Letter 164: 1. It would not be easy for me to say how very much delighted I am with your holiness's letter. My words are too weak to express all that I feel; you, however, ought to be able to conjecture it, from the beauty of what you have written.

From: Basil, Bishop of Caesarea To: Ascholius, Bishop of Thessalonica Date: ~366 AD Context: Basil responds with deep emotion to Ascholius's letter about a martyr from the Danube frontier, and reflects nostalgically on the unity of the early Church. My dear Ascholius, It would not be easy to say how much your letter delighted me. My words are too weak to express what I feel, but you should be able to guess it from the beauty of what you wrote. For what did your letter not contain? Love of God. A vivid account of the martyrs that put their struggle so plainly before my eyes I felt I was watching it unfold. Love and kindness toward me. Words of surpassing beauty. When I took it into my hands and read it again and again, and sensed how abundantly full it was of the Spirit's grace, I felt transported back to the good old days -- when God's churches flourished, rooted in faith, united in love, every member in harmony as though part of one body. In those times the persecutors were out in the open, and so were the persecuted. The congregations grew larger the more they were attacked. The blood of the martyrs, watering the churches, nourished still more champions of the faith, each generation entering the struggle with the same fire as those who went before. In those days we Christians were at peace with one another -- the peace the Lord left us, which we have since driven away so cruelly that not a single trace of it remains. Yet my soul did go back to that ancient blessedness when your letter arrived from a great distance, radiant with the beauty of love, and when a martyr came to me from wild regions beyond the Danube, preaching in his very person the exactness of the faith observed in those lands. Who could describe my joy? What words could capture what I felt? When I saw the athlete, I blessed his trainer. He too, before the just Judge, after strengthening so many for the struggle on behalf of true religion, will receive the crown of righteousness.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To Ascholius. 1. It would not be easy for me to say how very much delighted I am with your holiness's letter. My words are too weak to express all that I feel; you, however, ought to be able to conjecture it, from the beauty of what you have written. For what did not your letter contain? It contained love to God; the marvellous description of the martyrs, which put the manner of their good fight so plainly before me that I seemed actually to see it; love and kindness to myself; words of surpassing beauty. So when I had taken it into my hands, and read it many times, and perceived how abundantly full it was of the grace of the Spirit, I thought that I had gone back to the good old times, when God's Churches flourished, rooted in faith, united in love, all the members being in harmony, as though in one body. Then the persecutors were manifest, and manifest too the persecuted. Then the people grew more numerous by being attacked. Then the blood of the martyrs, watering the Churches, nourished many more champions of true religion, each generation stripping for the struggle with the zeal of those that had gone before. Then we Christians were in peace with one another, the peace which the Lord bequeathed us, of which, so cruelly have we driven it from among us, not a single trace is now left us. Yet my soul did go back to that blessedness of old, when a letter came from a long distance, bright with the beauty of love, and a martyr travelled to me from wild regions beyond the Danube, preaching in his own person the exactitude of the faith which is there observed. Who could tell the delight of my soul at all this? What power of speech could be devised competent to describe all that I felt in the bottom of my heart? However, when I saw the athlete, I blessed his trainer: he, too, before the just Judge, after strengthening many for the conflict on behalf of true religion, shall receive the crown of righteousness. 2. By bringing the blessed Eutyches to my recollection, and honouring my country for having sown the seeds of true religion, you have at once delighted me by your reminder of the past, and distressed me by your conviction of the present. None of us now comes near Eutyches in goodness: so far are we from bringing barbarians under the softening power of the Spirit, and the operation of His graces, that by the greatness of our sins we turn gentle hearted men into barbarians, for to ourselves and to our sins I attribute it that the influence of the heretics is so widely diffused. Peradventure no part of the world has escaped the conflagration of heresy. You tell me of struggles of athletes, bodies lacerated for the truth's sake, savage fury despised by men of fearless heart, various tortures of persecutors, and constancy of the wrestlers through them all, the block and the water whereby the martyrs died. And what is our condition? Love is grown cold; the teaching of the Fathers is being laid waste; everywhere is shipwreck of the Faith; the mouths of the Faithful are silent; the people, driven from the houses of prayer, lift up their hands in the open air to their Lord which is in heaven. Our afflictions are heavy, martyrdom is nowhere to be seen, because those who evilly entreat us are called by the same name as ourselves. Wherefore pray to the Lord yourself, and join all Christ's noble athletes with you in prayer for the Churches, to the end that, if any further time remains for this world, and all things are not being driven to destruction, God may be reconciled to his own Churches and restore them to their ancient peace. 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/3202164.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.