Letter 868

To Aphthonius the Superior [kathēgoumenos, abbot of a monastery]. Some who have made careful observation have said that the crane leads the common flight for thirty days; after this, it yields to another crane the guidance through the air of such birds. The man second in rank in your spiritual fold, being rather fond of holding the first place and given to showing himself off, as I have learned, now that the year of his customary service has been completed, is unwilling to allow another to succeed to the charge of the Kanonarches [the precentor who directs the chanting and the order of the canon in the monastery]; and what are we to do about this?

Εἰρήκασί τινες τετηρηκότες, ὅτι ἡ γέρανος τριάκοντα ἡμέρας καθηγεῖται τῆς κοινῆς πτήσεως · μετὰ τοῦτο, τῇ ἑτέρᾳ γεράνῳ παραχωρεῖ τὴν κατὰ τὸν ἀέρα ὁδηγίαν τῶν τοιούτων ὀρνέων. Ὁ δεύτερος ἐν τῇ πνευματικῇ σου μάνδρᾳ, μᾶλλον φιλοπρωτεύων, καὶ φιλενδεικτὴς ὑπάρχων, καθάπερ μεμάθηκα, τοῦ ἔτους πληρωθέντος τῆς κατὰ τὸ σύνηθες διακονίας, οὐ βούλεται συγχωρῆσαι ἄλλον διαδέξασθαι τοῦ Κανονάρχου τὸ φρόντισμα, καὶ τί δεόμεν πρὸς τοῦτο;