Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

To the citizens of Satala. 2358
Letter CII. 2357
Moved by your importunity and that of all your people, I have undertaken the charge
of your Church, and have promised before the Lord that I will be wanting to you in nothing
which is within my power. So I have been compelled, as it is written, to touch as it were the
apple of my eye. 2359 Thus the high honour in which I hold you has suffered me to remember
neither relationship, nor the intimacy which I have had from my boyhood with the person
in question, as making a stronger demand on me than your request. I have forgotten all the
private considerations which made him near and dear to me, making no account of the
sighs which will be heaved by all my people on being deprived of his rule, none of the tears
of all his kindred; nor have I taken to heart the affliction of his aged mother, who is supported
by his aid alone. All these considerations, great and many as they are, I have put aside,
keeping only in view the one object of giving your Church the blessing of the rule of such
a man, and of aiding her, now distressed as she is, at being so long without a head, and
needing great and powerful support to be enabled to rise again. So much for what concerns
myself. Now, on the other hand, I ask you not to fall short of the hope which I have entertained
and of the promises which I have made him, that I have sent him to close friends. I
ask every one of you to try to surpass the rest in love and affection to him. I entreat you to
show this laudable rivalry, and to comfort his heart by the greatness of your attentions to
him, that he may forget his own home, forget his kinsfolk, and forget a people so dependent
on his rule, like a child weaned from his mother’s breast.
I have despatched Nicias beforehand to explain everything to your excellencies, and
that you may fix a day to keep the feast and give thanks to the Lord, Who has granted the
fulfilment of your prayer. 2360
2357 Placed in 372.
2358 On the appointment of a bishop for that see in the North East of Armenia Minor.
2359 cf. Zech. ii. 8.
2360 The relative referred to is Pœmenius. cf. Letter cxxii.
To the citizens of Satala.
539