Letter 41: Chrysostom presses Valentinus to answer after three letters and to report his health directly.

This is the third letter I am sending, although I have received none from your magnificence. We have learned that you received our letters with much gladness, that you gave the man who delivered them the honor proper to you, and that in the matters where he needed your influence you contributed everything in your power. None of this escaped us. But we have received no letter. If someone else, someone not especially noble, had kept silence for so long, we would have thought the pressure of business a possible defense. But since we know the height of your mind, the warmth of your love, its genuineness, sincerity, sufficiency, and constancy, we will not accept that defense. Nor will we accept that your wonderfulness is not staying there, for we have learned this too. Only one thing will console us for the long silence: if from now on you recover what was neglected in the past and send us a storm of letters from your honey-flowing tongue, telling us about your health and safety. Although we sit in a desert, in a harsh siege, surrounded by countless dangers, we do not stop caring for your wonderfulness. Every day we ask how your affairs are going. So that we may learn this not from others but from your sweet and longed-for disposition, write to us continually about your health. If we receive letters bringing us this good news, we will have received everything.

ΜΑʹ. Βαλεντίνῳ. Τρίτην πέμπω ταύτην ἐπιστολὴν, οὐδεμίαν αὐτὸς δεξάμενος παρὰ τῆς μεγαλοπρεπείας τῆς σῆς. Ἀλλ' ὅτι μὲν μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς εὐφροσύνης ἐδέξω ἡμῶν τὰ γράμματα, καὶ τὸν ἐγχειρίσαντα ταῦτα τῆς σοι προσηκούσης ἐποίησας ἀπολαῦσαι τιμῆς, καὶ τὰ παρὰ σαυτοῦ πάντα εἰσήνεγκας, ἐν οἷς ἐδεῖτό σου τῆς δυνάμεως, ἔγνωμεν, καὶ οὐδὲν ἡμᾶς τούτων ἔλαθεν· ἐπιστολὴν δὲ οὐδεμίαν ἐκομισάμεθα. Καὶ εἰ μὲν ἄλλος τις ἦν τῶν οὐ σφόδρα γενναίων ὁ σιωπήσας τοσοῦτον, ἐνομίσαμεν ἂν αὐτῷ πρόφασιν εἰς ἀπολογίαν εἶναι τῶν πραγμάτων τὸν ὄχλον. Ἐπειδὴ δέ σου τὸ ὑψηλὸν τῆς σῆς διανοίας ἴσμεν, τὸ θερμὸν τῆς ἀγάπης, τὸ γνήσιον, τὸ εἰλικρινὲς, τὸ διαρκὲς, τὸ μόνιμον, οὐκ ἂν δεξαίμεθα ταύτην ἀπολογίαν, οὐδ' αὖ τὸ μὴ ἐκεῖσε διατρίβειν σου τὴν θαυμασιότητα· καὶ γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο ἔγνωμεν. Ἀλλ' ἑνὶ μόνῳ καρπωσόμεθα τῆς μακρᾶς σιγῆς παραμυθίαν, εἰ βουληθείης εἰς τὸ ἐπιὸν τὸ παροφθὲν ἐν τῷ παρελθόντι χρόνῳ ἀνακτήσασθαι, καὶ πέμψαι νιφάδας γραμμάτων ἡμῖν, ἀπὸ τῆς μέλι ῥεούσης γλώττης τὰ περὶ τῆς ὑγιείας σοῦ τε καὶ τῆς ἀσφαλείας δηλούντων. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἐν ἐρημίᾳ καθήμεθα, καὶ πολιορκίᾳ χαλεπῇ, καὶ μυρίοις περιεστοιχίσμεθα δεινοῖς, ἀλλ' ὅμως οὐ παυόμεθα μεριμνῶντες τὴν σὴν θαυμασιότητα· καὶ καθ' ἑκάστην πυνθανόμεθα ἐν τίσιν ὁρμᾷ τὰ σά. Ἵν' οὖν μὴ παρ' ἑτέρων, ἀλλὰ καὶ παρὰ τῆς γλυκείας καὶ ποθεινοτάτης ἡμῖν διαθέσεως ταῦτα μανθάνωμεν, γράφε συνεχῶς ἡμῖν τὰ περὶ τῆς ῥώσεως τῆς σῆς· καὶ τὸ πᾶν ἀπειλήφαμεν, ἢν δεξώμεθα ἐπιστολὰς ταῦτα φερούσας ἡμῖν τὰ εὐαγγέλια.