The Blessedness of Suffering. (To Olympias, A.D. 404 or 405. Ὀλυμπίαδι, Xvii., T. Iii., P. 604.)
Nothing strange or out of the way is happening to you, but it is extremely fitting and proper that the strength of your spirit should be increased by constant temptations, and your fervour and power in combat become greater, and that you should reap therefrom much sweetness. It is the nature of tribulation, when it encounters a brave and ardent soul, to bring about these results. And as the fire refines gold by its action, so does tribulation purify and refine golden souls. Therefore Paul says, Tribulation worketh patience and patience probation. Hence, I too am in joy and gladness, and in this vast solitude am consoled by this fortitude of yours. Therefore, even if thousands of wolves hem you in and endless evil plottings, I have no fear; but it is my prayer that present temptation may pass away and that you may not encounter others, thus fulfilling the divine law, which bids us pray not to fall into temptation. And if, perchance, it should happen again, I have confidence in your soul of gold, and in the great riches which you would gain for yourself. With what threat will they who act against their own interests be able to frighten you? By loss of money? But this, I know well, is like smoke in your eyes, and is accounted more worthless than mud by the way. Is it by exile from home and country? But you are able to live in great and populous cities as well as in deserts, and to pass your time in peace and quiet, and to put away worldly visions. Or do they threaten you with death? This, too, has been always in your thoughts, and if they should drag you to execution they will find a dead body in their hands. Why need I say more? No one will be able to do anything to you which you have not already borne with much patience. You, who have ever walked on a steep and thorny path, have accustomed yourself to all these things; you, who have shown consummate skill under training, now appear more radiant in the combat: not only are you not troubled by what has taken place, but you are soaring above the earth and rejoicing. You are glad to have a part now in those combats for which you had prepared yourself, and this in your woman’s body, which is weaker than a spider’s web. Whilst men are raging and gnashing their teeth, you are treading their madness under foot in much cheerfulness, and you would be ready to suffer many more things than they could prepare against you. Blessed and thrice-blessed are you by reason of the crowns to come, or rather by those very wrestlings. For these struggles, even before the reward, and in the oppression of the fight, have their present rewards, and compensations, and sweetness; they have contentedness, and fortitude, and steadfastness, and patience in making you invincible, unconquerable, far above all; they so exercise you that you can suffer no evil from anyone, and make you stand upon the rock in spite of angry waves, and bear a furious ocean with great peacefulness. These are the rewards of tribulation, even before the kingdom of heaven. I know that, already, you account yourself divested of the body, on the wings of sweetness, but that if called upon you would put it off more easily than others do the clothes which they wear. Rejoice, then, and be glad both over yourself and over those who die the blessed death, who die not in their bed, not in their houses, but in prisons, and chains, and torments. Grieve only for the doers of these things, and weep for them: this is worthy of your virtue. Since you wish to hear about my bodily health, I have so far got rid of the illness which troubled me and am better now, if only winter when it comes does not affect my weakness of stomach. We are also in perfect security from Isaurian invasions.