Letters 16–34

… it is not possible, it seems, to expect anything good. Not only has the storm of the Church not abated; it rises higher every day, so to speak. Those who are convening the council have come and delivered the letters of summons to some of the metropolitans, including ours. I have sent a copy of the letter to your Holiness, so that you may know, master, that, as the poet says, evil is propped upon evil, and we need the Master's goodness alone to still the surge. This too is easy for him, but we are unworthy of calm. The grace of endurance is enough for us, so that through it we may prove stronger than those who make war on us. The divine Apostle taught us to ask for this: "For with the temptation," he says, "he will also make the way out, so that you may be able to bear it."

I ask your Godliness to muzzle the fault-finders, and to persuade them that those who are, as the saying goes, out of range of the missiles ought not to mock those [who are fighting] … For what difference does it make whether the combatant uses this weapon or that, so long as he brings down his opponent? The great David did not use full armor when he brought down the champion of the foreigners; Samson, using the jawbone of an ass, struck down a thousand at once. And no one finds fault with the victory or accuses the hero of cowardice because he conquered his opponents without wielding a spear, holding up a shield, hurling many javelins or drawing bows. In the same way we must examine those who contend for true religion: we should not look for names that stir up strife, but for arguments that clearly proclaim the truth and cover with shame those who dare to oppose it. For what difference does it make to name the holy Virgin at once Mother of the man and Mother of God, or to call her the mother and the servant of him who was born, adding that she is mother of our Lord Jesus Christ as man and servant as of God, and so to silence the pretext for slander while expressing the same meaning with another title? Besides this, one must also observe that the one name is common and the other proper to the Virgin, and that the whole battle has been over this — would that it had not been. Most of the ancient Fathers gave the Virgin the more honorable title; your Piety too has done this, in two and in three discourses. I have some of these, since your Godliness sent them to me; and in them … master, you have expressed its meaning with other names.

Since you blame me for having left out of the list of teachers the holy and blessed Fathers Diodore and Theodore, I thought it necessary to go through this briefly too. First, my dear friend, [I left out] many other illustrious and very distinguished men as well. Then one must also see that the accused [must] bring forward [witnesses] whom none even of the accusers can find fault with. If the persecuted man were to call as witnesses those whom the persecutors accuse, not even the judge himself would consent to accept them. If I had left out these saints while writing a eulogy of the Fathers, I would have done wrong, I admit, and been ungrateful to my teachers. But if I brought forward undisputed witnesses, why do those who want to see none of this find fault with me for nothing? How I revere these men is attested by the book we wrote on their behalf, in which we refuted the indictment drawn up against them, neither fearing the power of the accusers nor [the plots] made against us. … those who are fond of idle talk … My aim is not to say and do everything to please this or that person, but to build up the Church of God and to please her Bridegroom and Master. My conscience bears me witness that I do not do this for the sake of bodily comfort, … ; for I would long ago have withdrawn of my own accord, if … I had not feared the divine judgment. And now, be well assured, master, I am waiting for the compulsion; I think it is drawing near.

[Letter 17] To the deaconess [Casiana]. If I were looking only at the excess of your suffering, … the time, as an ally of the healing. But since I know the wisdom of your Godliness, I have ventured to offer words of consolation, which I learned both from nature and from the divine Scripture. Nature is perishable, and all life is full of such misfortunes; and the Ruler of all and Helmsman of the universe, the Master who wisely governs our affairs, offers us every kind of comfort through the divine oracles. The books of the holy Gospels are full of them, full too are the writings of the holy apostles and the oracles of the thrice-blessed prophets. But I think it superfluous to collect them and offer them to your Piety, which was nourished from the first on the inspired words, has shaped its own life by them, and needs no other teaching. I urge you, then, to remember those words, which charge us to master our passions, promise eternal life, proclaim the destruction of death, and announce the common resurrection of us all; and besides these, or rather before them, that it is the Master who ordered these things to happen thus, a Master most wise and most good, who knows exactly what is beneficial and directs all affairs toward it. For there are times when death is better than life, and what seems painful [is better] than what is thought … [Let] your Piety [accept] the exhortation of my lowliness, so that you may serve the Master of all by bearing your griefs nobly, and become a model of wisdom to women and men alike. All will admire the courage of your reason, which received the assault of grief nobly, and the … of your mind. We have comfort enough in the living images of the departed son, for he has left us lovable fruits, which can stop the excess of grief. Besides this, I entreat you to measure the grief by the weakness of your body, and not to increase the suffering by excess of despondency; and I [beseech] the resourceful Master to grant your Piety occasions [of comfort].

