Letter 62 (373)
THE FATHERS SPEAK
conic letter 62 shows an undisguised impatience with an Armenian, to whom Amphilochios, who had not yet been consecrated bishop 0/ [conium, had shown some kindness.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO AMPHILOCHlOS,
LETTER 62 (373)
The ruling of your inimitable kindness is not barbarous, but Greek and also Christian. As for that Armenian of whom you are so proud, he is obviously a barbarian, and he is far from doing us credit.
After resigning his see 0/ Constantinople, Nazianzus retired to his estate of Kerbela, close to a chapel dedicated to the Martyrs, in the hope 0/ finding some peace, His letter
203 is addressed to a certain Valentinianos-no friend oj hiswho has installed obstreperous females in a house nearby.
Gregory protests against this juicy breach oj neighborliness.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO VALENTINIANOS, LETTER 203
We have teen expelled from Kerbela in "the most impious way" [avoau::J'ra'ta]-I am quoting from Euripides' tragedy [phoenicians]. We were expelled not verbally [EpyCfJ], but factually [A6y~] and most violently. It would have been much easier to serve us notice to quit than to install opposite us a band of harpies who ruin the dignity of our life by subjecting us to daily disgrace and insults on the part of people bent upon decrying those who have chosen, like
Hierarchs' Frustrations
us, a different way of life . .. . You [Valentinianos], when you come into our region, will be received and welcomed, but we recoil from the comments of such females as if we were attacked by vipers .... As for you, may you inhabit this place longer than your predecessors; more wisely, we hope, so as not to offend the Holy Martyrs, and without being tortured for settling there. First of all, be careful; do not presume to lay hands on objects consecrated to the holy
Martyrs! Otherwise the situation would turn badly for you and your property, and it would become even worse if you appropriated what is not yours.
Glimpses of Daily Life The order in which we present our hierarchs' short notes, a considerable number of intimate messages well fit to inform us of their daily activities, is immaterial. We will arrange them in broad categories and will briefly comment on each piece, if need be.
Postal Service Poorer still than ours! The imperial service, when avail. able, could not be blindly trusted to respect the confidential· fty of personal communications. Our hierarchs entrusted their letters to private messengers, often some deacon or a cleric in lesser orders, who would advise the addressee on what the author had deemed prudent not to put in writing, and would bring the answer back as soon as possible.
BASIL TO HIS FRIEND GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS. LETTER 19
(written before Basil's consecration to the episcopacy) A letter addressed to me came lately from you. It was from you all right. judging from the handwriting, as well as from the proper object of the message; the words were few.
THE FATHERS SPEAK
yet made much sense, I have not answered right away because we were absent, and the messenger, having delivered the letter to one of our people, left and went away. Now I write through Peter [Basil's younger brother], to send you our due greetings, and also to give you an occasion for writing a second letter. No one ever tired from reading a laconic letter, like the letters we receive from you every time.
Basil had written several letters which failed to reach Eusebius, who at that time was in Thrace, having some business with the imperial bureaucracy. Now that Eusebius was back in his diocese, Basil describes his futile attempts to reach him by mail in Thrace; the letter continues with a relation oj the banishment of Gregory of Nyssa and the persecution of the Orthodox at the hand of the Arians (see chapter 8).
BASIL TO EUSEBlUS OF SAMOSATA, LETTER 237 (376)
I had written to Your Piety a letter which the vicar [~lK6:PlOC;J of Thrace was supposed to bring to you; I had also written other letters and asked the treasurer of Philippopolis who was going to return to Thrace to take these letters on leaving from here. But the vicar was unable to take your letters. As we were touring through our own diocese
['TtapolK(a), this man [the vicar), who had arrived in town in the evening, set out very early, and the people of the church were not even aware of his passage; so the letters remained here. As for the treasurer, hindered by some circumstances not of his choice, he started without taking the letters and without having seen us. There was no way of finding another messenger, and we remained aggrieved that we could neither write nor receive letters from Your Piety. Yet