Letter 35: I have written to you about many people as belonging to myself; now I mean to write about more. The poor can never fail, and I can never say, no. There is no one more intimately associated with me, nor better able to do me kindnesses wherever he has the ability, than the reverend brother Leontius.
I've written to you on behalf of many people I consider my own, and here I am again with another. The poor never run out, and I can never say no.
No one is closer to me, or more ready to help me when he can, than my dear brother Leontius. So please treat his household as if it were mine — not the poverty I'm currently living in, by God's grace, but as if I were a man of wealth and property. I know you wouldn't have let me go without. You'd have looked after what I had, maybe even added to it. That's exactly how I'm asking you to treat Leontius's house.
You'll get your usual payment from me: my prayers to God for the trouble you take in being a good and honest person, and for helping those in need before they even have to ask.
Human translation — New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
[Πρός: Ἀνεπίγραφος, ὑπὲρ Λεοντίου]
Περὶ πολλῶν μὲν ὡς διαφερόντων μοι ἐπέστειλά σοι, περὶ πλειόνων δὲ καὶ ἐπιστελῶ. οὔτε γὰρ τοὺς δεομένους ἐπιλιπεῖν δυνατόν, οὔτε ἡμᾶς ἀρνεῖσθαι τὴν χάριν οἷόν τε. οὐ μήν ἐστί τις οἰκειότερός μοι, οὔτε μᾶλλον ἀναπαῦσαί με ἐφʼ οἷς ἂν εὖ τι πάθοι δυνάμενος, τοῦ αἰδεσιμωτάτου ἀδελφοῦ Λεοντίου. οὗ τὴν οἰκίαν οὕτω διάθες, ὡς ἂν εἰ αὐτὸν ἐμὲ καταλάβοις, μὴ ἐν τῇ πενίᾳ ταύτῃ, ἐν ᾗ νῦν εἰμὶ σὺν Θεῷ, ἀλλʼ εὐπορίας τινὸς ἐπειλημμένον καὶ ἀγροὺς κεκτημένον. δῆλον γὰρ ὅτι οὐκ ἂν ἐποίησάς με πένητα, ἀλλʼ ἐφύλαξας ἂν τὰ παρόντα, ἢ ἐπέτεινας τὴν εὐπορίαν. τοῦτο οὖν ποιῆσαί σε καὶ ἐν τῇ προειρημένῃ μοι οἰκίᾳ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς παρακαλοῦμεν. μισθὸς δέ σοι ὑπὲρ πάντων ὁ συνήθης παρʼ ἐμοῦ, εὐχὴ πρὸς τὸν ἅγιον Θεὸν ὑπὲρ ὧν κάμνεις, καλός τε καὶ ἀγαθὸς ὢν καὶ προλαμβάνων τὰς αἰτήσεις τῶν δεομένων.
Related Letters
(Written about the same time, in reply to another letter now lost.) I do not like being joked about Tiberina and its mud and its winters, O my friend, who are so free from mud, and who walk on tiptoe, and trample on the plains. You who have wings and are borne aloft, and fly like the arrows of Abaris, in order that, Cappadocian though you are, y...
(For 346.) Coss. Augustus Constantius IV, Constans III; Præf.
(The reply to Basil's somewhat angry answer to the last.) This was a case which any wiser man would have foreseen; but I who am very simple and foolish did not fear it in writing to you. My letter grieved you; but in my opinion neither rightly nor justly, but quite unreasonably. And while you did not acknowledge that you were hurt, neither did y...
1. [There has been a long silence on both sides, revered and well-beloved brethren, just as if there were angry feelings between us. Yet who is there so sullen and implacable towards the party which has injured him, as to lengthen out the resentment which has begun in disgust through almost a whole life of man?] This [is happening in our case, n...
I was embarrassed by what you wrote about the wild animals.