Whenever I look at the divine law, which calls those joined in marriage one flesh, I do not know how I shall comfort the limb that has been cut off and separated, for I consider how great the pain is. But when I consider the course of nature, and that limit which the Creator pronounced when he said, "You are earth, and to earth you shall return," and what happens every day everywhere on land and sea (for either husbands reach the end of life first, or wives suffer it first), I find in these things many starting points for comfort; and besides them, the hopes given to us by our God and Savior. For it was for this that the mystery of the incarnation was accomplished: that we, having learned that death has been brought to an end, might not grieve too much when we are separated by death from those we long for, but might await the thrice-longed-for hope of the resurrection. I urge your Excellency to consider these things and to overcome the feeling of despondency, especially since the branches you share are with you and provide you with every occasion of comfort. Let us therefore praise him who wisely steers our affairs, and not provoke him by excessive lamentation. For as wise he knows what is beneficial, and as good he brings it about for us.

Experience has shown us the most learned rhetor Athanasius to be just such as the letter of your Piety said. Eloquence adorns his tongue, and character adorns his eloquence; and his faith makes everything shine. Always procure such things for us, most God-beloved. For be well assured that through this company … much gladness …

Nature leads, as being older than choice, but choice overcomes nature; and a clear proof of this is the most learned rhetor Athanasius. Though he boasts of Egypt as his homeland, he has had no share in the rashness of that nation, but has tempered his character with gentleness. He is also a most ardent lover of divine things. That is why he spent several days with us, expecting to gather some benefit from it. But I, as you know, most God-beloved, shrink even from collecting such things from others; so far am I from … to others … but lack prevents me from doing this. Let your Holiness, then, pray that the opinion held of us may be confirmed by the truth, so that not only may something praiseworthy be said about us, but it may also be attested by our deeds.

Those who spread this enormous rumor thought that they would certainly grieve us by it, supposing it to be very bad news. But we, by the divine grace, both welcomed the rumor gladly and await the reality with pleasure; and anything painful that is brought upon us for the sake of the divine doctrines is very dear to us. For if we truly [trust the promises,] "the sufferings of the present time are [not] worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." And why do I speak of the enjoyment of the good things we hope for? Even if no prize at all were given to those who contend for true religion, the truth by itself would have been enough to persuade its lovers to embrace with all cheerfulness the dangers incurred on its behalf. The divine Apostle bears witness to what I have said, crying out plainly: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep for the slaughter." And teaching that he awaits no recompense, but loves only the one who saved him, he added at once: "But in all these things we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us." And he added more, through which he laid bare his own longing more clearly: "For I am persuaded," he says, "that neither death nor life, nor angels nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Look, my friend, at the flame of the apostolic love; see the torch of his passion. 'I do not reach out for what is his,' he says, 'but long for him alone, and I cannot quench this love; I would more gladly choose to lose both present and future goods, and to suffer every pain now and to endure it again, so as to carry this flame about unquenched.' This divine man not only said these things but did them, and left memorials of his sufferings everywhere on land and sea.

