Letter 222: Chrysostom thanks Antiochene presbyters for eager letters and celebrates steadfast love.
John Chrysostom→Castus, Valerius, Diophantus, and Cyriacus, presbyters of Antioch|c. 405 AD|John Chrysostom|From Cucusus (modern Goksun), Armenia Secunda|To Antioch, Syria|AI-assisted
antiochclergyfriendshipexile
PG 52 Epistulae 222 begins with source heading 'ΣΚΒʹ. Κάστῳ, Οὐαλερίῳ, ∆ιοφάντῳ, Κυριακῷ, πρεσβυτέροις Ἀντιοχείας.'. First-time modern English translation prepared from the Greek source for Roman Letters.
Your writing first, your leaping toward us with letters, your asking for letters from us, and your urging us to go beyond the usual length of a letter have all shown that you are insatiable, almost mad lovers of us. This keeps the wilderness where we live from seeming like wilderness. It consoles us in our many continual troubles.
What is equal to love? Nothing. It is the root, spring, and mother of good things: a virtue without pain, a virtue joined with pleasure, a virtue that brings great joy to those who practice it genuinely. We thank you because you have preserved such sincere affection for us. Wherever we are, even if we are carried to the ends of the inhabited world or to a place still more desolate than this, we will carry you with us, engraved on our mind and lodged in our conscience. Distance, time, and the crowd of troubles have not made us careless about your kindness. Love is not stopped by miles of road, not withered by many days, not overcome by distress. It rises higher through everything and runs like flame. God is able to give you a reward greater than this love deserves.
Your writing first, your leaping toward us with letters, your asking for letters from us, and your urging us to go beyond the usual length of a letter have all shown that you are insatiable, almost mad lovers of us. This keeps the wilderness where we live from seeming like wilderness. It consoles us in our many continual troubles.
What is equal to love? Nothing. It is the root, spring, and mother of good things: a virtue without pain, a virtue joined with pleasure, a virtue that brings great joy to those who practice it genuinely. We thank you because you have preserved such sincere affection for us. Wherever we are, even if we are carried to the ends of the inhabited world or to a place still more desolate than this, we will carry you with us, engraved on our mind and lodged in our conscience. Distance, time, and the crowd of troubles have not made us careless about your kindness. Love is not stopped by miles of road, not withered by many days, not overcome by distress. It rises higher through everything and runs like flame. God is able to give you a reward greater than this love deserves.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.