Letter 80

80. To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria.

The further the maladies of the churches advance toward the worse, the more all of us turn to your perfection, persuaded that there remains to us one consolation amid our troubles: your patronage. By the power of your prayers, and by your knowledge of how to counsel what is best in our affairs, you are believed — by all alike who know your perfection even a little, whether by report or by experience — to be the one who will bring us safe through this fearful storm. Do not, then, slacken in praying for our souls and in rousing us by your letters; for if you knew how great their benefit is, you would never let pass an opportunity of writing to us. And if we should be counted worthy, through the cooperation of your prayers, to see you and to enjoy the good things in you, and to add to the history of our life the meeting with your truly great and apostolic soul, we should reckon that for all we have suffered in our whole life we had received, from the loving-kindness of God, a consolation to counterbalance it.