Letter 119

119. To Eustathius, Bishop of Sebasteia

Through my most reverend and devout brother Peter I greet your love, begging you, as on every occasion so now too, to pray for me, that, being changed from this blameworthy and harmful way, I may at length become worthy of the name of Christ. And surely, even if I do not speak of it, you two will discuss our affairs with each other, and he will inform you of the exact truth of what has been done, so that you may not accept without scrutiny the wicked suspicions raised against us — such as those are likely to contrive who, both against the fear of God and against the regard of men, have outraged us. For what the noble Basil showed me — he whom I received from your reverence as a safeguard of my life — I am ashamed even to tell; but you will learn each particular, being instructed by our brother. And I say this not to take vengeance on him (for I pray that it may not be reckoned against him by the Lord), but managing that the love I have from you may remain firm to us, which I fear they may shake by the excess of their slanders, such as they are likely to contrive in defence of their own fault. But whatever they may accuse us of, let this be examined by your sagacity: whether they brought any charge against us, whether they sought the correction of the fault they now impute to us, whether they ever made plain at all their grievance against us. But as it is, with a cheerful face and feigned words of love, concealing in their soul an unspeakable abyss of guile and bitterness, they made it plain by their ignoble flight. How great a grief they have caused us by this, and how great a mockery for those who always loathe the devout life in this wretched city, and insist that the appearance of self-control is practised as an art to win trust and a disguise for deceit — all this, even if we do not relate it, is surely known to your understanding; so that no pursuit is now so suspected of wickedness by the people here as the profession of the ascetic life.

How these things ought to be healed, it would be for your understanding to consider. For the charges patched together by Sophronius are no prelude to good things for us, but the beginning of division and separation, and an effort to chill even the love that is among us. We beg, through your tender mercy, that he be restrained from this harmful impulse, and that he try rather, by his own love, to bind together what is being drawn apart, and not to join in widening the separation with those who are bent on division.