Letter 403

To Fronton the Archimandrite [head of a monastery]. I praise the roses of your God-loving words, even though you have fixed among them the small thorns of well-timed reproofs, thereby over-provoking and, as one might say, pricking in us the unquenchable and unfading love that we bear toward your holiness and ever-shining soul.

Ἐπαινῶ σου τὰ ῥόδα τῶν θεοφίλων λόγων, κἂν τὰς μικρὰς ἀκάνθας τῶν εὐκαίρων ἐλέγχων παρέπῃξας, ὑπερεθίζων ἡμῶν, ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι, καὶ παρακνίζων, τὸν πρὸς τὴν σὴν ὁσίαν, καὶ ἀειφεγγῆ ψυχήν, ἄσβεστον, καὶ ἀμάραντον ἔρωτα.