Letter 64: (In the year 374 Eusebius and other orthodox Bishops of the East were banished by Valens and their thrones filled with Arian intruders. Eusebius was ordered to retire to Thrace, and his journey lay through Cappadocia, where he saw Basil, but Gregory to his great grief was too unwell to leave his house and go to meet him. Instead he sent the foll...

Gregory to Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata, in exile. The Arian emperor Valens has banished you and other orthodox bishops from your sees and filled your thrones with heretical intruders. You have been ordered to retire to Thrace, and your journey brought you through Cappadocia, where you saw Basil. But I, to my lasting grief, was too ill to leave my house and come to meet you. I send this letter in place of the embrace I could not give you in person. You are a confessor of the faith, a man who has suffered for the truth, and the honor due to you is greater than any honor the world can bestow. The emperor may strip you of your see, but he cannot strip you of your crown. Take courage in your exile. The Lord remembers His own. And when this persecution has passed -- as it will pass, for no tyranny endures forever -- you will return to your people with a glory that no Arian bishop can ever possess: the glory of having stood firm when standing cost everything.

Ep. LXIV. (In the year 374 Eusebius and other orthodox Bishops of the East were banished by Valens and their thrones filled with Arian intruders. Eusebius was ordered to retire to Thrace, and his journey lay through Cappadocia, where he saw Basil, but Gregory to his great grief was too unwell to leave his house and go to meet him. Instead he sent the following letter.) When Your Reverence was passing through our country I was so ill as not to be able even to look out of my house. And I was grieved not so much on account of the illness, though it brought about the fear of the worst, as by the inability to meet your holiness and goodness. My longing to see your venerable face was like that which a man would naturally feel who needed healing of spiritual wounds, and expected to receive it from you. But though at that time the effect of my sins was that I missed the meeting with you, it is now by your goodness possible for me to find a remedy for my trouble, for if you will deign to remember me in your acceptable prayers, this will be to me a store of every blessing from God, both in this my life and in the age to come. For that such a man, such a combatant for the Faith of the Gospel, one who has endured such persecutions, and won for himself such confidence before the all-righteous God by his patience in tribulation — that such a man should deign to be my patron also in his prayers will gain for me, I am persuaded, as much strength as I should have gained through one of the holy martyrs. Therefore let me entreat you to remember your Gregory without ceasing in all the matters in which I desire to be worthy of your remembrance.