Letter 235: Chrysostom thanks Porphyrius for steadfast love from near Cucusus.

I know the firmness, steadiness, and unshaken character of your love, and that no difficulty in affairs can move it. You have shown this by your deeds. For this reason, though we are ill, though we have been carried to Cucusus, the most desolate place in our world, though we are besieged by attacks from the Isaurians and are in many troubles, we still write and pay the greeting owed to your Reverence. We are separated in body but bound in soul, and from this we draw great consolation. The stay here is very hard, but we gain one great good from it: we are near enough to you to write to your Reverence and receive letters from you without a long road between us. I count that as a feast and a festival. Keep giving us this pleasure, my honored master, so that even in illness and danger we may be strengthened by your letters.

ΣΛΕʹ. Πορφυρίῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Ῥωσοῦ. Οἶδά σου τῆς ἀγάπης τὸ στεῤῥὸν, τὸ ἀπερίτρεπτον, τὸ ἀκλινὲς, καὶ ὡς οὐδεμία πραγμάτων δυσκολία αὐτὴν παρασαλεῦσαι δύναιτ' ἄν· τοῦτο διὰ τῶν ἔργων ἔδειξας. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς, καίτοι ἐν ἀῤῥωστίᾳ καθεστῶτες, καὶ εἰς τὸ πάσης τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς οἰκουμένης ἐρημότατον χωρίον ἀπενεχθέντες, τὴν Κουκουσὸν, καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν Ἰσαύρων ἐφόδου πολιορκούμενοι, καὶ ἐν πολλαῖς ὄντες περιστάσεσι, καὶ γράφομεν, καὶ τὴν ὀφειλομένην ἀποδίδομεν πρόσρησιν τῇ εὐλαβείᾳ τῇ σῇ, τῷ σώματι μὲν διεστηκότες, τῇ ψυχῇ δὲ συνδεδεμένοι, καὶ μεγίστην ἐντεῦθεν καρπούμεθα τὴν παράκλησιν. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ πολλὴ τῆς ἐντεῦθεν διατριβῆς ἡ δυσκολία, ἀλλ' ἓν τοῦτο μέγιστον ἐντεῦθεν καρπούμεθα, τὸ ἐκ γειτόνων ὑμῖν εἶναι, καὶ συνεχῶς δύνασθαι, ὀλίγου τοῦ μέσου τῆς ὁδοῦ ταύτης ὄντος, καὶ ἐπιστέλλειν πρὸς τὴν ὑμετέραν εὐλάβειαν, καὶ δέχεσθαι παρ' ὑμῶν γράμματα. Καὶ γὰρ ταύτης ἀπολαύοντες τῆς ἑορτῆς ἑορτὴν γὰρ ἐγὼ τοῦτο τίθεμαι, καὶ πανήγυριν, καὶ πολλῆς ἡδονῆς ὑπόθεσιν, οὐδὲ μικρὰν αἴσθησιν τῆς ἐρημίας, καὶ τοῦ φόβου, καὶ τῆς ἀγωνίας ληψόμεθα.