Letter 87: The law of brotherly love required that I should have received many letters from your godliness at this time.

To Domnus, Bishop of Apamea. The law of brotherly love required that I should have received many letters from your godliness at this time. The divine Apostle commands us to "weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice." I have received not one letter from you — though just recently I was visited by some of the devout monks of your monastery together with the devout presbyter Elias. Yet I have written, and I greet your holiness now; and I want you to know that the consolation of the Master has served me in place of everything else. In truth, even if I had as many mouths as I have hairs on my head, I could not adequately praise him for counting me worthy to suffer on account of my confession of him — for the apparent disgrace that I hold as more august than any honor. And if I am banished to the very ends of the earth, I will praise him all the more, as being counted worthy of still greater blessing. Nevertheless I hope that your holiness will offer prayers for the peace of the holy churches. It is on their account that I groan and lament — it is the storm assailing them that distresses me, not what is happening to me personally. That storm, as I well know, was unleashed by the Osrhoene clergy, who poured out countless accusations against me, though I had no part in their condemnation or in the sentence passed on them. On the contrary — as your holiness knows — I interceded for them to receive communion at Easter. But slanderers find no difficulty in saying whatever they please. My consolation is in the blessing of the Master: "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Letter 87