Letter 256

256. To his most beloved and most reverent brethren, his fellow-presbyters Acacius, Aetius, Paul, and Silvanus, and to the deacons Silvinus and Lucius, and to the rest of the monastic brethren, Basil the bishop.

When I heard of that grievous persecution raised against you, and that, immediately after Easter, those who had fasted only for quarrels and brawls fell upon your dwellings and gave your labours to the fire — for you preparing the house in heaven not made with hands, for themselves storing up that fire which they used to harm you — I groaned at what had happened, not, brethren, out of grief for you (far from it!), but for those so plunged beneath wickedness as to stretch their own malice to such lengths. And I expected that you would all run at once, as to a ready refuge, to our lowliness; and I held it in hope that the Lord would grant me a respite from my continual pains by my embracing you, and that, receiving upon this idle body of mine the noble sweat which you shed for the truth, I might have some share in the prizes laid up for you by the Judge of truth. But since this never even came into your minds, and you did not expect to find any rest with us, I longed at least to find continual occasions for letters to you, so that, like those who shout encouragement to athletes contending, I too might cry out to you something through letters to spur on your good struggle. But not even this was easy for us, for two reasons: one, that we did not know where you were living; the other, that there are not many who set out from us to come to you.

But now the Lord has brought to us our most beloved and most reverent brother Sanctissimus, our fellow-presbyter, through whom we both greet your love and exhort you to pray for us, rejoicing and exulting that your reward is great in heaven, and — since you have boldness toward the Lord — not to cease crying out to Him night and day, that this tossing of the Churches may cease, that the shepherds may be restored to their peoples, and that the Church may return to her proper dignity. For I am persuaded that, if a voice be found to move the Good One by supplication, He will not be long in showing His mercies, but will at last grant us, together with the trial, also the way out, that we may be able to endure it. Greet from us all the brotherhood in Christ.