Letter 491

To the same person. There are even now certain ever-flowing rivers, filled with diviner streams, which by their own surging motions gladden the city of God—I mean the Church—with their unfailing irrigation: I refer to those around the God-beloved and truly blessed Philemon and Nicephorus, who, having acquired the highest dispassion and true knowledge, are shown to all to carry precious stones in their bosom—I mean the carbuncle and the green stone [prase]. Now the green stone signifies the most venerable pallor that appears on the face from ascetic discipline, and the cast and rigidity of the body's limbs through their allotted way of life; while the carbuncle signifies the bright and burning reflections of spiritual contemplation—the very thoughts that also set Cleopas's heart aflame [cf. Luke 24:32]. But greater than these wondrous men whom we have named, a river streaming with gold has been bestowed by God upon the world: John, bishop of Constantinople [John Chrysostom], whose praises many tongues of the wise share out among themselves. For this man is a most genuine carbuncle, swaddled from a young age in the light of true religion, and nursed upon the divine grain of fiery conceptions, and with a fire-blazing longing; through gradual progress and increase he raised on high the flame of the teaching that benefits all mortals, set apart from those others, and put to use among the right-minded—among those who formerly were praised for virtue, but who now are spoken ill of because of their slackness, even though they happen to be present [...]; just as Jeremiah lamented, saying: How did they wrap themselves in the dung of the affairs of worldly and perishable matters, who once were nourished upon the grain of the heavenly and venerable manner of life, and of the incorruptible and spiritual polity, being admonished by the grain of the heavenly [...] ever, and of the venerable manner of life, and of the incorruptible and spiritual polity [...].

Εἰσί τινες καὶ ἀρτίως ποταμοὶ ἀέναα ῥέοντες θειοτέρων πεπληρωμένοι ῥείθρων, τοῖς οἰκείοις ὁρμήμασι τὴν πόλιν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν φημί, κατευφραίνοντες τῇ ἀνεκλείπτῳ ἀρδείᾳ· τοὺς περὶ τὸν θεοφιλῆ καὶ ὄντως μακάριον εἴρηκα Φιλήμονα καὶ Νικηφόρον, οἵτινες ὑψηλοτάτην ἀπάθειαν ἀληθῶς καὶ γνῶσιν κεκτημένοι, καὶ τοὺς πολυτιμήτους λίθους ἐγκεκολπισμένοι διαδείκνυνται πᾶσι, τὸν ἄνθρακα φημὶ καὶ τὸν πράσινον λίθον. Σημαίνει δ’ ὃν μὲν πράσινον λίθον, τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἀσκήσεως ἐπὶ προσώπου φαινομένην σεμνοτάτην ὠχρότητα καὶ τὴν φύσιν καὶ πῆξιν τῶν τοῦ σώματος μελῶν διὰ τῆς κληρουχίας· ὁ δὲ ἄνθραξ, τὰ λαμπρὰ καὶ διακαῆ τῆς πνευματικῆς θεωρίας ἐνθυμήματα, ἅπερ δὴ καὶ τοῦ Κλεόπα τὴν καρδίαν ἐξέφλεγεν. Μείζων δὲ τῶν εἰρημένων θαυμαστῶν ἀνδρῶν, παρὰ Θεοῦ τῷ κόσμῳ ποταμὸς χρυσοῤῥόας δεδώρηται, Ἰωάννης ὁ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως ἐπίσκοπος, οὗτινος τοὺς ἐπαίνους πολλαὶ τῶν σοφῶν μερίζονται γλῶσσαι. Ἄνθραξ γὰρ οὗτος ἀληθέστατος, ἐκ νέας ἡλικίας τῷ φωτὶ τῆς εὐσεβείας σπαργανωθείς, καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ θείου κόκκου τῶν διαπύρων νοημάτων τιθηνηθείς, καὶ πυριφλεγεῖ πόθῳ, διὰ τῆς κατὰ μέρος προκοπῆς καὶ αὐξήσεως, εἰς ὕψος ἄρας τὴν φλόγα τῆς πάντων βροτῶν εὐεργετικῆς διδαχῆς, διακεχωρισμένος ἐκείνων, καὶ διακεχρημένος τοῖς εὐφρονοῦντων, τῶν πρώην μὲν εὐφημουμένων δι’ ἀρετήν, νυνὶ δὲ φεγομένων διὰ τὴν ῥαθυμίαν, κἂν παρμένες τυγχάνωσιν· ὥσπερ Ἱερεμίας ἐθρήνησε λέγων· Πῶς κοπρίαν περισεβάλλοντο πραγμάτων βιωτικῶν καὶ φθαρτῶν, οἵ ποτε τιθηνούμενοι ἐπὶ κόκκῳ τῆς οὐρανίου καὶ σεμνῆς βιώσεως, καὶ τοῦ ἀφθάρτου καὶ πνευματικοῦ πολιτεύματος, νουθετούμενοι ἐν κόκκῳ κοὐρανίου ἀεὶ καὶ σεμνῆς βιώσεως, καὶ τοῦ ἀφθάρτου καὶ πνευματικοῦ πολιτεύματος, νουθετούμενοι ἐν κόκκῳ κοὐρανίου ἀεὶ καὶ σεμνῆς βιώσεως, καὶ τοῦ ἀφθάρτου καὶ πνευματικοῦ πολιτεύματος.