Isho'yahb to Hnanisho' the monk

[Ishoʿyahb of Nineveh, letter #4]

To a great and illustrious monk, concerning the hardships which have taken place against the faith; our most holy Mar Hnanishoʿ, your son Ishoʿyahb, greetings in the name of God.

The mystery of iniquity, oh father, has already begun to be carried out and, in the pains that appear, the delivery of the evil one is expected. It is time then, I think, that the entire chastisement hasten. For behold: the darkness of many tragedies, which the time has brought to us, and the hunger for the good things which sustain the life of men; and the roots of Christianity have begun to wither, blighted by the scarcity of priests to restore the flowering branches of the beloved plants; and left in the city is corruption among the unskilled left over. Moreover, even the decease of this leader who loved the faith, from his bodily life, occurred immediately after the advent of that Magian, persecutor of the religion, to avoid the danger of suffering which he cast down from the hope of his life; and the multitudes who were by an evil example disabled; and the other remaining things which aggravate the groans of the experts about the common catastrophe. These things sufficiently, as I have said, preach the mystery of iniquity and the coming of the unjust one. But above all, the sleep of negligence, which has permeated the leaders of the truth, saddens the experts.

What remains then do you send me? to the like, to whom do they procure little consolation? If that's what I had wanted to do that is, to you, God-loving guide the voice of the groaning in the letter so that when I am moved by the mercy of your Paternity to commemorate the common downfall, quickly find the pledge of comfort, the works of divine grace, by the request of your prayer, and from darkness and obscurity let the eyes of the blind see. In fact, the piety of your Paternity becomes a lot of good work for the safety of all by which from the height of your days you have reached the limit of glory to triumph over. In line, then, I would like to let not the memory of my frailty depart from the prayer of your fatherhood so that perhaps I may be found worthy to spend the rest of my days in life as to please the will of God.