From your first and second letter, my child, I took delight, and even greater delight, both in the steadfastness of your soul and in the unhesitating quality of your faith, and in your endurance and ready eagerness toward absolutely everything; and thanks be to the Lord, who fortifies you and confirms you in the fear of him. By his dispensation [oikonomia: God's providential ordering of affairs] the Lord has ordered things so that up to the present you have been kept unguarded [unwatched, free], in order that the necessary services [ministries] might be carried out. I saw also the good Gaianus, and my soul was nourished by the exposition concerning the ten. One thing grieved me, concerning the two brothers who were formerly from Pelekete [the monastery of Pelekete in Bithynia], that they were not dealt with as our own members and brothers. But, if it is possible, and as much as the love of God requires, let them be dealt with. I accepted everything, including the things now sent. I was set at rest as to the parchments [vellum sheets], in absolutely everything; may the Lord give you rest in return, my child, in his kingdom. In waiting for the heretics [the iconoclasts] you grow weary, but this too is for your testing. Help the brother Tithoios, and be moved to compunction (since it is written, let brothers be useful to you in times of necessity), whom also greet on my behalf. And I urge both him and that other one that, as in all things you labor, you also show toward your brother the abbot Peter a fitting disposition and give him the things needful, so far as is possible; for he disclosed to me that you have left him unprovided for. Above all, and as you direct, greet on our behalf the brother Dometianus and the deputy steward [paroikonomos: assistant to the monastery's steward]; and tell him that I have received your letters. May God forgive you in all things; may Christ be with you all.
From your first and second letter, my child, I took delight, and even greater delight, both in the steadfastness of your soul and in the unhesitating quality of your faith, and in your endurance and ready eagerness toward absolutely everything; and thanks be to the Lord, who fortifies you and confirms you in the fear of him. By his dispensation [oikonomia: God's providential ordering of affairs] the Lord has ordered things so that up to the present you have been kept unguarded [unwatched, free], in order that the necessary services [ministries] might be carried out. I saw also the good Gaianus, and my soul was nourished by the exposition concerning the ten. One thing grieved me, concerning the two brothers who were formerly from Pelekete [the monastery of Pelekete in Bithynia], that they were not dealt with as our own members and brothers. But, if it is possible, and as much as the love of God requires, let them be dealt with. I accepted everything, including the things now sent. I was set at rest as to the parchments [vellum sheets], in absolutely everything; may the Lord give you rest in return, my child, in his kingdom. In waiting for the heretics [the iconoclasts] you grow weary, but this too is for your testing. Help the brother Tithoios, and be moved to compunction (since it is written, let brothers be useful to you in times of necessity), whom also greet on my behalf. And I urge both him and that other one that, as in all things you labor, you also show toward your brother the abbot Peter a fitting disposition and give him the things needful, so far as is possible; for he disclosed to me that you have left him unprovided for. Above all, and as you direct, greet on our behalf the brother Dometianus and the deputy steward [paroikonomos: assistant to the monastery's steward]; and tell him that I have received your letters. May God forgive you in all things; may Christ be with you all.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.