Letter of Theodosios of Antioch to Photios

¹ To the most holy patriarch of Constantinople. Theodosius, sinful patriarch of Antioch. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May the merciful God be with us, our father, unto ages of ages. I make known to you, our beloved father, that the good news of you has reached us also through Abba Kosmas, the disciple of Abba Michael, the patriarch of Alexandria—to whom may the Lord God grant us the ages. And you rejoiced over this with great gladness, when God brought you to your throne, just as he foretold to you in good things. And we accepted your holiness,

² and behold, you have become as one of us and among us. But a calamity befell us from Ebintaklom. And we beseech God to repel his afflictions, for he has damaged the church of Antioch in much wealth. But because of our sin we have suffered all these things. And when God brought Abba Kosmas the priest safe as far as us, we rejoiced, because God sheltered him on his way, and concealed your tidings and the mandates of the emperor, until they were revealed to us. And before this, Abba Thomas the metropolitan had arrived from Tyre, wishing to console us over the calamity that bit us; and he came to repentance, and asked forgiveness both of us and of Michael the president of Alexandria, confessing his fault; and that we should write to your high priesthood on his behalf, and he himself confessed it in writing. And do not close, holy father, your bowels and your mercy from him. Glory to God who has brought you up to your throne; and the three thrones have written to you in their own hand, since they have received you. Indeed both lately and of old, as it seems, by God’s will. And behold, we say and write: that if anyone does not accept you as patriarch, he is accursed from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. May Christ guard you, our holy father, and your flock. And may he add glory to you in this present age and in the age to come, through the intercessions of the divine chief [of the apostles] and of all the saints.

³ And after the reading of such a letter, the holy synod said: Let there come also the letter of our brother and fellow-minister Adramius, metropolitan of Amida and Samosata, and let it be read. So taking this also into his hands, the above-mentioned Photinos the chartophylax read it, containing thus: