Letters to the Monks

Epistulae ad monachos

Only the First Letter to the Monks is on the site; the Second is missing from the scan text used.

1.1Athanasius tells the monks that the more he tried to write about the Godhead of the Word, the more the knowledge of it eluded him.
1.2The covering letter to the monks ends by asking them to treat the work as a refutation of the Arians, to return it uncopied, and to pray; then a fragment of the History describes how the emperor imposes unknown bishops on unwilling people.

About this work

Author: Athanasius of Alexandria
Attribution: authentic · Generally accepted as Athanasius's.
Standing: Honoured by the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions. Honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant.
Older English translation: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 4 (1892) (public domain, at CCEL; for comparison: our translation is made from the original first and checked against it afterwards)
Date: ca. 357 (approximate)
Written at: Egypt (probable)
Language: Greek
Genre: letter
Reference system: letter.chapter (Letter 1 only so far)
SBL abbreviation: Ep. mon.Not yet checked
Clavis: CPG (number not yet checked)
Text from: J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Graeca 25 (Paris: Migne, 1857), Epistulae ad monachos (reprinting the Benedictine edition of B. de Montfaucon, Paris, 1698) (Printed edition in the public domain; OCR transcription of public-domain page images)
Critical editions: Hans-Georg Opitz et al., eds., Athanasius Werke, vol. 2 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1935–) (cited, not reproduced)