To Narses the Patrician, on the Case of the Presbyters

Gregory to Narses, and so on. [a]

Your most sweet love has said a great deal to me in your letters in praise of my good deeds. To all of it I briefly reply: “Do not call me Naomi, that is, beautiful; call me Mara, that is, bitter, for I am full of bitterness.” [b] But as to the case of the presbyters, which is pending with my brother and fellow bishop, the most reverend patriarch John, I think we have as our adversary the very man who, you assert, wishes to observe the canons. Further, I declare to your love that with the help of Almighty God I am ready to pursue this same case with all my power and influence. And if I see that the canons of the Apostolic See are not being kept in it, Almighty God will grant me what I may do against those who despise them. [c]

As to what your love wrote to me, asking me to thank my son Theodore, the chief physician and former prefect, on your behalf, I have done so, and I have by no means stopped commending you as much as I could. Further, I beg you to forgive me for answering your letters so briefly. For I am pressed by such great troubles that I am not able either to read much or to say much by letter. This only I say to you: “Because of the voice of groaning I have forgotten to eat my bread.” I beg you to greet in my name all who are with you. Give my greetings to the lady Dominica, whose letter I have not answered, because, though she is Latin, she wrote to me in Greek. [d]