Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To Ablabius.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Letter III.—To Ablabius2175
| 2175 This
Letter must have been written, either (1) After the first journey of
Gregory to Constantinople, i.e. after the Council, 381; or (2)
On his return from exile at the death of Valens, 378. The words at the
end, “rejoiced and wept with my people,” are against the
first view. | .
The Lord, as was meet and right, brought us safe through, accompanied
as we had been by your prayers, and I will tell you a manifest token of
His loving kindness. For when the sun was just over the spot which we
left behind Earsus2176
| 2176 ᾽Εαρσοῦ. The
distance prevents us conjecturing “Tarsus” here, though,
Gregory was probably coming from the sea (and the Holy Land). But
“Garsaura” is marked on the maps as about 40 miles south of
Nyssa with the “Morimene” mountains (Erjash Dagh)
intervening. (Nyssa lay on a southern tributary of the Halys, N.W. of
Nazianzum.) The Medicean ms. is said by Migue
to read ἑαυτῶν here—“we left behind us.” Nothing is known of
Vestena below. | , suddenly the
clouds gathered thick, and there was a change from clear sky to deep
gloom. Then a chilly breeze blowing through the clouds, bringing a
drizzling with it, and striking upon us with a very damp feeling,
threatened such rain as had never yet been known, and on the left there
were continuous claps of thunder, and keen flashes of lightning
alternated with the thunder, following one crash and preceding the
next, and all the mountains before, behind, and on each side were
shrouded in clouds. And already a heavy2177
| 2177 Adopting the conjecture of the Latin translator βαρεῖα for βραχεῖα. His translation, however, though ingenious, would require
something different in the Greek. It runs “jamque nubes, quæ
nostro impendebat capiti, postquam acri vehementique vento abrepta alio
delata fuit, hiemem peperit.” As the text stands ὑποληφθεῖσα
cannot bear this translation (H. C. O.) |
cloud hung over our heads, caught by a strong wind and big with rain,
and yet we, like the Israelites of old in their miraculous passage of
the Red Sea, though surrounded on all sides by rain, arrived unwetted
at Vestena. And when we had already found shelter there, and our mules
had got a rest, then the signal for the down-pour was given by God to
the air. And when we had spent some three or four hours there, and had
rested enough, again God stayed the down-fall, and our conveyance moved
along more briskly than before, as the wheel easily slid through the
mud just moist and on the surface. Now the road from that point to our
little town is all along the river side, going down stream with the
water, and there is a continuous string of villages along the banks,
all close upon the road, and with very short distances between them. In
consequence of this unbroken line of habitations all the road was full
of people, some coming to meet us, and others escorting us, mingling
tears in abundance with their joy. Now there was a little drizzle, not
unpleasant, just enough to moisten the air; but a little way before
we got home
the cloud that overhung us was condensed into a more violent shower, so
that our entrance was quite quiet, as no one was aware beforehand of
our coming. But just as we got inside our portico, as the sound of our
carriage wheels along the dry hard ground was heard, the people turned
up in shoals, as though by some mechanical contrivance, I know not
whence nor how, flocking round us so closely that it was not easy to
get down from our conveyance, for there was not a foot of clear space.
But after we had persuaded them with difficulty to allow us to get
down, and to let our mules pass, we were crushed on every side by folks
crowding round, insomuch that their excessive kindness all but made us
faint. And when we were near the inside of the portico, we see a stream
of fire flowing into the church; for the choir of virgins, carrying
their wax torches in their hands, were just marching in file along the
entrance of the church, kindling the whole into splendour with their
blaze. And when I was within and had rejoiced and wept with my
people—for I experienced both emotions from witnessing both in
the multitude,—as soon as I had finished the prayers, I wrote off
this letter to your Holiness as fast as possible, under the pressure of
extreme thirst, so that I might when it was done attend to my bodily
wants.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