Looking to him, and to the others too, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, priests, I consider what are thought to be grim things very pleasing. I confess that I am ashamed before those who had least learned these things, but who, guided by nature alone, also distinguished themselves in the contests of virtue. Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus, having endured the slanderous indictment, both despised the lies of his accusers and showed his courage in danger, crying out: "Anytus and Meletus can kill me, but they cannot harm me." And the orator of Paeania, who blended philosophy with rhetorical power, offered this maxim to the men of his time and to those who would come after: "For death is the end of life for all men, even if one shuts himself up in a little room and keeps guard over himself. Good men must always set their hand to every noble thing, holding good hope before them, and bear nobly whatever God gives." The historian older than he, I mean the son of Olorus, wrote many other praiseworthy maxims; he wrote this too: "One must bear what comes from heaven as necessary, and what comes from enemies with courage." And why do I speak of philosophers, historians and orators? Even those who preferred myth to truth [wove] many beneficial [maxims] into their myths … taught in his poems, showing the wisest of the Greeks anointing himself for courage in them. He speaks thus: "[He struck his] breast …" One could easily collect other things like these from poets, orators and philosophers; but for us the divine words are enough for every benefit. I have set these down because I wanted to show how very shameful it is for those who [have been taught by the prophets and apostles], who have believed in the saving passion, and who await the resurrection of bodies, release from corruption, the gift of immortality and the kingdom of heaven, to be outdone by the disciples of nature. So comfort, my dear friend, those who are despondent over these rumors; and teach those who rejoice at them, if there is anyone of that sort, that we are glad and exult and dance, and that we welcome the supposed punishment as the very kingdom of heaven.

And so that you may also teach those who do not know what we think, most admirable friend, be assured that we believe, as we were taught, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We do not believe in two sons, as some slander us, nor teach others to do so; but as we know one Father and one Holy Spirit, so we know one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, God the Word made man. We do not, however, deny the properties of the natures. As we consider impious those who divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons, so we call enemies of the truth those who attempt to confuse the natures. For we believe that the union took place without confusion, and we know which properties belong to the humanity and which to the divinity. Take man — I mean man in general, the rational and mortal living being: he has a soul and he has a body, yet he is understood as one living being; the difference of the two natures does not divide the one into two persons, but in the one we know both the immortality of the soul and the mortality of the body, and we confess the soul invisible and the body visible, yet one living being, as I said, at once rational and mortal. In the same way we know our Lord and God, I mean the Son of God, the Master Christ, as one Son even after the incarnation; for the union is undivided, just as it is unconfused. Yet we know both that the divinity is without beginning and that the humanity is recent. The latter is from the seed of Abraham and David (for the holy Virgin is from them); but the divine nature was begotten of God the Father before the ages, timelessly, impassibly, without division. If the difference between the flesh and the divinity were abolished, what weapons shall we use when we stand in battle against Arius and Eunomius? How shall we destroy their blasphemy against the Only-begotten? As it is, we attach the lowly sayings to him as man and the lofty, God-befitting ones to him as God, and the demonstration of the truth is very easy for us. But an account of the faith goes beyond the measure of a letter. These few little words are enough to show the …

[Letter 22] To Count [Ulpianus]. They say that words reform characters that are not well disposed and make them better. To me, however, it seems that characters blended by nature into beauty themselves adorn words and have no need of phrases, just as well-formed bodies need no added colors. With these the most learned rhetor Athanasius shines. He pleased me all the more because he has become a warm lover of your Magnificence: he never stopped praising you. But I competed with him, and in going through your qualities I outdid him in praises, for I know more of your achievements. I am grieved, however, that I cannot praise everything of yours, since I see that the chief of good things is missing from my praises. If God should grant that it be added, you will hold the mastery over all who follow the same way of life as you in every form of virtue.

The Creator and Ruler of all has distributed wealth and poverty among human beings, not by an unjust decision, but to give the rich an occasion of benefit in the need of the poor. So too he brings chastisements upon people, not only to exact penalties for sins committed, but also to provide the well-off with a reason for kindness. Since, then, the Master has brought scourges upon us this year, much smaller than our sins, yet enough to distress those who work the land (I told your Magnanimity of them recently through your own farm workers), have pity, I beg you, on the ploughmen of the land, who put in the labor but brought in little fruit. Let the bad harvest become for you the occasion of a spiritual good harvest, and reap the divine mercy through this mercy. It is for this that the most illustrious Dionysius has hurried to your Greatness, to tell you of the sufferings so that he may receive the cure; and [I send] this letter as a kind of petition, … hoping for kindness through it.

Your Godliness longs for our company, I know well, being a nursling of the divine love. But I desire it more, in so far as I know that the benefit of the company is greater for me; for want somehow naturally kindles desire. But the Lord of all is able to give what is longed for. He directs all things, knows what will be beneficial, and continually brings it about for each one. How much I rejoiced on reading the letter of your Holiness I cannot show in words. My gladness was increased also by … who told me what I longed to learn. For what, master, is more delightful to me than your good fortune? And what makes it so great as the moderation of mind of the great among us? You have acted like a wise and diligent physician, who did not wait to be called but came of his own accord to those who needed treatment. This filled me with every pleasure; I learned by experience the 'laughing through tears', and understood the poet's … May the generous giver of good things grant that your Holiness may excel in these things, and that we may at least emulate the praiseworthy deeds of the best men. … Help, then, my dear friend, and persuade the one who is able to give to grant the request.

When the only-begotten God became man and accomplished our salvation, the people of that time, though they saw the source of the benefits, celebrated no feast. But now every land and sea, cities and villages, though they do not see the benefactor with bodily eyes, celebrate the memory of his benefits; and the festivals pour out such gladness that streams of spiritual joy run everywhere. That is why we too now address your Piety, and, telling you of the cheerfulness that has come to us from the feasts, we ask for your prayers, so that we may keep it to the end.

The springs of the Master's love for humankind continually pour out good things on believers; but the festivals that hold the memory of the greatest benefits bring something more to those who keep them with greater zeal. Having celebrated these now and gathered their blessing, we address your Reverence; for the law of the feast and the law of love bid us do so.

No one who has been granted divine adoption laments being orphaned. For what is more powerful or more caring than the Father above? It is through him that fathers here below are fathers; for by his will some become fathers by nature and others by grace. Let us hold fast to him, then, and keep the memory of the departed unquenched. For the remembrance of those who have lived well will benefit us by rousing us to [imitation] of them.

Those who have made their prime shine with the labors of virtue drive on toward old age with pleasure, rejoicing in their earlier victories and freed by old age from further contests. I think that your Godliness too has this pleasure, and bears old age more easily, remembering the labors of youth.

The sufferings of the Carthaginians needed the tragedy of Aeschylus and Sophocles, and perhaps the greatness of the evils would have defeated even their tongue. The city that was once hard even for the Romans to capture, or rather that often contended with mighty Rome for the first place and brought her into the utmost danger, has now become a side-task for barbarians. Those who adorned its famous council wander over the whole world, having the hands of the hospitable as their means of living. They move to tears those who see them, and teach how slippery and changeable human affairs are. I have seen many others who have come from there, and I was seized with fear; for, as the Scripture says, I do not know what the coming day will bring forth. I grieve not least for the most admirable and magnificent [Celestiacus] … and he makes the change of fortune an occasion for wisdom, praises the Ruler of all, and considers beneficial whatever God either commanded to happen or did not prevent from happening; for the reason of divine providence is beyond words. Let your Magnificence [receive] with kindness this man, [who wanders about] with his wife and children. Trusting in your magnanimity I have become their guide, and the …

Here is the moment for your academy to show the benefit of literature. I hear that a brilliant gathering is assembling with you, a council of men of pure speech, and that your discourses are on virtue and the immortality of the soul and all that goes with these. Show us, then, at the right moment, the nobility of your soul and the precious wealth of virtue, and receive the most admirable and magnificent Celestiacus, as men who have been taught the … of human prosperity. He once adorned the metropolis of the Carthaginians; he opened the doors of his house to many strangers, and never expected to need the kindness of others. Become his tongue, then, my dear friend, and plead for him, since he needs your voice; for he cannot bring himself to follow the poet's advice, which bids the one in need [to speak] 'and if he should give some word'. Persuade those in the gathering who are able to emulate the hospitality of Alcinous, to drive away the poverty that has unexpectedly fallen on him, and to change his misfortune into good fortune; and to praise the Master who loves humankind, because he teaches us wisdom through the sufferings of others, and has not sent us to other people's houses but has brought others to our doors; and to those who show kindness he promises to give what neither speech can tell nor mind is strong enough to reckon.

… and the family that sprang from it was distinguished. But now, driven out of it, he wanders about in a foreign land and looks to the hands of those who love God. He also has a burden, a necessary one, but one that increases his anxiety: I mean his wife and children and his household, for whose sake he needs greater expenditure. I have admired his attitude. As though he were carried by a fair wind, he praises the Helmsman and has paid no heed to the harsh surge; for he has reaped true religion from his misfortune, and ill fortune has brought him this thrice-blessed fruit. When he enjoyed prosperity, he would not admit such words; but stripped of it, he has thrown off impiety along with it, and now he has the wealth of faith, for the sake of which he despises that adversity. I urge your Holiness, then, to make the foreign land a homeland for him, and to urge those who abound in wealth to [comfort] one who has become a member of the same company, and to dispel the cloud of misfortune. For it befits those who share the same nature, and who sin alike but have escaped the punishment, to bring comfort to those who have fallen into ill fortune, and by sympathy toward them to win God's favor …

If the God of all brought punishment at once on all who sin, he would destroy everyone utterly. But since he judges with forbearance and kindness, some he punishes, and to others he offers their punishment as teaching instead. This is what the God who loves humankind has done in our case too. He brings to our doors people from what was formerly called Libya and is now called Africa, and by displaying their sufferings he makes us fear, and by the fear he rouses us to sympathy; and so he achieves two things at once: he benefits us by their chastisement, and offers them comfort through us. This [comfort] I urge [your Holiness to give] to the most magnificent Celestiacus. He once adorned their metropolis; now he has no city, no hearth, not even the use of what is necessary. It befits those who, like your Holiness, are entrusted with shepherding souls to suggest to the citizens what is beneficial; for they need such teaching. That is why the divine Apostle, writing to the blessed Titus, [said]: "Let our people learn … to devote themselves to good works for necessary needs." For if our city, which is deserted and has few inhabitants, and those poor, comforts those who come to it, much more does it befit [yours] to do so, especially under the leadership of your Holiness.

… the sufferings of the … and most glorious Celestiacus. They set human misfortunes on the tragic stage well enough; but I tell your Magnificence in summary that his homeland was the one once [famed] among all …, his class and lineage the most brilliant council, and his wealth great, flowing beyond need. But all this is now a tale, a story stripped of the facts; for the barbarian war has robbed him of all of it. Such is human good fortune: it will not always stay with the same people, but hurries to pass over to others. I am guiding him to your Magnificence, and I ask that he may enjoy the generosity that all men sing. I ask also that all who hold office and are wealthiest may come to know him through your Excellency, so that you may procure gain for them too, and receive greater rewards from God who loves humankind.

All the forms of virtue are praiseworthy, but kindness adorns the others too. This we continually ask of the God of all; through this alone we obtain pardon when we sin; this makes wealth stoop down to the poor. Knowing that your [Magnificence] shines with it, [I commend to you] the most [admirable] and magnificent Celestiacus, a man who had been master of much money and property, but suddenly became bereft of them, and who bears poverty as easily as few bear wealth. The plot of the drama of his misfortune is Li[bya] … I have guided him to your Greatness; do you point him out to others and move them to pity. You will gain more by teaching many people kindness.