Letter 55: Severus tells Theodore not to divide the exiled confessors from the bishops in Egypt.

Severus writes to Theodore, the archimandrite of Romanus, from hiding. Even though he moves from place to place under pressure, he has heard of Theodore's praiseworthy life, and he applies to him the words of John's epistle: he rejoices to hear that Theodore walks in the truth. Theodore must continue enlarging the rational flock entrusted to him and feed it with sound teaching, like the faithful servant who gives wheat at the right time. Theodore has asked, through the presbyter Thomas, how to think about communion with orthodox bishops in Egypt and with bishops exiled from the East. Severus answers quickly because the matter is urgent. Those who share communion with Severus must not divide the exiled confessors from the bishops of Egypt. There is one church, compacted by orthodox faith, confession, and communion, and purified by refusal to associate with heretics. Theodore should have no vain hesitation about ordinations performed within that communion. Severus knows the danger of private distinctions. If every anxious person draws a new line between orthodox groups, unity collapses under the appearance of zeal. Theodore may show the letter to others, because Severus wants his practical judgment to be public: what he and his companions do in practice they are willing to say openly in words. The letter therefore joins encouragement to policy. Theodore's ascetic leadership matters, but it must serve a church whose scattered confessors remain one body, not a patchwork of rival exiles and local loyalties.

Even I, though I am in hiding and live in different places at different times on account of the present stress, was not unaware of your religiousness' praise- worthy life. Wherefore also I thought the expressions S2. of John the Evangelist and Apostle fitted to be addressed to you by me, which he composed when writing an epistle to someone and speaking thus: " I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified to the truth that is in thee, how that thou walkest in the truth." ^ Continue therefore to show the same energy, and press forwards, and enlarge the rational flock of those who practise with you the ascetic life of solitariness, and let them henceforth have a ' measure of wheat ' of the doctrines of philosophy with under- standing, as the gospel text advises; which also promises a blessing to him who does this carefully and with diligence, saying, " Blessed is the bond- servant whom his lord shall come and find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you that he will set him over all that he hath." -^ The question also that you have now been pleased to ask of the religious presbyter Thomas by your letter was in truth in consonance with your 1 3 J. 3- ' L"- ^''- 42-44- I. 55- understanding. For he sent me the letter that you wrote, and, when it came to my knowledge, I praised it. And, owing to the urgency of the matter, I con- sidered it right to treat all other things as secondary, and send you this mean letter: in which it is pointed out that alj_^jLy;QU wiiQ-liold to communion with us must not recognise any distinction between those who are banished from the East, and made illustrious by the combat of confessorship, and the saintly bishops in Egypt, and that you must reckon that to be one church which is compacted together in the orthodox faith, and confession and communion, and is most pure and free from the no-association with the heretics; i. 183. aiid that you must also have no vain hesitation about ordinations: but that both your religiousness and the other religious archimandrites of the holy cloisters that have been banished from Palestine ^ on account of the word of truth must after probation present your own brethren to the God-loving bishops in Egypt, in order that they may ordain presbyters and deacons for you, and satisfy the requirements of your need. How is it anything but an unreasonable state of affairs and one fraught with matter for every kind of accusation that, while the bishops who have been banished from other countries and bear upon them marks for Christ's sake flee to the great orthodox apostolic church in Alexandria as to a mother, certain men out of a. _ childish mind should create a distinction that does not ' This was therefore written during the exile of the monks (Zach Rh. viii. 5). exist between those who are thus united and make up ^- the compact union of the Hmbs of the one body, and through the very facts themselves proclaim the im- mobility and steadfastness of the holy persecuted churches in the East and those in Egypt, which are. already preparing to suffer the same things, and showing the immoveable nature of their piety? I think that the events which happened a short time ago in Alexandria have reached your ears also, events capable of showing even to those who are very foolish the steadfastness and fixedness of the saintly arch- bishop Timothy, and of the God-loving bishops under him, and of the churches in their cities: so that one may fitly utter the celebrated expressions of Isaiah the prophet. "Tabernacles that shall not shake; nor shall the pegs of her tabernacle be moved for ever, and her cords shall not be broken asunder." ^ Therefore for a man to try to separate by vain thoughts things that are so admirably united, and to divide things that are sO' indivisible through the inspiration of grace from above is a thing fraught with matter for every kind of evil- speaking and fault-finding. This we warn both your love of God and all who communicate with us to shun» and to cast such stones of stumbling out of the Lord's ways as it is written," and, as we said before, to reckon the ordination of the saintly bishops of the East and that of those of Egypt to be one, and not recognise any distinction between these. If you wish to read ' Is. xxxiii. 20. 'Id., Ivii. 14 (?). 1. 56. this letter to any other persons also, in order to show what our opinion is, neither do we forbid this. How can it not be right that we should also proclaim openly in words the things that we in actual practice think and do?