Letter 59: (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...
Gregory to Basil.
This is a situation that any wiser man would have foreseen, but I -- simple and foolish as I am -- did not anticipate it when I wrote to you. My letter grieved you. In my judgment, it should not have, neither rightly nor justly. But I could see that you were hurt, even though you did not admit it directly.
I know you, Basil, better than you know yourself. When you are wounded, your silence is louder than other men's shouts. But I will not apologize for telling you the truth. If your friend cannot speak honestly to you, who can?
Still, I grieve that I have caused you pain, even unintentionally. And I offer you this: come to me, or let me come to you, and let us settle face to face what letters only make worse. Written words are treacherous things -- they carry the message but lose the tone.
Human translation — New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Related Letters
Twice cabbage is death, says the unkind proverb. I, however, though I have called for it often, shall die once. Yes: even though I had never called for it at all!
(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...
(Written to S. Basil shortly after his Ordination as Priest, probably toward the end of a.d. 362.) I approve the beginning of your letter; but what is there of yours that I do not approve?
I know you will often write, Here is another Cappadocian for you! I expect that you will send me many. I am sure that you are everywhere putting pressure on both fathers and sons by all your complimentary expressions about me.
(An attack had been made in Gregory's presence on the orthodoxy of Basil in respect of the Deity of God the Holy Ghost; and in this letter he gives his friend an account of the way in which he had defended him. Unfortunately Basil was not pleased with the letter, taking it as intended to convey reproach under the guise of friendly sympathy.) Fro...