Letter 202

202. To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium.

To meet your Reverence is at all times worth a great deal, but now most of all, when the business that brings us together is of such a kind. But since the remnants of my illness are such as to allow me not even the slightest movement — for in trying to travel by carriage the road as far as the shrines of the martyrs I came near to relapsing once more into the same sickness — I must needs ask your pardon. If it should be possible to postpone the matter for a few days later, then I shall be with you, by the grace of God, and shall share in your deliberations. But if what is being urgently pursued cannot wait, then carry out with God's help the tasks that lie to your hands, and count me in among yourselves as though present and laying my own hand upon the good that is being done. May you be kept strong and cheerful in the Lord, praying earnestly for me, and preserved by the grace of the Holy One for the Church of God.