But since this is not presently possible (for the length of the road, and the season of the year, and the fear of brigands, and the fact that it is not easy for us to move from our present position without these things, and the need to embark upon long journeys, prevent it), we have arrived at our second recourse: both to pay you the salutation we owe you, and before that to exhort you, and to ask a very great favor of you: that you remember our humility in your prayers constantly, and fall before the philanthropic God with much nobility of spirit and with tears. For you who have escaped the whirlpool of worldly affairs, and have been set free from the smoke and the storm of the evils in the midst of which others are tossed, and have steered your souls safely into a calm and wave-less harbor—this noble philosophy of yours—and who turn your nights into day with holy vigils, and see more clearly in these than others do in the light of day, you would be right to share with us the aid derived from your prayers. For it is possible for us, even sitting at such a distance, to enjoy these benefits, and there is no place nor time that can interrupt such assistance. Support us, therefore, and reach out a hand through your prayers. For this is a most excellent form of love. And along with your prayers, do not hesitate to inform us about your own health, so that from this also we may receive the greatest consolation, delighting in your love and imagining that those who are absent are present; for a sincere love is able to draw such images. And even if we happen to be in a situation more desolate than this, we will reap great consolation from it.
XCIV. To the Deaconess Pentadia.
I was aware of the love you have for us even before, having learned it from the events themselves; but I have learned it more clearly now from the letter you sent us. And for this I admire you most of all, not only for writing, but also for telling us everything that has happened. For this is a sign of one who is both confident in us and concerned for our affairs. For this reason we rejoice, we exult, we are glad, and though we are sitting in such a desert, we possess the greatest consolation in your courage, your steadfastness, your unshakeable mind, your great prudence, your frankness of speech, and your high boldness, through which you have both put your adversaries to shame and dealt a fatal blow to the devil, and encouraged those who are struggling for the truth; having set up a brilliant trophy like a noble athlete in war, and having carried off a radiant victory, you have filled us with such pleasure that we think we are neither in a foreign or strange land, nor in a wilderness, but that we are present there, and are with you, and are delighting in the virtue of your soul. Rejoice therefore and be glad for having carried off such a victory, and for having so easily muzzled such wild beasts, and for having blocked their shameless tongues, and for having gagged their raving mouths. For such is the power of the truth with which you have struggled, and on behalf of which you have often been slaughtered: in a few words it prevails over those who slander it; just as falsehood, even if it wraps itself in myriads of winding arguments, easily flows away and collapses, and is weaker than a spider’s web. Rejoice therefore and be glad (for I will not cease saying these words constantly), play the man, be strong, and laugh at every snare brought against you by them. For the more savagely they rage, the deeper the wounds they inflict upon themselves—not harming you in the slightest, just as waves do not harm a rock—but dissolving themselves, making themselves weaker, and heaping up excessive punishments upon their own heads. Therefore fear nothing of what is threatened, even if they gnash their teeth, even if they are drunk with great rage, even if they look with murderous intent, having fallen into the savagery of wild beasts through their wickedness. For He who has snatched you until today from their manifold and varied snares, He will also place you in greater security for the future as you play the man; and you yourself will say: "Their wounds became the arrows of infants, and their tongues were weakened against them" (Ps. 63:8, 9). Which indeed has come to pass, and will be; so that you may reap a greater reward, and receive brighter crowns, and those men, suffering from incurable sickness, may be handed over to a greater punishment. For what snare have they left out? What manner of intrigue have they not set in motion, attempting to plot against your steadfast and sincere—nay, rather, your noble and most courageous—soul? They dragged you into the marketplace, someone who previously knew nothing but the church and the bedchamber, from the marketplace to the courtroom, from the courtroom to the prison. They sharpened the tongues of false witnesses, they concocted a shameless slander, they committed murders, and they caused torrents of blood to flow, and they consumed the bodies of young people with fire and sword; they surrounded so many such men with blows, with torments, with myriads of punishments; they moved everything so that they might be able to compel you and force you by fear to say the opposite of what you knew. And like an eagle flying on high, so you broke their nets and climbed to the height of freedom befitting you, not being deceived by them, but also proving them to be slanderers in this charge of arson, in which the wretches and unhappy ones most thought they were doing something great. Thinking therefore of all that has passed: how many waves and what a storm they raised against you, what a surge and tempest they created—but in the midst of a raging sea you sailed with serenity; wait quickly for the harbor also, and for the many crowns. And since you wish to learn about us as well: we are living, we are in health, we have been freed from every infirmity. And even if we were ill, the love of your reverence—sincere, and warm, and steadfast, and unshakeable—is a sufficient medicine for us for our health. Since therefore we derive no ordinary, but the greatest, pleasure from your love...