Letter 202 (375)
THE FATHERS SPEAK
BASIL TO AMPHILOCHlOS, BISHOP OF ICONJUM,
LETTER 200 (375)
... Remember the blessed Martyr Eupsychios and do not wait for a reminder; do not arrive on the very day of the celebration, but rather come in advance; give us this joy, we are stilI on earth, and in the meantime be strong in the Lord, pray for us, and may you be preserved unto us and unto the Churches of God, by the grace of the Holy One.
BASIL TO AMPHILOCHIOS, BISHOP OF ICONIUM,
LETTER 202 (375)
I appreciate very much the opportunity to meet Your Grace, especially for the occasion that brings us togetht:r.
But my past illness has left traces which do not permit me the slightest traveling, even by coach, to the shrines of the Holy Martyrs [n): !lap-wp(cx]. Almost the same illness did return, and you will have to excuse my absence. If things can be postponed a few days, I will be with you and share your concerns. But if it is urgent, handle the matter at hand,
God helping; and count me as one of your members, as if I had really attended the meetings. Be in good health and good spirits, and may you be preserved unto the Churches of God, by the grace of the Holy One.
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GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO THEODOROS,
BISHOP OF TYANA, LETTER 122
(Date Uncertain) You are in debt unto us and under obligation of tending the sick, inasmuch as the visitation of sick people is one of the commandments [Mt 25:36; 1m 5:14]. But you are also in debt unto the Holy Martyrs, namely for the annual celebration at your town Arianzus on the twenty-second of Dathousa [an autumnal month of the Cappadocian calendar], at which time quite a lot of business needs to be examined in common. Then do not hesitate and deign to attend; if the journey is tiring, at least the reward is in proportion.
On Marriage, Merry-Making, and ... Divorce!
Gregory of Nazianzus wrote letter 231 to a certain Eusebius in order to decline, on account of illness, an invitation to the marriage of Euopion, Eusebius' daughter. He seems to have been very fond of the young bride and deplores sincerely not being able to attend, The rite of crowning the bride and groom in the ceremony of marriage, the o'!E<paVWOlC; , distinct from the betrothal, is familiar to all Eastern
Christians. In the Greek churches, the crowns are of olive foliage or green twigs; in Slavic usage, of gold or silver. In modern practice, the betrothal and the sacramental marriage are often performed in succession without an interval between the two,
THE FATHERS SPEAK
GREGORY OF NAZlANZUS TO EUSEBruS, LETTER 231
(Date Uncertain) Time for marriage, and time for building a life, for our beloved Euopion! And the wishes of the fathers will be fulfil1ed. But we are absent, we who more than anyone else ought to be there and pray with you. I had even promised to come, and hope sustained my expectation, but making projects is apt to prove deceitful. Several times I prepared myself, severa] times I wavered, and finalJy I was defeated by my iU health. So let others call on the Loves [" Epu)'(ac;], since this childish game fits in a wedding feast! Let them describe the beauty of the bride, exalt the grace of the bridegroom, and strew the bridal chamber with speeches as well as with flowers. As for me, I am going to sing to you my nuptial poem: The Lord bless you from Zion, make your marriage [auSuy (av] harmonious; in short, may they still be better! This is what I would have wished unto you, had I been present, and what I wish now! As for the rest, you shall take care of it and let the father impose the crowns, as he had wished! For here is what we have decided when we attend weddings: to the fathers the crowning, to us the prayersand prayers, I know, are not prevented by distance.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO VITALIANOS, LETTER 193
(in Gregory's later years) I can understand that you reproach me and hold me in silent reprobation. "We were celebrating," you will say, "the marriage of Olympias who is also yOllr Olympias, a girl of gold! There was a throng of bishops and you, my noble friend, you were not there, be it from disdain or be it by
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omission." It was neither, 0 excellent friend, but I think that a man in a serious role [-rpaylKWC;] should not play the comic [KO~lKWC;], and it would have been out of place and totally unseasonable for a cripple of both feet to move about in a wedding feast and become a laughing stock in the midst of dancers; this being said to joke a little with you, as is usual in marriage occasions. I am present with you in spirit, taking part in the feast. I join together the hands of both spouses and place them in the hand of God, for it is proper that this union grow into what is best, according to our common prayers.
