Letter 138: Chrysostom tells Elpidius that illness and isolation caused silence of the tongue but not of the mind.

I know that I have written rarely to your honor, but not willingly. Necessity has held me back: the season, the desolation of the place where we are confined, harsher than a prison, the scarcity of visitors, the difficulty of finding even the few who come to be trustworthy, and the bodily illness that worked on us severely and nailed us to bed all winter. These things caused a long silence of the tongue, not of the mind. Do not think you receive only as many letters as we send through paper and ink. Count the letters written from affection as well. In thought we have written continually and are always with you. Neither distance, time, nor the pressure of affairs has dimmed our affection for your honor. We continue to keep that love in bloom. Wherever we may be carried, even to a more desolate place than this, we carry our warm and genuine lover with us, engraved in our mind. This is what genuine love is like: it is not erased by time, place, distance, or circumstances. You know this yourself, because you know how to love genuinely.

ΡΛΗʹ. Ἐλπιδίῳ ἐπισκόπῳ. Οἶδα ὅτι ὀλιγάκις ἐπέσταλκα τῇ τιμιότητί σου, ἀλλ' οὐχ ἑκὼν, ἀλλ' ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων ἀνάγκης κατεχόμενος. Καὶ γὰρ ἡ τοῦ ἔτους ὥρα, καὶ ἡ τοῦ χωρίου ἐρημία ἐν ᾧ καθείργμεθα δεσμωτηρίου χαλεπώτερον, καὶ ἡ τῶν ἐνταῦθα παραγινομένων σπάνις, καὶ τὸ μηδὲ αὐτῶν τῶν ὀλίγων πάντων γνησίων ἐπιτυγχάνειν, ἔτι δὲ καὶ ἡ τοῦ σώματος ἀῤῥωστία σφόδρα ἡμᾶς κατεργασαμένη, καὶ πάντα τὸν χειμῶνα τῇ κλίνῃ προσηλώσασα, τὴν μακρὰν ταύτην σιγὴν ἐποίησεν, ἀλλ' οὐ τὴν ἀπὸ γνώμης, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀπὸ γλώσσης. Μηδὲ νόμιζε τοσαύτας δέχεσθαι ἐπιστολὰς, ὅσας διεπεμψάμεθα, ἀλλὰ πολλῷ πλείους. Ἡγήσῃ δὲ τοῦτο, ἂν μὴ τὰς διὰ χάρτου καὶ μέλανος μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς ἀπὸ διαθέσεως ἀριθμῇς. Καὶ γὰρ τῇ διανοίᾳ συνεχῶς ἐπεστάλκαμεν, καὶ ἀεί σοι συγγινόμεθα, καὶ οὐδὲν οὐδὲ τῆς ὁδοῦ τὸ μῆκος, οὐ τοῦ χρόνου τὸ πλῆθος, οὔτε αἱ τῶν πραγμάτων περιστάσεις τὴν περὶ τὴν σὴν τιμιότητα διάθεσιν ἡμῖν ἀμαυροτέραν ἐποίησαν. Ἀλλὰ μένομεν ἀκμάζουσαν αὐτὴν διατηροῦντες, καὶ τὸν σφοδρὸν ἡμῶν καὶ θερμὸν ἐραστὴν, κἂν εἰς ἐρημότερον τούτου χωρίον ἀπέλθωμεν, πανταχοῦ περιφέροντες ἄπιμεν, ἐγκολάψαντες ἡμῶν τῇ διανοίᾳ. Τοιοῦτον γὰρ τὸ γνησίως φιλεῖν· οὐ χρόνῳ, οὐ τόπῳ, οὐχ ὁδοῦ μήκει, οὐ πραγμάτων περιστάσει ἐξίτηλον γίνεται. Καὶ τοῦτο οἶσθα καὶ αὐτὸς, ἐπειδὴ καὶ γνησίως οἶσθα φιλεῖν.