The Canonical Epistle of St Gregory Thaumaturgus

Direct English translation

The foods do not trouble us, sacred pope, if the captives ate what their captors set before them, especially since all agree that the barbarians who overran our regions did not sacrifice to idols. The Apostle says, 'Foods are for the belly and the belly for foods, but God will bring both it and them to an end'; and the Saviour, cleansing all foods, says: 'It is not what enters that defiles a person, but what proceeds from him.' As for captive women whose bodies were violated by the barbarians: if the former life of any woman was already condemned because, as it is written, she followed the eyes of those who fornicate, it is clear that her disposition toward fornication is suspect even during the captivity, and such women ought not readily to share in the prayers. But if a woman lived in the highest chastity and showed that her former life was pure and beyond every suspicion, and now suffered violation by force and necessity, we have the example in Deuteronomy of the young woman whom a man found in the field, forced, and lay with: 'You shall do nothing to the young woman; there is in the young woman no sin deserving death, for this matter is as when a man rises against his neighbour and kills him. The young woman cried out, and there was no one to help her.' So much concerning these things.

Direct English translation

Covetousness is terrible, and in one letter it is impossible to set out the divine Scriptures in which not only robbery is declared a thing to be shunned and abhorred, but covetousness in general and the taking of another's property for shameful gain; every such person is cast out from the Church of God. For some, during the incursion, amid such wailing and so many laments, dared to regard the season that brought ruin to all as an opportunity for their own gain. This belongs to impious and God-hated persons whose perversity knows no excess. It therefore seemed good to cast out all such persons, lest wrath come upon the whole people and first upon the leaders who do not seek them out. For I fear, as Scripture says, lest the ungodly destroy the righteous with him. 'Fornication and covetousness,' it says, 'on account of which the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become their partners; for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth—testing what is pleasing to the Lord, and do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For the things done by them in secret are shameful even to speak of, but all things exposed by the light are made manifest.' So speaks the Apostle. If some, while suffering punishment for the former covetousness practised in time of peace, again turn to covetousness in the very season of wrath, profiting from the blood and destruction of persons displaced, captured, or killed, what else ought to be expected than that, by contending on behalf of covetousness, they heap wrath upon themselves and upon the whole people?

Direct English translation

Did not Achar the son of Zerah commit an offence concerning the thing devoted to destruction, and wrath came upon the whole assembly of Israel? Though he alone sinned, did he alone die in his sin? For us, in this season, every gain that is not ours but belongs to another ought to be regarded as devoted to destruction. Achar took from the spoil, and these now take from the spoil; he took what belonged to enemies, but these take what belongs to their brethren and acquire a ruinous gain.

Direct English translation

Let no one deceive himself by saying that he found something, for not even one who finds it is permitted to profit. Deuteronomy says: 'When you see your brother's calf or sheep wandering on the road, do not overlook them; you shall surely return them to your brother. If your brother is not near you and you do not know him, you shall gather them in, and they shall remain with you until your brother seeks them, and you shall return them to him. Thus you shall do with his donkey, with his garment, and with every lost thing of your brother's, whatever he loses and you find.' So speaks Deuteronomy. In Exodus, the command concerns not only what belongs to a brother but even what belongs to an enemy: 'You shall surely return it to the house of its owner.' If in peace it is not permitted to profit from the property of a brother or enemy who is careless, living in ease, and neglectful of his own things, how much less when he is in distress, fleeing enemies, and necessarily abandoning his possessions?

Direct English translation

Others deceive themselves by retaining property of others which they found in place of their own property that was lost, so that, because the Boradi and Goths acted as enemies toward them, they themselves become Boradi and Goths toward others. We have therefore sent the brother and fellow elder Euphrosynus to you for this purpose, so that, according to the form used here, he may likewise determine there whose accusations ought to be received and who ought to be excluded from the prayers.

Direct English translation

Something incredible has also been reported to us as having occurred in your country, surely done by unbelieving and impious persons who do not know even the Lord's name: that some advanced to such cruelty and inhumanity as forcibly to detain captives who had escaped. Send persons into the country, lest thunderbolts fall upon those who do such things.

Direct English translation

Those who were enrolled with the barbarians and went with them during the captivity, forgetting that they were Pontians and Christians and becoming so barbarized as to kill their compatriots with wood or a noose, or to point out roads or houses to barbarians who did not know them, ought to be barred even from the hearing until the assembled saints—and before them the Holy Spirit—reach a common judgment concerning them.

Direct English translation

Those who dared to enter other people's houses, if they are accused and convicted, are not to be deemed worthy even of the hearing; but if they disclose themselves and make restitution, they are to fall into the order of those who prostrate themselves in repentance.

Direct English translation

Those who found something in the field or in their own houses that had been left by the barbarians, if they are accused and convicted, are likewise to be among those who prostrate themselves; but if they disclose themselves and make restitution, they are also to be deemed worthy of the prayer.

Direct English translation

Those who fulfil the commandment are to fulfil it apart from every shameful gain, demanding neither a reward for information, nor for rescue, nor for finding, nor by whatever name such a reward may be called.

Direct English translation

The station of weeping is outside the gate of the place of prayer, where the sinner must stand and ask the faithful entering to pray for him. The hearing is inside the gate in the narthex, where the one who has sinned must stand until the dismissal of the catechumens and then go out; for, it says, after hearing the Scriptures and the teaching, let him be put out and not be deemed worthy of the prayer. The station of prostration is for him to stand within the gate of the temple and go out with the catechumens. The station of standing together is for him to stand with the faithful and not go out with the catechumens. Last is participation in the holy things.