly than Eve; not only your thoughts have been corrupted, but with them the body itself; and, that dreadful thing which I shrink from saying and cannot keep silent (for it is like a fire burning and blazing in my bones, and I am weakened on every side and cannot bear it), you have taken the members of Christ and made them members of a harlot. This alone among all evils is beyond comparison; this is a new daring in the world. For “cross over,” it says, “to the islands of Kittim and see, and send to Kedar and consider carefully, whether such things have happened, whether the nations will change their gods, and they are no gods”; but the virgin has changed her glory, and her glory is in her shame. “Heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered greatly.” The Lord says now too: The virgin has done two evils: she has forsaken me, the true and holy Bridegroom of holy souls, and has run away to an impious and lawless corrupter of soul and body alike. She has departed from God her Savior. 4. “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause” the Lord's virgin “to stumble.” What insolent slave was ever so mad as to throw himself on his master's bed? Or what robber was ever carried to such a pitch of madness as to lay hands on the very offerings dedicated to God, not lifeless vessels, but living bodies with an indwelling soul made in the image of God? Who has ever been heard of who dared, in the middle of a city and at high noon, to paint the shapes of unclean swine on a royal image? Anyone who sets aside a human marriage dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. “How much worse punishment, do you think, will he deserve” who has trampled on the Son of God, defiled the bride pledged to him, and outraged the spirit of virginity? “But she was willing,” he says, “and I did not force her against her will.” Yes, and that lustful Egyptian mistress went mad for the fair Joseph; but the madness of the licentious woman did not overcome the virtue of the chaste man, nor was he forced into lawlessness when she used force with her hands. “But she had decided on it,” he says, “and was no longer a virgin; and if I had not been willing, she would have been corrupted by another.” Yes, the Son of Man too had to be betrayed, but woe to him through whom he was betrayed; and stumbling blocks must come, but woe to him through whom they come. 5. Further: “Shall he who falls not rise? Or shall he who turns away not turn back?” Why has the virgin turned away with a shameless turning, though she heard Christ the Bridegroom saying through Jeremiah, “And I said, after she had committed fornication, after all these things, Return to me; and she did not return”? “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of my people not come up?” Indeed you might find many remedies for the evil in the divine Scripture, many medicines from destruction to salvation: the mysteries about death and resurrection, the words about the fearful judgment and eternal punishment, the teachings about repentance and the forgiveness of sins, those countless examples of conversion: the coin, the sheep, the son who devoured his living with harlots, who was lost and found, dead and alive again. Let us use these remedies for the evil; through these let us heal our souls. Bring into your mind the last day (for you will not live forever, you alone), the distress, the choking, the hour of death, God's sentence pressing on, the angels hurrying, and the soul terribly troubled amid these things, bitterly scourged by its sinful conscience and pitiably turning back toward the things here, and the inexorable necessity of that long journey. Picture to me in your mind the final overthrow of the common life, when the Son of God comes in his glory with his angels. For he will come and will not keep silent; when he comes to judge the living and the dead, and to render to each according to his deeds; when that trumpet, sounding something great and terrible, awakens those who have slept from the beginning of the world, and those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Remember the divine vision of Daniel, how he brings the judgment before our eyes. “I beheld,” he says, “until thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days sat; his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his wheels were burning fire. A river of fire flowed before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court sat, and the books were opened,” revealing clearly, all at once, in the hearing of all angels and men, the good, the bad, the open, the hidden, deeds, words, thoughts. What sort of people must those who have lived wickedly be at this? Where then will that soul hide, which is suddenly seen, in the sight of so many spectators, full of shame? With what sort of body will it endure those endless and unbearable scourges, where there is unquenchable fire, an immortal worm that punishes, and the dark and dreadful pit of Hades? … 6. These things can be escaped now. While it is possible, let us recover ourselves from the fall, and not despair of ourselves, if we depart from evil. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. “Come, let us worship and fall down before him, and weep before him.” Calling us to repentance, the Word cries out and shouts, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” There is, then, a way of salvation, if we will. Death prevailed and swallowed up; but be sure that God has again wiped away every tear from every face of those who repent. The Lord is faithful in all his words. He does not lie when he says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; though they be red as crimson, I will make them white as wool.” The great physician of souls is ready to heal your affliction, he who is the ready liberator, not of you alone, but of all who are enslaved to sin. His are the words; that sweet and saving mouth said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” What excuse, then, have you, or anyone else, when he cries out thus? The Lord wishes to cleanse you from the pain of your wound and to show you light out of darkness. The good shepherd, who left those that had not strayed, is seeking you. If you give yourself up, he who loves mankind will not hesitate or disdain to carry you on his own shoulders, rejoicing that he has found his sheep that was lost. The Father stands and waits for your return from wandering. Only come back, and while you are still far off, he will run to you, fall on your neck, and embrace with loving kisses the one already cleansed by repentance. He will clothe with the first robe the soul that has put off the old man with his deeds; he will put a ring on hands that have washed off the blood of death, and shoes on feet that have turned from the evil way to the course of the gospel of peace. He will proclaim a day of gladness and joy to his own, both angels and men, and will celebrate your salvation in every way. “For truly I say to you,” he says, “there is joy in heaven before God over one sinner who repents.” And if one of those who seem to stand should find fault because you were quickly received, the good Father himself will defend you, saying, … was lost, and is found. [Letter 47] … No small [fear] took hold, lest those who have long lain in wait for the church of our metropolis, wishing to fill it with heretical tares, should now seize the occasion and root out with their own evil teachings the godliness sown with much toil in the souls of men, and cut its unity in pieces, as they have done in many churches. And since letters have also come to us from the clergy, urging us not to overlook them at such a time, I looked round about and remembered your love, your right faith, and the zeal you always have for the churches of God. For this reason I have sent our beloved fellow deacon Eustathius to entreat your Reverence and to urge you to add the present labor to all your labors for the churches; to refresh my old age by meeting you; and to set right for the orthodox church its celebrated godliness, by giving it with us (if indeed we may be thought worthy to share the good work with you) a shepherd according to the Lord's will, able to direct his people. For we have before our eyes a man whom you yourselves also know; if we are thought worthy to obtain him, I know that we shall gain great boldness toward God and confer the greatest benefit on the people who have called on us. But I urge you again and again, setting aside all hesitation, …

