To Longinus, Archimandrite of Doliche

You have shown both your zeal for the true religion and your love for your neighbor, and at the present time the two are plainly bound together. For it is for the sake of the apostolic decrees that I am being attacked, because I refuse to give up the inheritance of my fathers, and would rather go through any suffering than look lightly on the theft of a single stroke of a letter from the faith of the gospel. You have taken a share in my sufferings, not only by comforting me with your letter, but also by sending me the most honorable and devout Matthew and Isaac. You will hear, I am quite sure, from the lips of the righteous Lord, “I was in prison, and you visited me.” We are small and of no account, and weighed down by a great load of sins, but the Lord is bountiful and generous. He remembers the small rather than the great, and he says, “As you did it to one of the least of these who believe in me, you did it to me.” Since you are distinguished for right doctrine and shine with a worthy life, and so have great boldness before God, I beg you to help me in your prayers, so that I may be able “to stand,” in the words of the apostle, “against the wiles of error,” escape the sins of the destroyer, and stand, though with little boldness, before the righteous Judge in the day of his appearing. [a]