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41 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 407
“I know well the nobility of your thoughts, I know the strength of your soul that is filled with piety, I know the greatness of your intelligence, and the power of your Christian way of thinking [philosophia] which alone is sufficient to command the madness of your despair to be cast into the sea, making everything calm. . . . I have given you counsel which has not been fitting for you. For me, and for those who have been swamped with sins against me, this word is necessary . . . But you, who are adorned with such great virtue and have already touched the vault of heaven, do not need to be spurred on in this way.”
“Putting aside consideration of how someone has sinned and how another has transgressed, think about your continual struggles, borne through your endurance, your patience, your fasting, your prayers, your sacred all-night vigils, your self-control, your almsgiving, your hospitality, your manifold trials, grievous and frequent. Consider how from your earliest youth to the present day you have not stopped nourishing Christ when he hungered, giving him drink when he thirsted, clothing him when he was naked, bringing him in when he was a stranger, taking care of him when he was sick, going to him when he was a prisoner. Ponder upon the ocean of your love, which you have opened up to the very ends of the earth, spreading it with great alacrity. For it is not only your own house which you have opened to everyone coming to it; but everywhere, on earth and sea, many have enjoyed this honor, bestowed through your hospitality. Gathering all these reflections, revel and rejoice in the hope of the crowns and the rewards for these things.”
“You have demonstrated toward my lowly person a kindness most becoming an emperor and commendable in a bishop when you entrusted this great burden, which has been my worry, to proper administration. You will do much better should you order it to be distributed to the poor and the churches. I have been praying for quite a while that I be set free from the embarrassment of vainglory, which would be mine if I distributed it to charity. Let me not be so seduced by earthly things as to lose the soul’s true riches.”
“I behold a sea in fury everywhere, forced open to the depths of the abyss, revealing corpses floating on the waves, others submerged beneath them; the bridges of the ships destroyed, the sails in shreds, the masts shattered, the oars fallen out of the hands of the oarsmen, the pilots seated upon the decks in front of the tillers, with their hands crossed over their knees, and in the face of their impotence before these events, they are groaning, crying out in anguish, lamenting, wailing; with nothing clearly visible, neither the sky nor the sea, but with everything plunged into deep darkness, with such obscurity and gloom that upon turning around it’s impossible to recognize one’s neighbor; and with the sailors everywhere beset by crashing waves, and by monsters of the sea.”
“However, even when I see such things, I do not give up an even firmer hope, as I consider the Pilot governing everything, who prevails over storms, who calms the raging gale, not through skill and artfulness, but with a single nod. It is not at their beginning—not immediately, when they first arise—that he customarily obliterates evils, but when they increase, when they come to their furthest point [telos], when most men fall into despair, then he does wondrous things beyond all expectation, demonstrating his own power, and training the patience of those who have fallen.”
“Therefore, do not be cast down, I beseech you. For there is only one thing, Olympia, to fear, only one real temptation, and that is sin. This is the refrain that I keep chanting to you ceaselessly. For everything else is ultimately a fable—whether you speak of plots, or enmities, or deceptions, or slanders, or abuses, or accusations, or confiscations, or banishments, or sharpened swords, or high seas, or war engulfing the entire world. Whichever of these you point to, they are transitory and perishable, and they only affect mortal bodies; they cannot in any way injure the watchful soul. This is why, wishing to express the paltriness of both the good and the bad things of this present life, the blessed Paul stated the matter in one phrase, saying, ‘For the things that are seen are transient.’”
“So, on the one side were all his virtues, and on the other side all his sufferings. But these latter declared him to be more illustrious than those. For this was the most bitter part of the battle, requiring the greater courage, the more well-stretched soul, the more philosophic mind, and having greater love for God. . . . Thus despondency is more burdensome than everything else; and as it is more burdensome, its recompense will be greater.”
“Lazarus, for his infirmity alone, partook of the same end as the patriarch [Abraham]; and the publican, by the invective of the Pharisee, acquired righteousness that far surpassed that of the Pharisee; and the chief of the apostles [Peter], by his tears, received healing from the wound caused by the grievous sin.”
“For nothing, nothing makes someone so brilliant, so worthy of emulation, so filled with a myriad of good things, as an abundance of trials and dangers and pains and sadness, and being plotted against continually—for those who, having no other expectations, bear everything meekly.”
“For despondency is for souls a grievous torture chamber, unspeakably painful, more fierce and bitter than every ferocity and torment. It imitates the poisonous worm that attacks not only the body but also the soul, and not only the bones but also the mind. It is a continual executioner that not only tears in pieces one’s torso but also mutilates the strength of one’s soul. It is a continuous night, darkness with no light, a tempest, a gale, an unseen fever burning more powerfully than any flame, a war having no relief, a disease which casts a shadow over nearly everything visible. For even the sun and the air seem to be oppressive to those who are suffering from these things, and midday seems to be as darkest night.”
“Why do you lament? Why do you smite yourself, afflicting yourself with pains which even your enemies do not have the power to inflict upon you, as you give your soul over to the tyranny of despair? For the letters which you have sent to us through Patrikios have revealed the wounds of your heart and mind. Therefore I also am suffering great pain and distress, since when you must make every exertion and make it your business to shake off the despondency of your soul, you surround yourself with grievous thoughts, even inventing things which do not exist (as you have said), lacerating yourself in vain, for no purpose whatsoever, with great harm to yourself.”
“Glory to God for all things—and I have not ceased repeating these words in the midst of everything that is happening to me.” (Letter 4)

