Letter 880

To Gerontius the Monk. If you believe that Samson, by faith and by prayer, brought forth a spring of water from the jawbone of a dead donkey [Judges 15:18-19], then believe and pray; for indeed our fathers also knew it, and recounted it to us, and we ourselves have known it by experience, and those who come after us will know it: that faith can accomplish great things, and so can supplication offered from the whole of one's strength, undistracted and without wandering, presented to Christ, the all-seeing God; and that it can accomplish as much as to raise even the dead, and to heal sufferings of every kind, both of soul and of body, and to drive out demons, and to undo the sorceries of magicians, and to quench the irrational burning of the body, and the throbbings of the flesh stirred up by demons, which we have come to recognize; and wounds that seemed to be incurable, because they had become hardened and calloused through long-standing neglect and habit, we have known to be healed suddenly and beyond all expectation. [The transmitted text of this letter is interrupted in the source by an editorial apparatus in Latin that belongs to a different letter on the same printed page; it concerns the January Kalends, the private circus games and chariot races (citing Sidonius Apollinaris's poem Narbo, in which he congratulates Consentius), the prayer-houses, and a homily of John Chrysostom delivered at Antioch on the day after the Kalends, together with canon 17 of the Second Council of Tours (567) on the private litanies established by the fathers to counter the pagan custom of that day. This Latin material is not part of Nilus's letter to Gerontius and has been omitted from the translation of the letter itself.]

Εἰ πιστεύεις, ὅτι Σαμψὼν τῇ πίστει καὶ τῇ εὐχῇ πηγὴν προσεβίβασεν ἐκ σιαγόνος ὄνου νεκροῦ, πίστευσον, καὶ πρόσευξαι· καὶ γὰρ καὶ οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν ἔγνωσαν, καὶ διηγήσαντο ἡμῖν, καὶ ἡμεῖς τῇ πείρᾳ ἐγνώκαμεν, καὶ οἱ μεθ' ἡμᾶς γνώσονται, ὅτι μεγάλα δύναται πίστις, καὶ δέησις ἐξ ὅλης δυνά- (3) Καὶ ταῖς ἱπποδρομίαις. Non erant quidem Januariae Kalendae status dies magnorum Circensium; tamen solemne fuisse privatos circenses paratu maximo idque a longe nobilioribus quam publicos eo die celebrari, docet inter alios Sidonius in carmine cui titulum fecit Narbo, ubi Consentio gratulans gloriam quam tali die quadriga in circo regenda, sorte ad id lectus meruisset in hunc modum scribit: Nam circensibus ipse quanta ludi Victor gesseris intonante Roma, Laetam par fuit exarare Musam. Janus forte suas bifrons Kalenda Anni tempora circinate Phabo Sumendas referebat ad curules. Mos est Caesaris hic die bis uno (Privatos vocitant) parare ludos. Tunc coetus juvenum sed aulicorum Elei simulacra torva campi Exercet spatiantibus quadrigis, Et jam te urna petit cietque raucae Acclama:io sibilans corona, etc. (4) Ἀλλὰ τότε μάλιστα τοὺς εὐκτηρίους οἴκους καταλαμβάνεις. Ut ii quibus gratulatur Chrysostomus oratione 55 Antiochiae postridie Kalendas habita tomo V edit: Anglic., pag 220. Τὴν χθὲς ἡμέραν ἑορτὴν οὖσαν διαβολικήν, ἐποιήσατε ὑμεῖς ἑορτὴν πνευματικὴν μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς εὐνοίας τοὺς παρ' ἡμῶν δεξάμενοι λόγους καὶ τὸ πλέον ἐνταῦθα τῆς ἡμέρας διατρίψαντες. Atque ut consensum in eadem pia studia Ecclesiarum longe distantium mireris, ut in Asia sic in Galliis Christiani solebant religiosis officiis in loco sacro diem istum anni primum Satanicis spectaculis deformem transigere. Docet hoc canon 17 concilii Turonensis ii, in basilica S. Martini celebrari xv Kal. Decemb., an. Chr. 567. Eo enim canone dum præscribuntur dies, quibus ex antiquo instituto monachis jejunandum erat, postquam a Natali Domini ad Epiphania ob festivitatum reverentiam prandium permittit dixit, exceptionem adhibet his verbis: Excipitur triduum illud quo ad calcandam gentilium consuetudinem Patres nostri statuerunt privatas in Kalendis Januarii fieri Litanias, ut in Ecclesiis psallatur, et hora octava in ipsis Kulendis circumcisionis missa Deo propitio celebretur. Haec ibi. Privatast Litanias vot quo modo paulo ante retulimus circenses, qui Kalendis Januariis die non suo dabantur, privatos appellatos, licet non minori quam publici frequentia spectarentur. Id. μεως ἀπερισπάστως, καὶ ὀρεμβάστως προσφερόμενη Χριστῷ τῷ παντεπόπτῃ Θεῷ, καὶ τοσοῦτον, ὅσῳ καὶ νεκροὺς ἐγεῖραι καὶ πάθη παντοῖα ψυχῆς, καὶ σώματος θεραπεύειν, καὶ δαίμονας ἐλαύνειν, καὶ φαρμακείας γοήτων καταλύειν, καὶ ἄλογον σώματος πύρωσιν σβεννύειν, καὶ σφυγμοὺς σαρκὸς ἐκ δαιμόνων διερεθιζομένους ἐπέγνωμεν, καὶ τὰ δόξαντα ἀνίατα τραύματα ὑπάρχειν διὰ τὸ ἀποκερσωθῆναι, καὶ ἀπεσκληκέναι πολυχρονίῳ ἀμελείᾳ, καὶ συνήθείᾳ, θεραπευθέντα αἰφνίδιον, καὶ παρὰ προσδοκίαν.