The Letters of Nerses the Gracious

The evil of the rulers and the ungodly, who happened to be near us, those of a different race and strangers, he repelled with wisdom and forgiveness. And those who dared to show their evil through action, he poured out the divine anger of retribution upon them, as witnesses and observers of these things can attest. What is there to say about the cause and care he took for his own relatives and brothers of good deeds? He who, like the great Zerubbabel, gathered the scattered and became a father instead of the fathers, managing some in worldly matters and others spiritually, just as he did my own unworthiness. For, being nurtured in the practice of divine knowledge, he made me worthy, according to my stature, of advancement and high degrees. How can one be left without mention of the common good, which by him and through him was performed? That which, in these world-destroying times, through the providence of God, and through his own wisdom, effort, and abundant expense, became the cause of salvation for tens of thousands and their freedom from servitude.