Letter 229: Chrysostom writes to Severa after hearing from Libanius about her zeal for the faith.
John Chrysostom→Severa, correspondent of John Chrysostom|c. 405 AD|John Chrysostom|From Cucusus (modern Goksun), Armenia Secunda|AI-assisted
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PG 52 Epistulae 229 begins with source heading 'ΣΚΘʹ. Σευήρᾳ.'. First-time modern English translation prepared from the Greek source for Roman Letters.
I have never seen your Nobility with bodily eyes, but with the eyes of love I have seen you more clearly than most. No distance can prevent that kind of sight. My dear lord Libanius described to us your zeal for the true faith and your earnestness, and he lifted our spirits greatly.
For that reason, though we have never met you, we have leapt first into writing to your Reverence and ask you to write to us whenever you can. If a letter comes from your Kindness reporting your health and the health of your whole household, we will receive very great consolation from it even while we live in a foreign place. Nothing is equal to love.
I have never seen your Nobility with bodily eyes, but with the eyes of love I have seen you more clearly than most. No distance can prevent that kind of sight. My dear lord Libanius described to us your zeal for the true faith and your earnestness, and he lifted our spirits greatly.
For that reason, though we have never met you, we have leapt first into writing to your Reverence and ask you to write to us whenever you can. If a letter comes from your Kindness reporting your health and the health of your whole household, we will receive very great consolation from it even while we live in a foreign place. Nothing is equal to love.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.