Letter 35

Theodoret to Andreas, Bishop of Samosata. The storm that assails the churches does not abate, and the clouds grow thicker by the day. Those who should be pilots steering the ship through the tempest seem instead to be drilling holes in the hull. But let us not lose heart. He who rebuked the winds and the sea and brought a great calm has not forgotten His Church. I have received the letters Your Holiness sent, and I thank you for your concern and your counsel. The news you share both grieves and heartens me — grieves me because the faithful suffer, and heartens me because they suffer bravely and hold fast to the truth. Let us continue to pray for one another, and let us not grow weary of the good fight. The crown is for those who endure to the end.

Letter 35 Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99... To the Bishop Irenæus. You are conspicuous, my Lord, for many forms of goodness, and your holiness is beautified in a special degree by loving-kindness, by contempt of riches, and by a generosity that gushes forth for the help of them that need. I know too that you deem worthy of more than ordinary attention those who have been brought up in prosperity and have fallen from it into trouble. Knowing this as well as I do I venture to make known to you the very admirable and excellent Celestinianus. He was once well known in Carthage for wealth and position, now stripped of these he is favourably known by his piety and philosophy, for he bears what men call misfortune with resignation because it has brought him to the salvation of his soul. He came to me with a letter which described his former prosperity, and after he had passed several days with me I proved the truth of what was said of him by experience. I have therefore no hesitation in commending him to your Holiness, and begging you to make him known to the well-to-do men of the city. It is probable that when they have learned what has befallen him, in fear of a like fate befalling themselves, they will endeavour to escape judgment by showing mercy. He has no resource but to go about begging, as he is put to the greater expense because he has with him his wife and children, and the domestics who with him escaped the violence of the barbarians.