Letter 35 #catechesis/fathers/basil-the-great
Letters · Basil the Great · Church Fathers
ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA
Without address.
I have written to you about many people as belonging to myself; now I mean to write about more. The poor can never fail, and I can never say, no. There is no one more intimately associated with me, nor better able to do me kindnesses wherever he has the ability, than the reverend brother Leontius. So treat his house as if you had found me, not in that poverty in which now by God’s help I am living, but endowed with wealth and landed property. There is no doubt that you would not have made me poor, but would have taken care of what I had, or even added to my possessions. This is the way I ask you to behave in the house of Leontius. You will get your accustomed reward from me; my prayers to the holy God for the trouble you are taking in showing yourself a good man and true, and in anticipating the supplication of the needy.
[!info]- Source
Translated by Blomfield Jackson. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.
Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. fathers/3202035.htm
