Letter of Theodosios of Jerusalem to Photios
1 To our God-chosen, holy, and ever-memorable fellow-minister, the lord Photios, patriarch of Constantinople. Theodosius, least of men, patriarch of Jerusalem, greeting. God, who provides for the hearts of all, declaring through David that dwelling together in concord and in a brotherly disposition in God is shown forth, said: “The Lord settles those of one manner in a house.” He who chose David from the flock of sheep by his providence to be both king and prophet, the same in our generation has brought to fulfillment what was prophesied. For by the grace of God your incomparable holiness, O divinely-inspired hierarch, both the foundation of the churches, the concord of virtue, piety, and brotherly harmony, is everywhere heard of and confirmed in the holy Church of our God; your God-governed care and pastoral watchfulness gladden and delight our ears, and throughout the holy assemblies in their places provide rejoicing to the presidents under them, and bring to pass a common spiritual and festal gladness. For since we are all of one body and members one of another, when one member is sound, its soundness is imparted to the rest as well. And again, when one member suffers, the whole body suffers. This indeed comes to pass also in the spiritual members fitted together into the catholic Church. And we, being a part of the Church, even if the other part is otherwise disposed, yet already share in the identity of the suffering. Therefore, O divinely-inspired one, and great bulwark of the Church of Christ, also for us who are caught in the snares of the lawless, and who suffer unbearable things at their hands, both in the loss of the revenues of the churches and in the plundering of the dues owed to us, give heed to your prayers and supplications to God, O sacred head of the body of the Church, and as a city living in God on behalf of another city, plead with the pious and God-chosen
2 emperors, to have mercy and take pity on the holy Church of the Resurrection of Christ our God, and on holy Zion; and do not grow weary on this account, for a grievous time is upon us, in which they are in need of mercy. But to recount one by one the kinds and the things done to us wretched ones by these evils I judge unseemly to your ⟦most unblemished⟧ holiness. Nevertheless, out of the unbearable and many-headed throng of the various dangers that press upon us, we have with fear deemed worthy the most reverent monk, the lord ⟦Andrew, who⟧ keeps guard as no other—being the sole blood-kinsman of our holy legate the lord Elias, who contends together with your holiness—to take the trouble to come as far as your holiness, both for the building up of the canonical proclamations and for the cessation of the scandals that are springing up. He will also more clearly recount the destructive assaults of the nations against us. Wherefore let your God-moved disposition be stirred to pity for us, and let it extend the fitting care. And I, urged on by this insufferable necessity, as I said before, have sent up an unfinished letter of supplication, together with the aforesaid lord Andrew, in a letter to the merciful might of the holy emperors, in which is summarily set forth the dreadful evils against us. And I beseech your holiness to show us loving-kindness compassionately, and to cooperate that the things we have asked of their divine majesty may reach their end. May the manly excellence of your God-chosen hierarchy frequently aid us by direct intercessions to God. And if anyone does not accept you as a holy hierarch of God and patriarch of the imperial city, let him be anathema from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and deposed from all priesthood. For thus also the holy synod that is with us has decreed.
3 The holy synod said: With the things decreed by the said synod of the most holy patriarch of the East, we too agree; and if anyone does not accept Photios, our most holy patriarch, as the lawful hierarch, let him be anathema. Photios the most holy patriarch said: If our holy synod commands, let the letters from the most holy patriarch of Antioch, through Kosmas the presbyter, also be read. The most holy legates said: Let them be read. And coming forward, Photinos the oft-mentioned chartophylax read them, containing thus: