Letter 988

To Heliodorus the Silentiary [a court usher charged with keeping silence in the imperial palace]. Through the wonders that come to pass from time to time in place after place and at various seasons, the Lord summons the little of faith and the unbelieving to firm faith, while He increases all the more the faith and the hope of the faithful, and makes their mind sturdy and unshaken. And I wish now to recount to you, in commemoration of Plato our trophy-bearing martyr, how not only in our own homeland but in every city and country he most readily bestows grace on those who through him entreat God, and displays his marvelous strength. For on the mountain called Sinai, where Moses received the Law from God, monks dwell, both natives and foreigners; and a certain man, a Galatian by descent, having together with his own son embraced the solitary life, was spending his days there, accomplishing the contests of ascetic discipline for a considerable time in the wilderness. And on a certain day, certain barbarians, Hellenes [pagans] in religion and forbidden men, suddenly swooping down upon the said mountain, seized the monks who happened ready to hand, together with the son of the old Galatian, and took them captive; and having bound them with their hands behind their backs, they passed over many deserted monastic cells, driving them on fasting and naked, shod with no kind of footwear at all, forcing them by violence and constraint to run over those comfortless and waterless and most rugged places, and the old man, worn down by boundless fear and consumed with grief, could not bear the loss of his God-loving son, and he importuned the Master Christ to be bent toward compassion through Plato the ancestral martyr; and the son did the same: through the same all-holy martyr he was beseeching God, bound there in captivity, to take pity on him and to work a wonder. And when both had been heard, the father in the cave of the mountain and the son in his captivity, behold, suddenly our Plato stood by, appearing on horseback, leading along yet another opportune horse, and showed himself to the boy as he kept watch awake, who recognized him from having often beheld the features of the saint set upon the icons. And at once he bids him rise up from the midst of them all, take the horse, and seat himself upon it. And indeed straightway, like a spider's web, his bonds were dissolved, and he alone, ransomed through the invocation, rose up at God's nod, mounts the horse, and follows the holy martyr who leads the way, emboldened and rejoicing. And swiftly and quickly both of them, the holy Plato and the young monk, as though winged, reach the dwelling of the old man, who was praying and weeping; and the gloriously victorious martyr, having brought the longed-for son safely back to the father who was grieving in his heart, became invisible. So then, in every place, the renowned and glorious true martyrs of the Master Christ have power to accomplish what is wonderful and marvelous for those who through them devote their affairs to God. These things I have written to you, since you are a lover of the martyrs and never take your fill of the memory of the thrice-blessed martyrs.

Διὰ τῶν κατὰ τόπον καὶ τόπον ἐν διαφόροις χρόνοις ἑκάστοτε γενομένων θαυμάτων, ὁ Κύριος, τοὺς ὀλιγοπίστους καὶ τοὺς ἀπίστους, πρὸς πίστιν βεβαίαν ἐκκαλεῖται, τῶν δὲ πιστῶν τὴν πίστιν μᾶλλον καὶ τὴν ἐλπίδα αὔξει, καὶ στιβαρὸν καὶ ἀσάλευτον ἐκφαίνει τὸ φρόνημα. Καὶ βούλομαι σοῦ ἐν τῇ μνήμῃ Πλάτωνος τοῦ ἡμετέρου τροπαιούχου μάρτυρος νυνὶ διηγήσασθαι, οὐ μόνον ἐν τῇ πατρίδι ἡμῶν, ἀλλὰ ἐν πάσῃ πόλει, καὶ χώρᾳ τοῖς δι' αὐτοῦ τὸν Θεὸν ἐξαιτοῦσιν ἑτοιμότατα δωρουμένου τὴν χάριν, καὶ τὴν παράδοξον ἐνδεικνυμένου ἰσχύν. Ἐν γὰρ τῷ δρει τῷ καλουμένῳ Σινᾷ, ἔνθα Μωσῆς παρὰ Θεοῦ τὸν νόμον ἐδέξατο, μοναχῶν κατοικούντων, καὶ ἐντοπίων, καὶ ξένων, εἴς τις ἀνὴρ Γαλάτης τὸ γένος ὑπάρχων, ἅμα τῷ ἰδίῳ υἱῷ τὴν μονήρη ἀσπασάμενος βίον διέτριβεν, ἐκεῖ ἐξανύων τοὺς τῆς ἀσκήσεως ἄθλους ἱκανὸν χρόνον ἐπὶ τῆς ἐρημίας. Καὶ δή τινι ἡμέρᾳ αἰφνίδιον ἐπιῤῥέπαντες τῷ εἰρημένῳ δρει βάρβαροι τινες Ἕλληνες τὴν θρησκείαν, καὶ ἀπηγορευμένοι συλλαμβάνουσι τοὺς ἑτοίμως εὑρεθέντας ἐκ τοῦ προχείρου μονάζοντας σὺν τῷ υἱῷ τοῦ γέροντος Γαλάτου, καὶ αἰχμαλωτίζουσιν, ὥσπερ καὶ συνδήσαντες ὀπισθάγκωνα πολλὰς μονὰς ὑπερβαίνουσιν ἐρήμους, νήστεις καὶ γυμνοὺς ἐλαύνοντες, μὴ ὑποδεδεμένους παντοῖον ὑπόδημα, κατὰ τῶν ἀπαραμυθήτων ἐκείνων, καὶ ἀνύδρων, καὶ τραχυτάτων τόπων τῇ βίᾳ καὶ τῇ ἀνάγκῃ τροχάζοντας, καὶ τῷ ἀπείρῳ φόβῳ τρυκουρεῖς ὁ πρέσβυς τῷ πένθει ἐτρύχετο μὴ φέρων τὴν στέρησιν τοῦ θεοφιλοῦς υἱοῦ, καὶ τὸν Δεσπότην κατεδυσώπει Χριστὸν διὰ Πλάτωνος τοῦ πατρώϊου μάρτυρος καμφθῆναι πρὸς οἰκτιρμούς· τὸ δ' αὐτὸ καὶ ὁ υἱός· διὰ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πανάγιου μάρτυρος τὸν Θεὸν παρεκάλει ἐν τῇ αἰχμαλωσίᾳ δεδεμένος, κατελεῆσαι αὐτόν, καὶ ἐκτελέσαι θαῦμα. Ἀμφοτέρων δὲ ἐπακουσθέντων, τοῦ τε πατρὸς ἐν τῷ σπηλαίῳ τοῦ δρους, καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐν τῇ αἰχμαλωσίᾳ, ἰδοὺ ἐξαίφνης ὁ ἡμέτερος Πλάτων ἐπιστάς, Ἵππιος φαινόμενος, ἕλκων τε καὶ ἄλλον εὐκαιρον ἐμφανίζεται τῷ παιδὶ διαγρηγοροῦντι, καὶ γνωρίζοντι τοῦτον ἐκ τοῦ πολλάκις τὸν χαρακτῆρα τοῦ ἁγίου ἐπὶ τῶν εἰκόνων τεθεῖσθαι. Καὶ εὐθέως κελεύει αὐτὸν ἐκ μέσου πάντων ἐξαναστάντα λαβεῖν τὸν ἵππον καὶ ἐπικαθεσθῆναι. καὶ δῆτα παραυτίκα δίκην ἀράχνης τὰ δεσμὰ διελύθη, καὶ μόνος αὐτὸς λυτρωθεὶς διὰ τῆς ἐπικλήσεως, τῷ νεύματι τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀναστὰς, τῷ ἵππῳ ἐποχεῖται, καὶ ἕπεται ὁδηγοῦντι τῷ ὁσίῳ μάρτυρι θαρραλέος καὶ χαίρων. Συντόμως δὲ καὶ ὀξέως ἀμφότεροι, ὅ τε ἅγιος Πλάτων καὶ ὁ νέος μοναχὸς καθάπερ ὑπόπτεροι φθάνουσι τὴν τοῦ γέροντος οἴκησιν εὐχομένου καὶ κλαίοντος, καὶ ἀποσώσας ὁ καλλίνικος μάρτυς τῷ τὴν καρδίαν ἀλγοῦντι πατρὶ τὸν ποθητὸν υἱόν, ἀφανὴς γεγένηται. Ὥστε οὖν ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ τοῖς διὰ αὐτῶν τὸν Θεὸν ἐπιδωομένοις τὰ πράγματα θαυμαστὸν καὶ παράδοξον οἱ τοῦ Δεσπότου Χριστοῦ ἀοίδιμοι καὶ εὐκλεεῖς ἀληθεαὶ ἰσχύουσιν ἐκτελεῖν. Ταῦτα δέ σοι γεγράφηκα φιλομάρτυς ὄντι, καὶ μηδέποτε κόρον τῆς μνήμης τῶν τρισμακαρίστων μαρτύρων λαμβάνοντι.