Letter of Michael of Alexandria to Patriarch Photios
1 To our thrice-blessed fellow minister Photios, patriarch of Constantinople. Michael of Alexandria.
2 The majesty of the goodness of the great shepherd Christ—inaccessible to the irrational and unattainable by reasonings—every God-loving soul knows surpassingly: that day by day, and month by month, and through every cyclic course of the years, He confirms and orders the creation of His own hands, and tends and does good to the assembled congregations of His Christians, and consoles those in pain, and ⟦raises up⟧ again those who are set [in place] and yet are about to ⟦fall⟧. Concerning all ⟦these things⟧ we are not sufficient to recount the surpassing greatness of His kindness. For having had these things sounded forth to us from the words dear to us of your most consecrating priesthood, we hastened, as to a paternal inheritance, longing for the most consecrating priesthood of him who was before us; and we also sing the same praises ⟦with you⟧ to the Divine, and give thanks through you for the works of His goodness that have come ⟦to⟧ you. For having learned ⟦accurately⟧ all things concerning you from our Kosmas the presbyter, we breathed a little, from the misery that prevailed over our life from those round about us, and instead of any other joy we accounted your joy [our own]; but as it has come to pass ⟦in⟧ us, so we beseech that it come to pass ⟦in⟧ you also: that in your confession of joy you may forget the grievous things that have befallen you.
3 For Kosmas the letter-bearer ⟦has assured⟧ us, that the mighty ⟦and⟧ ⟦pious⟧ ⟦emperor⟧, having become an imitator of Him who bestowed the kingdom upon him, gave it back as a proper adornment to the Church of Christ, and ⟦bestowed⟧ peace ⟦in⟧ her, ⟦casting out⟧ from her every heretical grief and driving away all that is schismatic, and consoling those who had been afflicted in long affliction; and, taking away ⟦faint-heartedness⟧, he gathered all together into ⟦unity⟧. And who would not praise such a work as being truly most kingly, O you named for light and worker of light, and chief shepherd of the Church of God? For you are indeed the man of light, the perfecter of the priesthood, the standard of the truth, the undistorted canon of virtue, the ⟦abode⟧ of knowledge and wisdom, the venerable treasury, the unfailing hand of almsgiving, the refuge of the destitute, the consolation ⟦to those⟧ in calamities, the lodging-place of all good things. Such a one you are, and again He raised you up upon the lampstand of the priesthood and ⟦established⟧ you ⟦through⟧ His servant the emperor—God [did this], and ⟦healed⟧ the ⟦close-pressed wounds⟧ of His Church. For you ⟦illumine⟧ with words of wisdom and knowledge ⟦its⟧ fullness. For we too [received] you, being such a one, from Michael of blessed repose, ⟦from⟧ him who was before us
4 having received the road under the guidance of the all-blessed Mark the Evangelist, we have him as our guide, and we ask to keep him as our fellow-minister until our last day and our final breath. And to all who are heedlessly scandalized concerning the high priesthood, we give firm assurance, proclaiming with a clear voice the very things we set forth before our synod—now that there have been gathered together the metropolitans and bishops nearest to us, as many as our hardship has thus far been able to assemble; I mean those around Zacharias of Tamiathis, and James of Babylon, Stephen of Thebes, and Theophilus of Vares, choice metropolitans, together with other bishops not a few. And the things that were proclaimed in this our synod, to speak summarily, are these: We exhort every man and every soul, and we counsel, and both in writing and unwritten we enjoin, that they be in communion with you, without any ill counsel or perversity or defiled conscience. For he who is in communion with you is plainly in communion with us also. But if any should attempt to cut themselves off from your most holy Church, which is the body ⟦of our Lord Jesus Christ⟧, may they be strangers, cut off from the hope of Christians. And whoever is not in communion with you—who does not accept you as patriarch ⟦of God⟧, duly appointed—let him be cast out, ⟦and let his portion be with⟧ the God-slayers. And I, going up onto a mountain, will lift up my voice before all who hear: he who is not in communion with the most holy Photios, patriarch of the imperial city of Constantinople and our fellow-minister, let him be anathema and accursed from the holy and life-originating Trinity. He who rejects the ordination of Photios our fellow-minister, let him have no part nor communion in the kingdom of God. He who doubts the appointment of Photios the patriarch, let him be a stranger and an outcast from God the Father. He who accuses Photios the hierarch of God on account of his appointment and ordination, let darkness and gloom fall upon him; and let him be made a leper like Naaman the Syrian; and let him inherit the curse of the fratricide Cain; and let him be tossed and trembling upon the earth.
