Epistula ad episcopos

To the bishops, presbyters, and deacons confined in prison for piety. Blessed are you for the prison, for the chain, and for the cause of the bonds; blessed and thrice-blessed, and many times this, you who have bound the whole world to yourselves by the love for you, having made even those far away your lovers. Everywhere on land and sea your achievements are sung: your courage, your unshakable resolve, your unfettered spirit. Nothing of what seems terrible has overwhelmed you—neither court, nor executioner, nor showers of tortures, nor threats teeming with countless deaths, nor a judge breathing fire from his mouth, nor enemies sharpening their teeth and stirring up countless forms of treachery, nor so many slanders, nor shameless accusations, nor death appearing before your eyes each day. But the cause of what has happened has sufficed for you as consolation for what has happened. For these things all crown and proclaim you openly—not only friends, but also the enemies themselves, and those who contrive these things. Even if not openly, should one of them open his conscience, he will find much admiration for you even among them. For such is virtue: it is admired even by those who war against it; such is vice: it is condemned even by those who practice it. Such are the things here; but what in the heavens will any word be able to describe? Your names are inscribed in the book of life; you have been numbered among the holy martyrs. I know this clearly, not by ascending to heaven, but by learning it from divine oracles.

chain, and who have been bound for the sake of truth. For if the man who stood by a marriage that was being violated, and was unable to correct the violation but only to denounce it—the fruit of the barren woman, the citizen of the desert—because he inhabited this prison and was beheaded for this reason, is both a martyr and the first of martyrs, then you, who have stood by the laws of the fathers and the institutions that have been transgressed, and by the priesthood that has been insulted and violated, and who have suffered so much for the sake of truth and to refute such shameless slanders, consider what great reward you will receive. "It is not lawful for you to have the wife of your brother Philip," said that noble and exalted man, and this sufficed for him to gain ineffable freedom of speech. Say also you: "Our bodies are exposed to punishments, tortures, torments; consume, spend them on whatever torments you wish; we choose not to slander, but to die a thousand times." But you have not been beheaded; rather, you have suffered far more grievous things. For it is not the same to lay down one's head in a brief moment of time as to wrestle for so long a time with so many pains, fears, threats, prisons, arrests, courts, the hands of executioners, the shameless tongues of slanderers, reproaches, insults, and mockeries. For this too is a very great form of contest, and the blessed Paul places it in the rank of great struggles, speaking thus: "Remember the former days, when, having been enlightened, you endured much contest of sufferings." Then, speaking of the contest, he set this down, saying: "On the one hand, being made a spectacle through reproaches and afflictions, on the other, having become companions of those who suffer thus.

But if those who merely shared in the struggle have contended, far more have you who endured. For not one, nor two, nor three, but many deaths you have undergone in resolve, if not in experience. Rejoice, then, and leap for joy; for the Master of the heavens has commanded this—not only not to grieve, nor to be downcast, but to leap and delight when an evil name is cast out against you. And if it is necessary to rejoice even over a false accusation, when so many things are added—false accusations, blows, tortures, sharpened swords, prisons, chains, arrests, parades, such throngs of enemies—consider how great the reward is, where the recompense reaches its peak. Rejoice, then, leap, act like men, be strong; consider how many you have anointed through what you have suffered, how many you have raised up in spirit, how many you have steadied when they were wavering—not only those present, but also those absent, not only through the sight of what you have endured, but also through mere hearing, having benefited even those far away to the greatest degree. Constantly carry about that apostolic saying: that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that is to be revealed to us. And expect the swiftest resolution of your trials and complete deliverance, and pray continually for us. For even if we have been separated from you by the great length of the road and have been parted from you for a long time, yet as if present and with you, so do we embrace you, so do we kiss each one of your dear heads, receiving you, the crowned victors, with upturned hands, and expecting from this the greatest gain for ourselves from the great love that surrounds us.

For if those who love you must await a great reward, consider how great is the recompense for you who have shone forth in so many contests.