Letters 211.1–212.1

Just as severity is ready to punish the sins it finds, so love does not wish to find anything to punish. This is why I did not come to you, when you were seeking my presence, not for the joy of your peace but for the increase of your dissension. For how could I have disregarded it and left it unpunished, if in my presence too so great an uproar of yours had arisen as, in my absence, though it was hidden from my eyes, still struck my ears with your voices? For perhaps your sedition would have been even greater in my presence, since it would have been necessary not to grant you what you were demanding, to the most pernicious example and against sound discipline, which is not good for you; and so I would not have found you such as I wish, and I myself would have been found by you such as you did not wish.

Since, then, the apostle writes to the Corinthians, saying, “I call God as witness against my soul that it was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth; not that we lord it over your faith, but we are fellow workers for your joy,” I too say this to you, that it was to spare you that I did not come to you. I spared myself too, so as not to have sorrow upon sorrow, and I chose not to show my face to you but to pour out my heart to God for you, and to plead the cause of your great danger not with you in words but with God in tears, that he may not turn into mourning my joy, with which I am accustomed to rejoice over you, and amid so many scandals with which this world everywhere abounds, sometimes to be consoled, thinking of your large community, your chaste love, your holy way of life, and the more abundant grace of God that has been given you, so that you not only despised fleshly marriage but also chose to live together in a house of one mind, so that you may have one soul and one heart toward God.

Considering these good things in you, these gifts of God, my heart is accustomed to find some rest amid the many storms by which it is shaken from other evils. You were running well; who has bewitched you? That persuasion is not from God, who called us. A little leaven… I do not wish to say what follows; for this I desire and pray and urge rather, that the leaven itself may turn back to the better, and not the whole lump, as it had almost done already, be turned to the worse. If, then, you have sprouted again to sound thinking, pray that you may not enter into temptation, nor again into quarrels, jealousies, animosities, dissensions, slanders, seditions, whisperings. For we did not plant and water the Lord's garden in you in order to reap these thorns from you. But if your weakness is still in tumult, pray that you may be delivered from temptation. And as for those who are troubling you, if they are still troubling you, unless they correct themselves, they will bear judgment, whoever they may be.

Consider what an evil it is that, while we rejoice over those born of God in unity, we should mourn over internal schisms in the monastery. Persevere in your good purpose, and you will not desire to change your prioress, under whom, as she persevered in that monastery for so many years, you have grown both in number and in age, and who has received you as a mother, not in the womb but in the spirit. For all of you who came there found her there either serving and pleasing my sister, the holy prioress, or as prioress herself receiving you. Under her you were instructed, under her you received the veil, under her you multiplied; and yet you are in an uproar to have her changed, when you ought to mourn if we wished to change her for you. She is the one you know; she is the one to whom you came; she is the one under whom, through so many years, you have grown. You have received nothing new except a provost; or if it is because of him that you seek something new, and in resentment of him have so rebelled against your mother, why did you not rather ask that he be changed for you? But if you shrink from this, because I know how you love him reverently in Christ, why not her rather? For in governing you, the beginnings of the provost's work are so disturbed that he would rather leave you himself than bear the reproach and ill will of the report that you would not have sought another prioress had you not begun to have him as provost. May God, then, calm and settle your minds; let not the work of the devil prevail in you, but let the peace of Christ conquer in your hearts; and do not, out of grief of mind because what you want is not done, or because you are ashamed to have wanted what you ought not to have wanted, run in shame to death, but rather recover your virtue by repentance, and have not the repentance of Judas the betrayer but rather the tears of Peter the shepherd.

These are the things that we command you who are established in the monastery to observe. First, the reason why you have been gathered together is that you may dwell in the house of one mind, and have one heart and one soul toward God; and that you call nothing your own, but have all things in common; and that food and clothing be distributed to each of you by your prioress, not equally to all, because you are not all equally strong, but to each as she has need. For so you read in the Acts of the Apostles, that they had all things in common and distribution was made to each as any had need. Those who had something in the world, when they entered the monastery, should willingly have it become common; but those who had nothing should not seek in the monastery what they could not have even outside; yet what is needed for their weakness should be given them, even if their poverty, when they were outside, could not find even the necessities; but let them not now think themselves happy because they have found food and clothing such as they could not find outside.

Nor should they lift up their necks because they are associated with women whom they did not dare to approach outside; but let them lift up their hearts and not seek earthly goods, lest monasteries begin to be useful to the rich and not to the poor, if the rich are humbled there and the poor puffed up there. But again, those too who seemed to be something in the world should not disdain their sisters who have come to that holy fellowship from poverty; rather let them be eager to glory not in the rank of rich parents but in the fellowship of poor sisters. Nor should they be lifted up if they have contributed something from their means to the common life, nor be prouder of their riches because they share them with the monastery than if they enjoyed them in the world. For every other kind of iniquity is exercised in evil works, so that they may be done; but pride lies in wait even in good works, so that they may perish. And what does it profit to scatter by giving to the poor and to become poor, if the wretched soul becomes prouder by despising riches than it had been by possessing them? So all of you live in unity and concord, and honor God in one another, whose temples you have become.

Be constant in prayer at the hours and times appointed. In the oratory let no one do anything except that for which it was made, from which it also received its name, so that if some wish to pray there even outside the appointed hours, when they have leisure, they may not be hindered by those who wish to do something else there. When you pray to God in psalms and hymns, let what is uttered by the voice be turned over in the heart; and do not sing anything except what you read is to be sung; but what is not so written as to be sung, let it not be sung.

Subdue your flesh by fasting and abstinence from food and drink, as far as health permits. But when someone cannot fast, she should still not take any food outside the hour of the meal, unless she is ill. When you come to table, until you rise from it, listen without noise or arguments to what is read to you according to custom; let not your mouths alone take in food, but let your ears also receive the word of God.

If those who are weak from their former way of life are treated differently in food, this ought not to be troublesome to others, nor seem unjust to those whom a different way of life has made stronger. Let them not think those happier because they receive what they themselves do not, but let them rather congratulate themselves because they are able to do what those cannot. And if those who have come to the monastery from more delicate habits are given some food, clothing, bedding, or coverings that is not given to others who are stronger and therefore happier, those to whom it is not given ought to consider how far the others have come down from their worldly life to this one, although they have not been able to reach the frugality of others who are stronger in body. Nor ought they to be disturbed because they see them receive more, not because they are honored but because they are borne with; lest there arise the detestable perversity that in a monastery, where the rich become hardworking as far as they can, the poor become delicate. Of course, just as the sick must take less so as not to be burdened, so after illness they should be treated in such a way that they recover more quickly, even if they came from the lowest poverty of the world, as though recent illness had conferred on them what earlier habit conferred on the rich. But when they have recovered their former strength, let them return to their happier way of life, which befits the handmaids of God the more, the less they need; and let not their will keep them, now vigorous, where necessity had raised them when weak. Let those think themselves richer who have been stronger in bearing frugality; for it is better to need less than to have more.

Let your dress not be conspicuous, and do not seek to please by clothes but by conduct; let your head coverings not be so thin that the hairnets show beneath. Have your hair covered on every side, and let neither carelessness scatter it outside nor care arrange it. When you go out, walk together; when you reach where you are going, stand together. In walking, in standing, in dress, in all your movements, let nothing be done that may provoke anyone's desire, but what befits your holiness. Your eyes, even if they fall on someone, should be fixed on no one. For when you go out you are not forbidden to see men, but to desire them or to wish to be desired by them. Not by touch alone, but by feeling and by look also, a woman desires and is desired. And do not say that you have chaste minds if you have unchaste eyes, because an unchaste eye is the messenger of an unchaste heart; and when, even with the tongue silent, unchaste hearts announce themselves to each other by a mutual look and take delight, according to the concupiscence of the flesh, in each other's ardor, even though the bodies remain untouched by unclean violation, chastity itself flees from the conduct. Nor ought she who fixes her eye on a man and loves to have his fixed on her to think that she is not seen by others when she does this; she is certainly seen, and by those by whom she does not think she is seen. But suppose she is hidden and seen by no human being: what will she do about that Watcher on high, from whom nothing can be hidden? Or is he to be thought not to see because he sees the more patiently, the more wisely? Let the holy woman fear to displease him, then, so that she may not wish to please a man wrongly; let her think that he sees everything, so that she may not wish to look at a man wrongly. For the fear of him is commended in this matter too, where it is written: “He who fixes his eye is an abomination to the Lord.” So when you are together in church and wherever men also are, guard one another's modesty; for God, who dwells in you, guards you in this way too, by means of yourselves.

