An Appeal to the People of Constantinople

That is why I too, humble and insignificant as I am in name and in merit, and though I cannot claim a place as a teacher among those famous bishops of Constantinople, still venture to claim the zeal and enthusiasm of a disciple. For I was admitted to the sacred ministry by Bishop John, of blessed memory, and offered to God. And though I am absent in body, I am still there in heart; though I no longer mingle in person with that most dear and honorable people of God, I am still joined to them in spirit. And so, grieving and suffering with them, I broke out just now in words of our common grief and sorrow. In my weakness I cried out, which was all I could do, through the mournful lament of my writings, as if for my own limbs and members. For if, as the apostle says, when the smaller part of the body is hurt the greater part grieves and suffers with it, how much more should the smaller part suffer with the greater when the greater is hurt? It is utterly inhuman, in one and the same body, for the smaller parts not to feel the sufferings of the greater, when the greater feel those of the smaller. So I pray and plead with you who live within the bounds of Constantinople, you who are my fellow citizens through my love for my country and my brothers through the oneness of our faith: separate yourselves from that ravenous wolf who, as it is written, devours the people of God as if they were bread. Do not touch, do not taste anything of his, for all those things lead to death. Come out from the midst of him and be separate, and do not touch what is unclean. Remember your teachers of old, and your priests: Gregory, whose fame spread through the world; Nectarius, renowned for holiness; John, a marvel of faith and purity. John, I say, that John who, like John the Evangelist, was truly a disciple of Jesus and an apostle, and who, so to speak, always reclined on the breast and heart of the Lord. Remember him, I say. Follow him. Think of his purity, his faith, his teaching and his holiness. Remember him always as your teacher and your nurse, in whose bosom and arms you grew up, as it were. He was the teacher of you and of me alike; we are his disciples and his pupils. Read his writings. Hold fast to his instruction. Embrace his faith and his merits. For though to reach what he reached is a hard and magnificent thing, even to follow him is beautiful and sublime. In the highest matters not only the reaching but even the attempt to copy deserves praise, for hardly anyone wholly misses every part of what he is trying to climb up to and reach. Keep him, then, always in your minds and almost before your eyes; let him live in your hearts and in your thoughts. He himself would commend to you what I have written, for it was he who taught me what I have written. So do not think of it as mine so much as his. The stream comes from the spring, and whatever you think belongs to the disciple ought all to be credited to the honor of the master. [a]

But beyond and above all, I pray with all my heart and voice to you, O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you would fill with the gift of your love whatever we have written by your generous grace. Our Lord God, your only Son, himself taught us that you so loved this world as to send your only Son to save the world. Grant, then, to your people whom you have redeemed, that in the Incarnation of your only Son they may see both your gift and his love. Grant that all may understand the truth that for our sake your only Son, our Lord God, was born and suffered and rose again, and may so love it that the way he stooped down from his glory may increase our love. Do not let his humility lessen his honor in the hearts of all people, but let it always bring an increase of love. And may we all rightly and wisely grasp the blessings of his holy compassion, so as to see that we owe God all the more, the lower God humbled himself for our sake.