Letter 181: Chrysostom praises bishops who keep trying to correct the eastern church crisis despite delays.

The disturbance that has seized the churches of the East is violent and many-sided, and the zeal your Reverences have brought to correcting it is great and generous. If no visible correction has yet come, we pity those who are incurably sick and refuse healing; but we do not stop admiring and blessing you. After so much time, while the situation remains unresolved, you have not grown tired or slack, but continue to help with eagerness still in bloom. For this reason we and people everywhere proclaim and crown you. Neither distance nor time has made you careless. You act as if you were close to the events and had seen the wrongs with your own eyes. If those who began these evils still refuse to end their irrational fight, do not let that trouble you or make you weary. The heavier the labor laid on you, the brighter the crown God has appointed for you.

ΡΠΑʹ. Ἐπισκόποις. Καὶ ἡ καταλαβοῦσα τὰς Ἐκκλησίας τὰς κατὰ τὴν Ἀνατολὴν ταραχὴ, σφοδροτάτη καὶ ποικίλη, καὶ ἡ παρὰ τῆς εὐλαβείας ὑμῶν εἰσενεχθεῖσα εἰς τὴν διόρθωσιν ταύτης σπουδὴ, πολλὴ καὶ δαψιλής. Εἰ δὲ μηδὲν μηδέπω γέγονε πλέον, τοὺς μὲν ἀνίατα νοσοῦντας καὶ μὴ διορθωθέντας ταλανίζομεν, ὑμᾶς δὲ θαυμάζοντες καὶ μακαρίζοντες οὐ διαλιμπάνομεν, ὅτι μετὰ τοσοῦτον χρόνον τῶν πραγμάτων ἀδιορθώτων μεινάντων, οὐκ ἀπεκάμετε, οὐδὲ ὕπτιοι γεγόνατε, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπίκεισθε, ἔτι ἀκμαζούσῃ τῇ προθυμίᾳ τὴν παρ' ἑαυτῶν εἰσφέροντες συμμαχίαν, εἰς κρῖμα μὲν τῶν οὐκ ἐθελόντων ὑμῶν ἀνασχέσθαι, εἰς στεφάνους δὲ τῆς ὑμετέρας σπουδῆς, καὶ βραβεῖα πολλά. ∆ιὰ ταῦτα ὑμᾶς καὶ ἡμεῖς, καὶ πάντες οἱ κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἀνακηρύττουσι καὶ στεφανοῦσιν, ὅτι ἐκ τοσούτου καθημένους διαστήματος, οὐ τῆς ὁδοῦ τὸ μῆκος, οὐ τοῦ χρόνου τὸ πλῆθος ῥᾳθυμοτέρους ἐποίησεν, ἀλλ' ὡς πλησίον ὄντες τῶν γενομένων, καὶ αὐταῖς ὄψεσιν ὁρῶντες τὰς γενομένας παρανομίας, οὕτως ἐῤῥωμενεστάτῃ προθυμίᾳ τὰ παρ' ἑαυτῶν εἰσφέρειν ἐσπουδάκατε. Εἰ δὲ μήπω τὴν ἄκαιρον φιλονεικίαν καὶ τὸν ἄλογον πόλεμον καταλύειν βούλονται οἱ ταῦτα ἐξ ἀρχῆς τεκόντες τὰ κακὰ, μηδὲν ὑμᾶς τοῦτο θορυβείτω, μήτε ἀποκάμνειν ποιείτω· ὅσῳ γὰρ ἂν πλείων ὁ πόνος ὑμῖν ἐγγένηται, τοσούτῳ καὶ μείζων ἔσται ὁ στέφανος, τοῦ Θεοῦ τὰς ἀῤῥήτους ὑμῖν καὶ ἀφάτους ἐκείνας καὶ λόγον ὑπερβαινούσας ὁρίζοντος ἀμοιβάς.