Letter 102

102. To the Citizens of Satala

I, prevailed upon both by your own entreaties and by those of the whole people, both took up the care of your church and promised you in the presence of the Lord that I would leave undone nothing that lay within my power. For this reason I was compelled, as it is written, to touch as it were the apple of my own eye. So far did the surpassing honour you showed me allow nothing else to come into my mind — neither kinship, nor the friendship I have had with the man from childhood — in comparison with what you asked of me. Rather, forgetting all that bound me to him in the way of intimacy, taking no account of the multitude of groans with which the people deprived of his patronage will groan against me, nor of the tears of all his kindred, nor taking to heart the affliction of his aged mother, who is shaken with grief and depends upon his care alone — passing over all such considerations, many and great as they were, I gave myself to one thing only: to adorn your church with the patronage of so great a man, and to come to her aid, who has now been brought to her knees by long want of a leader and needs much and powerful guidance to rise again.

Such, then, is our part. As for yours, we now ask that you appear no less than our hope, and than the promises we have made to the man — that we have sent him to kinsmen and friends, each of you being eager to outdo the other in zeal and love toward him. See, then, that you display this noble rivalry, and that by the abundance of your attention you so encourage his heart that he comes to forget his homeland, to forget his kindred, to forget a people that depended on his patronage as much as a young child upon its mother's breast.

We have sent Nicias ahead, so as to make known to your honourable selves what has been done, and that you may begin to celebrate and to give thanks to the Lord, who through us has counted your prayer worthy to be fulfilled.