Letter 127

127. To Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata

God, the lover of mankind, who joins to our afflictions consolations of like measure, and comforts the lowly, lest they be unawares swallowed up by excessive grief, has brought us a comfort equal to the disturbances that have lately befallen us at Nicopolis, by setting over us at the right moment the most God-beloved bishop Jovinus; and how opportunely he appeared to us, let him relate himself. For we, sparing the length of the letter, will keep silence, and also lest we should seem, as it were, to brand with a memorial of their fault those who through their change of heart have become dear to us.

But may the holy God grant that you come to our regions, so that we may embrace your reverend dignity and recount each thing in detail. For somehow the things that have grieved us in the experience come to have a certain solace when they are told as stories. Yet, for the way in which the most God-beloved bishop bestirred himself — perfectly as regards his love for us, and above all firmly as regards the strict observance of the canons — praise him, and give thanks to the Lord, that your nurslings everywhere display the stamp of your dignity.