Letter 14 TO HIS COMPANION GREGORY, excerpt3
prelude 1: the letters of basil L Laurentianus Mediceus IV–14, 10th/11th cent. (the Laurentian
Library, Florence), family Bo C Parisinus Coislinianus 237, 11th cent. (Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris), family Bo Citation of mss. will preserve the A/B family groupings, i.e.: VPBM,
LC.
Several other mss. that are not in the above list were also consulted for individual letters. They are noted at the relevant letters.
Letter 14 TO HIS COMPANION GREGORY, excerpt3 The letter was written at the end of Basil's year of wandering in Palestine and Egypt, therefore late in 357 AD. It is addressed to Gregory Nazianzen, who had been Basil's companion in Athens as recently as two or three years before. In the interim Basil had been converted to Baptism and the ascetic life by his elder sister Macrina. He has now decided on a spot for his ascetic retreat: in the wooded mountains on the River Iris not far from his mother's villa, Annisa. He is eager to take up his new lifestyle as soon as he can, and tries (successfully in the event) to persuade Nazianzen to join him.
The following is the earliest reference to Gregory of Nyssa in the literary record. He was about 22 years of age at this time. He wrote to Basil, evidently from Caesarea, where he was still a student and was later to be a teacher. Basil reveals that the two Gregorys, his brother and his friend, had also been thinking of joining him in whatever ascetic lifestyle he should work out for himself.
1. Though my brother Gregory wrote to me that he had long been intending to come with us,4 and added that you also had decided the same thing, I could not wait, partly because I was very reluctant to believe it for having so often been disappointed, and partly because I was torn every which way by demands. For I had to set out promptly for Pontus, where some time soon, God willing, we shall cease our wandering. For after renouncing with difficulty those vain hopes which I once had in you—or rather dreams, if I may speak more truly, for I praise him who said that hopes are waking
3 Mss.: VPB, LC, ed.: Courtonne I, 42–45, Def 1.106–111, tr.: NPNF 2nd ser.
8.124–125.
4 pala‹ boÊlesyai ≤m›n suntuxe›n. The context suggests that suntuxe›n refers to more than simply a meeting or a talk, hence the translation.