Letter 509: Theodore Studite, Letter 509; Greek heading: Βρυένᾳ στρατηγῷ.

The death of your blessed mother has been announced to us, and how we groaned, what need is there even to say? Not on account of her who has fallen asleep in holiness (far from it; for her departure became a gain to her, since she has fled this much-sinning life), but because we considered your nobility, how it has been left utterly orphaned and possesses no consolation in life (and this while you are in so gloomy a condition), and has not even enjoyed her holy funeral rites, which can bring some small comfort: a parting word and a last utterance, the embracing of the precious remains, and the bending over the very coffin in which she is laid. And you seem to have suffered the fate of Tantalus [in Greek myth, condemned to stand in water he could not drink], if the remark is somewhat too fabulous, being consumed with thirst in the midst of the springs, since you received the news of your mother's falling asleep by hearing alone, and not with your eyes. What then in these circumstances? Shall we then groan beyond what is fitting? Shall we shed tears insatiably? Shall we give way to lamentation uncontrollably? And where is the knowledge, where the wisdom, where the understanding with which your high birth was adorned, and that indeed above many of those now seen in high office? By no means, then, O beloved, by no means; but having groaned and wept in moderation, only so far as both to discharge the funeral observances due to a mother and to display what belongs to our nature, let us come again, if you will, to ourselves, and let us look upon the things here below with elevated contemplation, as a dream and a shadow and this plaything upon the earth, as one of the theologians somewhere says [an allusion to Gregory of Nazianzus], namely that we who were not have come to be, and having come to be are dissolved again. For we too shall travel the same road which our fathers have journeyed before us, and the same lodging awaits all alike, though perhaps for one and another it is more tragic, since for one the burial may have come to pass in peace, but for another not so; for he has become either the waste of war or the swallowing-up of the sea or in some other way, as those deaths are seen to be pitiable in other manners, the sudden ones, above which your blessed mother stands, having departed from here in holiness and a cross-bearing life. It remains, then, in these circumstances, for us to speak that celebrated saying of the blessed Job: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so also has it come to pass." And I would add that this saying is profitable to us also in the things in which we are, in affliction and in utter perplexity, since that celebrated man too, as you know, amid countless griefs rendered thanksgivings to God. Let us not, therefore, grow slack, O most dear one, nor let us despair even of living, knowing that the Lord will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able. Who knows what the coming day will bring forth, and who will announce to Abraham that Sarah is giving suck? The saying is symbolic. We pray, therefore, that the Lord of glory himself, touching your heart, may produce in it a light of unceasing consolation, so that, having from within itself the occasions of comfort, it may have no need of another's voice. We have also seen our beloved brother and spiritual son, the lord John, the brother by blood of your highness, who has visited us sinners, as was fitting; whom also we comforted with brief words concerning the mother's grief, and we exhorted him together to bear, in brotherly fellow-feeling, what concerns your piety [literally, your god-fearing self].

