Letter 102: Moved by your importunity and that of all your people, I have undertaken the charge of your Church, and have promised before the Lord that I will be wanting to you in nothing which is within my power. So I have been compelled, as it is written, to touch as it were the apple of my eye. Thus the high honour in which I hold you has suffered me to r...

To the people of Satala [a frontier city in the Armenian highlands of eastern Asia Minor], Your persistent appeals — from all of you — convinced me. I've taken responsibility for your church, and I've promised before the Lord to do everything in my power for you. That commitment forced me to make a painful choice. As Scripture says, it was like touching the apple of my eye. My respect for you overrode everything else: the family ties I share with this man, the friendship we've had since boyhood, every personal bond that made him dear to me. I set it all aside. I ignored the grief my own people will feel at losing his leadership. I ignored the tears of his relatives. I didn't let myself dwell on the pain of his elderly mother, who depends entirely on his support. All of that — and it's considerable — I put out of my mind. I had one goal: to give your church the gift of a leader like him, and to help a congregation that has been struggling far too long without a bishop, a church that desperately needs strong guidance to get back on its feet. That's my side of things. Now here's what I ask of you. Don't fall short of the promises I made him — that I was sending him to people who would become his close friends. Let each of you try to outdo the others in showing him love and welcome. Comfort his heart with your warmth, so that he can forget his homeland, forget his family, forget the people who relied on him — like a child weaned and at peace in its mother's arms. I've sent Nicias ahead to explain the details and to help you set a day of celebration to thank the Lord for answering your prayers.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To the citizens of Satala. Moved by your importunity and that of all your people, I have undertaken the charge of your Church, and have promised before the Lord that I will be wanting to you in nothing which is within my power. So I have been compelled, as it is written, to touch as it were the apple of my eye. Thus the high honour in which I hold you has suffered me to remember neither relationship, nor the intimacy which I have had from my boyhood with the person in question, as making a stronger demand on me than your request. I have forgotten all the private considerations which made him near and dear to me, making no account of the sighs which will be heaved by all my people on being deprived of his rule, none of the tears of all his kindred; nor have I taken to heart the affliction of his aged mother, who is supported by his aid alone. All these considerations, great and many as they are, I have put aside, keeping only in view the one object of giving your Church the blessing of the rule of such a man, and of aiding her, now distressed as she is, at being so long without a head, and needing great and powerful support to be enabled to rise again. So much for what concerns myself. Now, on the other hand, I ask you not to fall short of the hope which I have entertained and of the promises which I have made him, that I have sent him to close friends. I ask every one of you to try to surpass the rest in love and affection to him. I entreat you to show this laudable rivalry, and to comfort his heart by the greatness of your attentions to him, that he may forget his own home, forget his kinsfolk, and forget a people so dependent on his rule, like a child weaned from his mother's breast. I have dispatched Nicias beforehand to explain everything to your excellencies, and that you may fix a day to keep the feast and give thanks to the Lord, Who has granted the fulfilment of your prayer. About this page Source. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3202102.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.