Letter
LXII.
2225
To the Church of Parnassus
.
2226
Following
an ancient
custom, which has obtained for many years, and at the same time shewing
you love in God, which is the fruit of the Spirit, I now, my pious
friends, address this letter to you. I feel with you at once in
your grief at the event which has befallen you, and in your anxiety at
the matter which you have in hand. Concerning all these troubles
I can only say, that an occasion is given us to look to the injunctions
of the Apostle, and not to sorrow “even as others which have no
hope.”
2227
I do not mean
that we should be insensible to the loss we have suffered, but that we
should not succumb to our sorrow, while we count the Pastor happy in
his end. He has died in a ripe old age, and has found his rest in
the great honour given him by his Lord.
As to the future I have this recommendation to give
you. You must now lay aside all mourning; you must come to
yourselves; you must rise to the necessary management of the Church; to
the end that the holy God may give heed to His own little flock, and
may grant you a shepherd in accordance with His own will, who may
wisely feed you.
2225
Placed about
371.
2226
A town in
Northern Cappadocia, on the right bank of the Halys, on or near a
hill whence it was named, on the road between Ancyra and
Archelais. The letter appears to Maran (
Vita S.
Bas
. xvi.) to have been written before the encouragement
given to the Arians by the visit of Valens in 372. The result
of Basil’s appeal to the Parnassenes was the election of an
orthodox bishop, expelled by the Arians in 375, and named Hypsis or
Hypsinus.
cf. Letter
ccxxxvii., where Ecdicius is said
to have succeeded Hypsis; and ccxxxviii., where Ecdicius is
called
Παρνασσηνός
.
2227
1 Thess. iv.
13
.