Ἀνηγγέλη ἡμῖν ὁ θάνατος τῆς μακαρίας μητρὸς καί, ὅσον ἐστενάξαμεν, τί δεῖ καὶ λέγειν; οὐ διὰ τὴν ὁσίως κεκοιμημένην (ἄπαγε· κέρδος γὰρ αὐτῇ ἐγένετο ἡ μετάστασις, φυγούσῃ τὸν πολυαμάρτητον βίον τοῦτον), ἀλλ' ἐννοοῦντες τὴν σὴν καλοκἀγαθίαν ὡς ἀπορφανισθεῖσαν τέλεον καὶ μηδεμίαν ἐν τῷ βίῳ παραμυθίαν κεκτημένην (καὶ ταῦτα ἐν οὕτω σκυθρωπῇ καταστάσει ὑπάρχουσαν) καὶ οὐδὲ αὐτῆς τῆς ὁσίας κηδείας ἀπολαύσασαν, ὃ φέρειν οἶδεν μικρὰν παρηγορίαν, λόγος ἐξιτήριος καὶ τελευταία φωνή, πρόσπτυξίς τε τοῦ τιμίου λειψάνου καὶ αὐτῆς τῆς ἐν ᾧ κατατίθεται θήκης ἐπικύψεως. καὶ ἔοικας τὸ τοῦ Ταντάλου παθεῖν, εἰ καὶ μυθικώτερον τὸ ἐπίφθεγμα, ἐν μέσαις πηγαῖς δίψῃ τηκόμενος, ἀκοαῖς μόναις, ἀλλ' οὐκ ὀφθαλμοῖς ὑπολαβὼν τὴν τῆς μητρὸς κοίμησιν. Τί οὖν ἐν τούτοις; στενάξομεν ἆρα πέρα τοῦ δέοντος; δακρυρροήσομεν ἄπληστα; ἀποδυσπετήσομεν ἀκράτητα; καὶ ποῦ ἡ γνῶσις, ποῦ ἡ σοφία, ποῦ ἡ σύνεσις, οἷς κατεκοσμήθη σου ἡ εὐγένεια καί γε ὑπὲρ πολλοὺς τῶν νῦν ὁρωμένων ἐν τέλει; μηδαμῶς οὖν, ὦ ἐπιπόθητε, μηδαμῶς, ἀλλὰ στενάξας καὶ κλαύσας μετρίως ὅσον καὶ τὰ μητρικὰ ἐπικήδεια ἀφοσιώσασθαι καὶ τὸ τῆς φύσεως ἐπιδείξασθαι εἰς ἑαυτοὺς πάλιν, εἰ βούλει, γενώμεθα καὶ διαβλέψωμεν μετεώρῳ θεωρίᾳ τὰ τῇδε ὡς ὄναρ καὶ σκιὰ καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ γῆς τοῦτο παίγνιον, ὥς πού φησί τις τῶν θεολόγων, οὐκ ὄντας γενέσθαι καὶ γενομένους ἀναλυθῆναι. καὶ γὰρ τὴν αὐτὴν ὁδὸν καὶ ἡμεῖς πορευσόμεθα, ἥνπερ οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν προωδεύκασι, καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πᾶσιν ἐξ ἴσου ἀναμένει κατάλυμα, τάχα δὲ καὶ ἄλλου ἄλλο τραγῳδικώτερον, ὅτι τοῦ μὲν ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἡ ταφὴ τυχόν, τοῦ δὲ οὐχ οὕτως· ἢ γὰρ πολέμου παρανάλωμα γέγονεν ἢ θαλάσσης ὑπορρόφημα ἤ πως ἄλλως, ὡς ὁρᾶται τὰ ἄλλοις τρόποις ἐλεεινὰ τῶν ἐξαπίνης θανάτων, ὧν ἡ μακαρία μήτηρ ἀνωτέρα, ἐν ὁσιότητι καὶ σταυροφόρῳ βίῳ ἀπάρασα τῶν ἐνθένδε. λειπόμενον οὖν ἐστιν ἐν τούτοις εἰπεῖν ἡμᾶς τὴν ἀοίδιμον φωνὴν ἐκείνην τοῦ μακαρίου Ἰώβ, ὁ Κύριος ἔδωκεν, ὁ Κύριος ἀφείλατο, ὡς τῷ Κυρίῳ ἔδοξεν, οὕτως καὶ ἐγένετο· προσθείην δ' ἂν λυσιτελεῖν ἡμᾶς τὴν φωνὴν ταύτην καὶ ἐν οἷς ἐσμεν θλιπτικῶς καὶ ἐξαπορητικῶς, ἐπεὶ κἀκεῖνος ὁ ἀοίδιμος, ὡς οἶσθα, ἐπὶ μυρίοις ἀλγεινοῖς τὰ εὐχαριστήρια τῷ θεῷ ἀπεδίδου. Μὴ τοίνυν ῥαθυμήσωμεν, ὦ φίλτατε, μηδὲ ἐξαπορήσωμεν καὶ τοῦ ζῆν, εἰδότες ὅτι οὐκ ἐάσει ἡμᾶς Κύριος πειρασθῆναι ὑπὲρ ὃ δυνάμεθα. τίς οἶδεν τί τέξεται ἡ ἐπιοῦσα καὶ τίς ἀναγγελεῖ Ἀβραὰμ ὅτι Σάρρα θηλάζει; συμβολικὸς ὁ λόγος. εὐχόμεθα οὖν αὐτὸν τὸν Κύριον τῆς δόξης, ἐφαψάμενόν σου τῆς καρδίας, ἐμποιῆσαι φῶς ἐν αὐτῇ ἀλήκτου παραμυθίας, ὡς ἂν οἴκοθεν ἔχουσα τὰς ἀφορμὰς τῆς παρακλήσεως μὴ δεδεῆσθαι φωνῆς ἑτέρας. Εἴδομεν δὲ καὶ τὸν ἀγαπητὸν ἡμῶν ἀδελφὸν καὶ πνευματικὸν υἱέα, τὸν κύριον Ἰωάννην, τὸν ὁμαίμονα τῆς ὑψηλότητός σου, ἐπισκεψάμενον ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς κατὰ τὸ εἰκός· ὃν καὶ παρεμυθησάμεθα βραχέσι λόγοις διὰ τὸ μητρικὸν πάθος καὶ συμπαρεκαλέσαμεν οἴσειν τῇ ἀδελφικῇ συνδιαθέσει τὰ κατὰ τὴν θεοσέβειάν σου.