Synesius of Cyrene

Mosaic depicting an angel. Museum of Ptolemais

Synesius of Cyrene (c.370-c.413) was a Neo-Platonic philosopher who became bishop of Ptolemais in the Cyrenaica. He left behind a small corpus of texts that offer much information about daily life in Late Antiquity, and about the christianization of the Roman world.

Letter 9, written in 411, is offered here in the translation by A. Fitzgerald.

Letter 9: On a Paschal Letter

To the Archbishop Theophilus

Most holy and wise prelate, may a long and comfortable old age await you! A great boon it were to us in other respects, the prolongation of your life; and the greatest contribution to Christian teaching is this series of Paschal letters, which grows as the years pass. The one that you have this year sent us has both instructed and charmed our cities, as much by the grace of its language as by the grandeur of its thoughts.

Online 2007
Revision: 18 August 2007