Letter 57

To Meletius the Cancellarius [a court usher or chancellor of an official's staff]. The spies sent into Palestine by Moses, the divine hierophant [Numbers 13], seem to me to signify the heavenly angels who watch over the whole world and exercise providence over the things here below. For nothing among human affairs is left without providence. And let that angel persuade you of this, the one who, in the form of the Macedonian man, urged on the apostle Paul to come to the aid, for the sake of the salvation of men, when he said to him: "Cross over into Macedonia, and help us" [Acts 16:9].

Οἱ ὑπὸ Μωϋσέως τοῦ θείου ἱεροφάντου πεμφθέντες εἰς Παλαιστίνην κατάσκοποι, σημαίνειν μοι δοκοῦσι οὐρανίους ἀγγέλους ἐποπτεύοντας τὸν ὅλον κόσμον, καὶ τῶν τῇδε πρόνοιαν ποιουμένους. Οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀπρονόητον ἐν ἀνθρώποις. Καὶ πείθετω σε ἐκεῖνος ὁ ἄγγελος, ὁ ἐν σχήματι τοῦ Μακεδόνος ἀνδρὸς πρὸς συμμαχίαν ἕνεκεν σωτηρίας ἀνθρώπων τὸν ἀπόστολον προτρεπόμενος Παῦλον ἐν τῷ λέγειν πρὸς αὐτόν· «Διάβηθι εἰς τὴν Μακεδονίαν, καὶ βοήθησον ἡμῖν.»