Letter 32

Theodoret to Alexandros. I have received your letter with delight, not only because it came from a friend, but because it revealed the nobility of your spirit. You write about your difficulties with a frankness that does honor to your character, and you ask for my help with a directness that speaks well of your trust in our friendship. I wish I could do more than merely write. But the resources of a bishop are slender, and the demands on them are many. Still, what I can offer I give freely: my prayers to the Giver of all good things, and such practical assistance as lies within my modest power. The bearer of this letter will explain the details of what I have been able to arrange. Receive him kindly and do not hesitate to write again whenever you have need of me.

Letter 32 Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99... To the Bishop Theoctistus. If the God of all had immediately inflicted punishment on all that err he would utterly have destroyed all men. But He spares; He is a merciful Judge; and therefore some He chastises, and to others He gives the lesson of the punishment of the chastised. An instance of this merciful dealing has been shown in our times. Exiles from what was once known as Libya, but is now called Africa, have been brought by Him to our doors, and by showing us their sufferings He moves us to fear, and by fear rouses us to sympathy; thus He accomplishes two ends at once, for He both benefits us by their chastisement, and to them by our means brings comfort. This comfort I now beg you to give to the very admirable and honourable Celestinianus, a man who once was an ornament of the Africans' chief city, but now has neither city nor home, nor any of the necessaries of life. Now it is proper that those who in the jurisdiction of your holiness have been entrusted with the pastoral care of souls should bring before their fellow citizens what is for their good, for indeed they need such teaching. For this reason, as we know, the divine Apostle in his Epistle to Titus writes Let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, for if our city, solitary as it is, and with only a small population, and that a poor one, succours the strangers, much rather may Berœa, which has been nurtured in true religion, be expected to do so, especially under the leadership of your holiness.