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. We have only with difficulty found someone to carry letters to your Godliness, since the people here have so cowered before the winter that they cannot bear even to peep out of their houses in the slightest. For we have been snowed upon with such a mass of snow that, buried with our very houses, we have now spent two months lurking in our dens. So you will surely pardon us, knowing the timidity of Cappadocian ways and the sluggishness of our bodies, if we did not write sooner, nor bring to your Honor's knowledge the news from Antioch, which it is surely stale and cold to tell you, since you have probably learned it long ago. Still, thinking it no harm to report even what is known, we have sent the letters brought by the reader. So much for that. Constantinople has had Demophilus for a long time now, as these men themselves will report, and as has surely been announced to your Holiness already. And a certain show of orthodoxy and piety on his part is talked of by all who come here alike, so that even the divided parts of the city have come together, and some of the neighboring bishops have accepted union. But our own people have proved no better than our hopes. For, arriving right on the heels of your departure, they said many painful things and did many, and finally withdrew, confirming the schism for us. Whether anything better will come of it, and whether they will cease from their wickedness, is unclear to everyone except God. Such, then, is the present state of things. The rest of the church is steady by the grace of God, and prays to see you again in our region with the spring, and to be renewed by your good teaching. As for me, my body is no better than usual.

To Innocent, a bishop. And to whom else was it fitting both to put courage into the fearful and to rouse the sleeping, if not to the Godliness of you, our master, who have made known your perfection in all things in this too, in deigning to come down even to us lowly ones, as a true disciple of him who said, “I am in your midst, not as one who reclines at table, but as one who serves”? For you yourself deigned to serve us your spiritual gladness, to take up our souls with your precious letter, and to embrace with your own greatness the infancy, as it were, of children. Pray, then (we ask this of your good soul), that we may be worthy to receive the benefits that come from great men like you, and to obtain a mouth and wisdom to dare to answer you, who are led by the Holy Spirit. Hearing that you are his friend and a true glorifier of him, we acknowledge great gratitude for your firm and unswerving love toward God, praying that our portion may be found with the true worshipers, among whom we are persuaded your Perfection is, and the great and true bishop who has filled the whole world with his own wonder; this we ask of the Lord.

To Bosporius, a bishop. 1. How, do you think, did the report of that slander pain my soul, which certain people poured over me who do not fear the Judge who will destroy all who speak falsehood? So that, at your Love's words, I remained almost sleepless the whole night, so deeply did the grief touch the very middle of my heart. For truly, according to Solomon, slander humbles a man; and no one is so insensible as not to suffer in soul and be bowed to the ground when he has fallen among mouths ready for lying. But we must bear all things and endure all things, leaving vengeance on our behalf to the Lord, who will not overlook us, since “he who slanders the poor provokes his Maker.” Those, however, who composed this new drama of blasphemy against us seem altogether to disbelieve the Lord, who declared that we shall give account even for an idle word on the day of judgment. Tell me, did I anathematize the most blessed Dianius? For this is what they reported of us. Where, or when? In whose presence? On what pretext? In mere words, or in writing? Following others, or myself beginning and leading the daring deed? O the shamelessness of those who say anything easily! O the contempt for God's judgments! Unless perhaps they will add to their fiction this tragic touch too, that I was once out of my mind, so as not to know my own doings. For while in possession of my reason, I know that I did no such thing, nor even intended it at all. Rather I am conscious of this: that from my earliest age I was brought up in affection for him, and looked up to the man, so venerable to see, so magnificent, with such priestly dignity in his appearance. And when afterwards reason came to me, then I recognized him by the goods of his soul as well, and rejoiced in his company, learning the simplicity, nobility, and generosity of his ways, and all that was the man's own: the gentleness of his soul, the combination of greatness and mildness, the comeliness, the freedom from anger, the cheerfulness and approachability blended with dignity. So I counted him among the most illustrious in virtue. 2. Toward the end of his life, however (for I will not hide the truth), I was grieved for him with an unbearable grief, along with many in our homeland who fear the Lord, at his signing of the creed brought from Constantinople by George and his party. Then, being the man he was, in gentleness of character and reasonableness, bearing with patience to satisfy all with fatherly affection, when he had already fallen into the illness of which he died, he called us and said, with the Lord as witness, that he had agreed to the document from Constantinople in simplicity of heart, but had chosen nothing to set aside the creed set forth by the holy Fathers at Nicaea, nor did he hold in his heart anything other than what he had received from the beginning; but he even prayed not to be separated from the portion of those blessed three hundred and eighteen bishops who proclaimed the pious preaching to the world; so that we, on this assurance, put away all doubt from our hearts, as you yourself know, came into communion with him, and ceased to grieve. Such, then, were our dealings with the man. But if anyone says that we have been privy to any unlawful blasphemy against him, let him not whisper it in a corner like a slave, but let him stand up openly and convict us with boldness.