Letter 214: Chrysostom tells Sebastianus that love overcomes bodily separation and asks for health news.

John ChrysostomSebastianus, presbyter and correspondent of John Chrysostom|c. 405 AD|John Chrysostom|From Cucusus (modern Goksun), Armenia Secunda|AI-assisted
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PG 52 Epistulae 214 begins with source heading 'ΣΙ∆ʹ. Σεβαστιανῷ πρεσβυτέρῳ.'. First-time modern English translation prepared from the Greek source for Roman Letters.

Although we are separated from your Honor in body, we are bound to you by love. Wherever we may be, even if we are carried to the very ends of the inhabited world, we carry your disposition in our memory.

I do not think I need to doubt that you also keep us constantly in mind. I know the genuineness of your feeling, the firmness of your love, and the steadiness of your mind. So I ask you to keep writing to us, and to send us the good news of your health. We are very eager to learn it, and even while living in the wilderness we will draw much comfort from such letters.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

ΣΙ∆ʹ. Σεβαστιανῷ πρεσβυτέρῳ.

Εἰ καὶ τῷ σώματι κεχωρίσμεθά σου τῆς τιμιότητος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῇ ἀγάπῃ σοι συνδεδέμεθα, καὶ ὅπουπερ ἂν ὦμεν, περιφέρομέν σου τὴν διάθεσιν ἐπὶ τῆς μνήμης, κἂν εἰς αὐτὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἀπενεχθῶμεν τὰ τέρματα. Ὅτι δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἄληστον ἔχεις τὴν μνήμην ἡμῶν, οὐδὲν οἶμαι δεῖν ἀμφιβάλλειν. Οἶδα γάρ σου τὸ γνήσιον τῆς διαθέσεως, τῆς ἀγάπης τὸ στεῤῥὸν, τὸ ἀπερίτρεπτον τῆς γνώμης. ∆ιὸ καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν συνεχῶς ἡμῖν ἐπιστέλλειν, καὶ τὰ περὶ τῆς ὑγείας τῆς σῆς εὐαγγελίζεσθαι. Σφόδρα γὰρ ἡμῖν περισπούδαστον περὶ ταύτης μανθάνειν· καὶ πολλὴν καὶ ἐν ἐρημίᾳ διατρίβοντες ἀπὸ τῶν τοιούτων γραμμάτων καρπωσόμεθα τὴν παράκλησιν.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern chrysostom pg52 epistulae batch7 v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://catholiclibrary.org/library/view?docId=/Fathers-Synchronized-OR/John_Chrysostom__Epistulae.gr.html

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