Note 232 contrasts sharply with the warmth of letter 231 on the marriage of Euopion. Gregory writes that he will not attend the wedding of Dioklis' daughter to a military man; he had not been invited anyway. He oDers his congratulations, urges Dioklis and his company to keep the rejoicing within the bounds of Christian decency, and warns them against ribald jocosity.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO DIOKLIS, LETTER 232
(Date Uncertain) We have not been invited to the marriage of our daughter, and yet we shall be present [in spirit] and take part in the feast. We share your eagerness and wish you what is best.
Now one thing is best: that Christ be present at the wedding feast, for where Christ is, there also is order, and water is turned into wine; namely, everything becomes something better [like at Cana, In 2:1-10]. One should not mix together what ought not to be mixed: bishops and buffoons, praying
THE FATHERS SPEAK
and clapping, psalmody and flutes. For in wedding feasts, as in any other circumstance, Christians must be orderly. and orderliness means dignity. This is our wedding present; grant us your dociHty in exchange. As for your son-in-law, if he conforms to these, you shal1 have in him a true son; if not, only a soldier.
Gregory, in retirement, writes to his cousin Ell/alios, recently installed as bishop oj Nazianzus, to report on his examination of a young girl, Alympiane, who is to be consecrated as a virgin.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO EULALIOS, LETTER 158
(Late 383) "Truth is stronger than all things" we read from Esdras [1 Esdras 4:35]. The virgin Alympiane, examined by us orally in all rigor [d:KPlj3E(~] on her personal dispositions, as you had requested us to do, has clearly and freely professed virginity, more than we could have expected. with a constancy greater than her earnestness; I mean that she answered with the eagerness of a virgin and the prudence of a white-haired matron. The strictness of our interrogation appeared finally to have been beneficial, by better revealing the firmness of her resolution. Now that you have been so informed, pray for this child and cultivate the germs of salvation she has received, to the glory of God, ours, and of all the assembly of the God-fearing people.
Adelphios is a young lawyer, established in the region of
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Nazianzus and with whom Gregory was friendly at first (cf. letter 205, not given here), but who turned Ollt a pro{iigate and philanderer. Not to be identified with the Adelphios of letter 204, a correspondent of Gregory of Nyssa (see Pasquali, p. 66).
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO ADELPHIOS, LETTER 206
(Gregory's later years) - ... I still call you "Your Honor" [·d~lOC;] even though your ways arc not honorable. Accept my frankness, for I am moved by my fatherly feelings, and I am unable to delay writing, because of my affection for you .... Why do you not listen to what Scripture says: "Leave not thy wealth to women, nor thy soul or thy life to a base concupiscence,
EtC; 60lEpO~OUA[av" CPr 31:3, LXX]. Know this well: You shall regret it before long, when the flesh of your body shall wear out, as it is written CPr 5: 11], and when your spirit, having been pierced as through a cloud, will be able to look toward God and consider only what is good for you. Beware of the trap, do not let yourself be caught by your eyes, and if you have been caught, sober up, lest you confirm the rumor that your mind has been led astray by magic philters, since licentiousness is apt to devise evils. It is painful that an estate like yours, painstakingly put together, be dissipated and ruined so fast, especiallY in the beginning of a life, when everyone builds up his own reputation, good or bad. And it is much more horrifying yet that you sacrilegiously ravished virgin women, whom your parents and you yourself had consecrated to God, as yOll told me in confidence .... I would have loved to write more pleasant things, but none shall be more useful than what I have written here. I will not write more than this, for I know that if the fear of God docs not guide you, words wi1i have little or no effect!
THE FATHERS SPEAK
Olympios, in his capacity as provincial governor of Cappadocia, had charged Gregory to inquire both as caretaker of the Church 01 Nazianzus and as amicus curiae on the matrimonial status and prospective divorce of the daughter of a certain Verianos. Letter 144 is Gregory's report to the governor. Two conceptions of marriage and divorce confront one another. Olympios has to uphold. pursuant to his office, the contractual nature of matrimony, which governs all the subjects of the empire, Christians or pagans. For Gregory, marriage is primarily the sacrament (!lua,[~plov) subject only to the ritual and canonical prescriptions of the Church. The letter to Olympios is fol/owed by a note to dissuade Verianos to go on with the divorce of his daughter (Letter 145).
GREGORY OF NAZIANzus TO OLYMPIOS, LETTER 144
(382) Not everywhere is promptness advisable, and that is why I delayed till now my report on the case of the daughter of the excellent Verianos. I wanted to let time straighten up the situation, and also I supposed that you would not easily approve of a divorce. Since you had committed the inquiry to us, and since you know that in this sort of thing, haste and inconsiderateness are to be avoided, I have kept quiet so far and, I think, not without cause! But since time presses and we must report to you our findings, here they are: The young lady seems to be in a double frame of mind, divided between her respect for her parents and her love for the husband. What she says is for the sake of the parents, but as for her heart I do not know if it is not rather for the husband, as her tears show. Of course, you will do what seems good to Your Justice and to God, who guides you in all circum~ stances. Personally I would recommend to "my son" Verianos to let many things go by and not to consummate the divorce,
Glimpses of Daily Life
which is in complete opposition to our laws [viz. Church laws], although Roman law judges otherwise. But justice is to be observed, and we wish you to observe it, both in words and in action.
GREGORY OF NAZlANZUS TO VERIANOS, LETTER 145
(382) Executioners do not do something extraordinary; they are servants of justice, and the sword by which criminals are put to death is not against the Law. Yet one does not praise the executioner and one does not relish a sword red with blood. Thus we will not allow ourself to become an object of hatred if the divorce is confirmed by us in fact and in word. It is better to be an instrument of union and friendship than of separation and disruption of a life. This seems to have been the idea of our eminent archon when he trusted me with the inquiry in the case of your daughter, because we did not resolve ourselves to remain impassible and hard~ hearted in this divorce affair. It is obviously not as auditor but as bishop that he has called me as a mediator in your case. Therefore I pray you to have some regard for my hesitation: if the best party carries the decision, use us as a servant for implementing your resolve-it will be a privilege to be so ordered. But should the worse, less desirable party prevail, look for somebody better fit to that purpose! I am not at leisure, even for the sake of our friendship, though I hold you in the highest esteem, to offend God, to whom I will have to render account for every move and thought.
As for your daughter, the full truth will have to be spoken.
We shall believe her on the day when, delivered from the fear you inspire in her, she will be able to tell frankly the truth.
For the time being, her situation is unfortunate. She makes two parts of her feelings: for you, when she speaks out; for the husband, her tears!
Ailments and Deaths One may have noticed in the preceding chapters the number oj letters and notes in which Basil and Gregory oj
NazianZllS excuse themselves of not being able to visit their correspondents, often high government officials, on account of ill health. Doctors helped little or, among common prescriptions, recommended seasons at the thermal waters of Xanxaris (possibly Kara punar, the "black springs").
BASIL TO EUSEBIUS, BISHOP OF SAMOSATA. LETTER 27
(368) When, through God's grace and with the help of your prayers, I seemed to recover somewhat from illness and to gather up my strength, winter came to confine us at home forcing us to stay put. Although the season happened to be much milder than usual, it was enough, at least for me, to hinder me not only to travel by my own means, but even to peep out of my room ....
THE FATHERS SP EAK
BASIL TO EUSEBIUS, BISHOP OF SAMOSATA, LETTER 30
(369) If I were to write down the successive causes that retained me till now, in spite of my desire, from meeting with Your
Piety. I would fill up an endless register. A continuous illness, a rigorous winter, and the piling up of business I will omit, for you know it all and it has already been made clear to Your Perfection. The only consolation I had in life was my mother, and I have been deprived of her through my sin.
Do not ridicule me because I, a grown man, complain of being an orphan, and forgive that I cannot bear, in the parting of her soul, to realize that none of her godliness is revived in me, Again sickness comes back, and again I lie on my bed, tossing to and fro, my strength almost gone, any hour waiting for the unavoidable end of my life.
BASIL TO THE SAME, LETTER 34 (369-370)
. . . The doctors, I have only too many of them, on account of the sickness that dwells in me, when the pains are unbearable, they imagine no better anesthesia than praying that our souls be made insensible to pain, lest they be crushed by excessive suffering. . . .
In letter 137, Basil apologizes for having been prevented by ill health to appear in person before Antipater, the provincial governor, whose intervention he solicits in favor oj a close relative burdened with legal problems.