Letter 134: You may conjecture from what it contains, what pleasure you have given me by your letter. The pureness of heart, from which such expressions sprang, was plainly signified by what you wrote. A streamlet tells of its own spring, and so the manner of speech marks the heart from which it came.
How much your letter delighted us you can no doubt guess from the very words you wrote. So clearly was the purity of the heart from which those words proceeded revealed by the letter itself. For a channel of water shows forth its own spring, and the nature of speech characterizes the heart that produced it. And so I confess that I have experienced something strange and far removed from what one would expect. For though I was always eager to receive a letter from your Perfection, when I took the letter into my hands and read it, I was not so much pleased by what was written as I was pained, reckoning up how great a loss we had suffered during the time of your silence.
But since you have begun to write, do not leave off doing so. For you will bring us more delight than those who send great sums of money to the lovers of wealth. As for scribes, none was available to me — neither copyists nor shorthand writers. For of those I happened to have trained, some ran back to their former way of life, and the rest have given out under their labors, broken down by prolonged illnesses.
Human translation — New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
[Πρός: Παιονίῳ πρεσβυτέρῳ]
Ὅσον ηὔφρανας ἡμᾶς τοῖς γράμμασιν εἰκάζεις που πάντως αὐτοῖς οἷς ἐπέστειλας· οὕτω τὸ καθαρὸν τῆς καρδίας, ἀφʼ ἧς προῆλθεν ἐκεῖνα τὰ ῥήματα, ἀκριβῶς ἐκ τῶν γραμμάτων κατεμηνύετο. καὶ γὰρ ὁλκὸς μὲν ὕδατος δείκνυσι τὴν οἰκείαν πηγήν, λόγου δὲ φύσις τὴν προενεγκοῦσαν αὐτὸν καρδίαν χαρακτηρίζει. ὥστε ἄτοπόν τε καὶ πολὺ τοῦ εἰκότος παρηλλαγμένον πεπονθέναι ὁμολογῶ. σπουδάζων γὰρ ἀεὶ γράμμασιν ἐντυγχάνειν τῆς τελειότητός σου, ἐπειδὴ ἔλαβον εἰς χεῖρας τὴν ἐπιστολὴν καὶ ἀνέγνων αὐτήν, οὐχ ἥσθην μᾶλλον τοῖς ἐπεσταλμένοις, ἢ ἠνιάθην τὴν ζημίαν, ὁπόση γέγονεν ἡμῖν κατὰ τὸν τῆς σιωπῆς χρόνον, διαλογιζόμενος.
Ἀλλʼ ἐπειδὴ ἤρξω γράφειν, μὴ διαλίπῃς τοῦτο ποιῶν. εὐφρανεῖς γὰρ πλέον ἢ οἱ τὰ πολλὰ χρήματα τοῖς φιλοπλούτοις διαπεμπόμενοι· τῶν δὲ γραφέων οὐδείς μοι παρῆν, οὔτε τῶν καλλιγραφούντων οὔτε τῶν ταχυγράφων. οὓς γὰρ ἔτυχον ἐξασκήσας, οἱ μὲν ἀνέδραμον ἐπὶ τὴν πρώτην τοῦ βίου συνήθειαν, οἱ δὲ ἀπειρήκασι πρὸς τοὺς πόνους, χρονίαις ἀρρωστίαις κεκακωμένοι.
Related Letters
I took the earliest opportunity of writing to the most admirable Count Terentius, thinking it better to write to him on the subject in hand by means of strangers, and being anxious that our very dear brother Acacius shall not be inconvenienced by any delay. I have therefore given my letter to the government treasurer, who is travelling by the im...
1. So far from being impatient at the length of your letter, I assure you I thought it even short, from the pleasure it gave me when reading it. For is there anything more pleasing than the idea of peace?
To the Presbyter Basilius.
Gregory to Athanasius, Presbyter of Isauria. As we are afflicted and mourn for those whom the error of heretical pravity has cut off from the unity of the Church, so we rejoice with those whom their profession of the Catholic faith retains within her bosom. And, as it is our duty to oppose the impiety of the former with pastoral solicitude, so i...
In my former letter it seemed to me sufficient to point out to your excellency, that all that portion of the people of the holy Church of Antioch who are sound in the faith, ought to be brought to concord and unity. My object was to make it plain that the sections, now divided into several parts, ought to be united under the God-beloved bishop M...