177 (334). To the Master Sophronius
LETTERS
which it is a custom for our church to celebrate yearly in honor of the martyrs,2 may be made more impressive. In fact, be convinced, my most honored and truly beloved friend, that, although our people have had experience of many, they care for no visit so much as for your presence, so keen a shaft of love you released at that short meeting. In order, therefore, that God may be glorified, the people delighted, the martyrs honored, and we old men may meet with the attention owed to us by a true son, deign unhesitatingly to come over to us and to anticipate the days of the synod. Thus we may converse with each other at our leisure and together console one another by the sharing of spiritual gifts. The fifth3 of September is the day. Therefore, we urge you to be on hand three days in advance in order that you may also make the memorial chapel4 of the almshouse great by your presence. By the grace of the Lord, may you be preserved for me and for the Church of God healthy and happy in the Lord and praying earnestly far me.
177. To the Master Sophronius1 To enumerate all those who have received benefits from 2 I.e .. Damas and Eupsychius. For Eupsychius, d. Letters 100, 152, and 252.
3 This date seems to be a mistake for the seventh. the feast day of St. Eupsychius in the Greek calendar.
4 By mneme the Benedictine editors understand the memorial church erected by St. Basil in his hospital at Caesarea, i. e., the church in the sense of a memorial. Cf. Letter 94. For the use of 1nllerne in this sense,
Du Cange cites Act. Cone. Chaleed. 1.144.
I Sophronius was a fellow student of St. Basil at Athens, and also a friend of St. Gregory of Nazianzus. Other letters addressed to this Sophronius are Letters 76, 96, 177, 180, 192, and 272. This letter was written in the year 374.