5 And we, O sacred head and chief shepherd of the rational sheep of Christ, following our predecessor who held the hierarchy of Alexandria, the blessed Michael, both consent and concur with you in all things, and we accept your high-priestly perfection, and we hold your name inscribed in the sacred diptychs unto the ages. May God grant you your throne for long years, and unite your churches in your days, and scatter the counsels of those who purpose evil against him; and may the Lord God grant you length of days, submission, obedience, teaching, purity, chastity, and grace. For he himself appoints shepherds for the salvation of those under him; he who set you, the chief shepherd and hierarch, apart from your mother’s womb, may he himself take hold of your right hand and guide you in his counsel and glorify you. But those who raged against you, our brother and fellow-minister—Elias, I mean, and Joseph the vain—died in their most unholy mind an eternal death, the divine justice, I think, having overtaken them, ⟦as we shall be able to learn in due course from the event⟧, since for their own fault they did not ask forgiveness. But the other of them, Thomas of Berytus, acknowledged his offense, and when he asked forgiveness we deemed him worthy of pardon; on whose behalf we have now been entreated to intercede with
6 your brotherhood, the man putting us forward as mediators for himself, that you might entirely forget the affronts once committed against you by him, as the man’s presbyteral repentance itself declares, which we have appended to these our present letters.
7 The priestly gifts that were sent to us by your far-renowned holiness through our oft-mentioned disciple, according to the quality you indicated, we have received. May the Lord God and the lover of mankind reward you for such a ministration. For know, brother, that for the most part we do not so much dwell as in Hades, living like the dead because of the prevailing tyranny. For even if one were charged to set down in words the calamities of each day, we could not. Yet for now, by recounting even some small things, we are relieved of the greatest part of our grief by having others who share in our misfortunes. It is no small thing, indeed, to say truly that we both live and breathe in Christ, who each day strengthens and emboldens us to an unwearied resistance against all the evils that fall upon us; but in all else we have all but died. And if it seems good to your holiness to send a blessing to these holy places, as did the hierarchs before you—do not, by any means, send it through chance persons, but be eager to send the blessing through the presbyter Kosmas or through some such man. We had wished to send another of our representatives along with him; but for fear of the nations we were prevented. And since he himself also wishes to return again to us, may your holiness see to it that he is unhindered.
8 We were instructed by him concerning the virtues of the sovereigns—that they are compassionate and merciful, dignified, hospitable, friends of monks, gentle, peaceable; all their days they spend in fasting and vigil and purity. For all these things we have marveled and exalted them, and we have made three [intercessions?] for their salvation, and we have offered prayers and supplications to God on their behalf and for their valiant deeds. And may God grant them good things still more abundantly, and guard their reign as it endures, and together with earthly goods grant them also the heavenly kingdom, and make their days as the days of heaven, scattering before them the nations that desire wars, restoring to them the boundaries of their kingdom, and casting nations beneath their feet; and may the Lord God grant them length of days, health, and the downfall of all the nations, through the intercessions of the Mother of God and of all the saints, and through the prayers of your holy father Mark, the apostle and evangelist.
9 And after the completion of the letter the holy synod said: The mind that we too hold concerning Photios, our most holy patriarch, we have many times made manifest; rather, by our very deeds we have confirmed it. And those who no longer hold this mind, we regard as cast out and cut off. And since the letter of Michael, the most holy pope of Alexandria, made mention of Thomas, the president of Tyre, let us hear that letter also. Photinos the chartophylax read it.