And if you notice in any one of you this wantonness of the eye of which I speak, warn her at once, so that what has begun may not go further but be corrected promptly. But if, even after the warning, you see her do the same thing again, or on any other day, whoever has been able to discover this should report her as one wounded who needs healing; but first she should be pointed out to a second or third, so that she can be convicted by the mouth of two or three and restrained with fitting severity. And do not judge yourselves malicious when you report these things; rather, you are not innocent if, by keeping silent, you allow your sisters to perish whom you could correct by reporting them. For if your sister had a wound in her body that she wished to hide because she was afraid of the knife, would it not be cruel of you to keep silent and merciful to disclose it? How much more, then, ought you to make her known, lest she fester more dangerously in the heart! But before she is pointed out to the others by whom she is to be convicted if she denies it, she should be shown to the prioress, in case, corrected more privately, she may not become known to the rest. But if she denies it, then the others are to be brought to the one who lies, so that before all she may be not accused by one witness but convicted by two or three. And when convicted she must undergo corrective discipline at the discretion of the prioress or the presbyter. If she refuses to bear it, even if she does not leave of her own accord, let her be expelled from your fellowship. For this is done not cruelly but mercifully, lest by a deadly contagion she destroy very many. And what I have said about not fixing the eye should be carefully observed also in discovering, forbidding, reporting, convicting, and punishing other sins, with love for persons and hatred for vices. But whoever has gone so far in evil as to receive secretly letters or any little gifts from anyone, if she confesses it of her own accord, let her be spared and let prayer be made for her; but if she is caught and convicted, let her be more severely corrected at the discretion of the prioress or the presbyter or even the bishop.

Keep your clothes under one keeper, or two, or as many as are enough to shake them out so that they are not damaged by moths; and as you are fed from one storeroom, so be clothed from one wardrobe. And if possible, let it not concern you what is brought out for you to wear according to the season, whether each of you receives what she had put away or something else that another had, provided that what each needs is not denied her. But if quarrels and murmuring arise among you over this, when someone complains that she has received something worse than she had before, and judges herself unworthy to be dressed as another sister of hers was dressed, prove from this how much you lack in that inner holy dress of the heart, you who quarrel over the dress of the body. Yet if your weakness is tolerated so that you receive what you had put away, still keep what you put away in one place under common keepers; and so, of course, that no one works at anything for herself, whether to dress herself, or where to lie, or to gird or cover herself or veil her head; but let all your work be done in common, with greater eagerness and more frequent readiness than if you were doing it for yourselves. For love, of which it is written that it does not seek its own, is understood in this way, that it puts common things before its own, not its own before common things. And therefore know that the more you care for the common good than for your own, the more you have progressed, so that in all things that passing necessity uses, love, which abides, may stand above them. It follows, therefore, that if anyone, man or woman, gives something to daughters, or to others related to them by any tie, who are living in the monastery, whether clothing or anything else counted among necessities, it should not be received secretly, but should be at the disposal of the prioress, so that, placed in the common store, it may be given to whoever needs it. But if anyone conceals something given to her, let her be condemned by the judgment for theft.

Let your clothes be washed, at the discretion of the prioress, either by yourselves or by the fullers, lest an excessive desire for clean clothing contract inner stains of the soul. Let the washing of the body too, and the use of the baths, not be constant, but be allowed at the usual interval of time, that is, once a month. But if the necessity of some illness requires the body to be washed, let it not be put off too long; let it be done without murmuring on medical advice, so that, even if she is unwilling, she does at the prioress's command what must be done for her health. But if she wishes it and perhaps it is not good for her, her desire should not be obeyed; for sometimes what gives pleasure is believed to do good even if it harms. Then, if there is a hidden pain in the body of a handmaid of God, let her be believed without hesitation when she says what pains her; but if it is not certain whether what pleases her is good for healing that pain, let a physician be consulted. And let them not go to the baths, or wherever it is necessary to go, fewer than three together. Nor should she who has need to go somewhere go with those she herself wishes, but with those the prioress commands. The care of the sick, or of those to be restored after illness, or of those suffering from some weakness even without fever, ought to be entrusted to someone, so that she herself may ask from the storeroom what she sees each one needs. And those who are in charge of the storeroom, or of the clothing, or of the books, should serve their sisters without murmuring. Let books be asked for at a fixed hour each day; those who ask outside that hour should not receive them. But clothing and shoes, when they are necessary for someone in need, those in whose keeping the things asked for are should not delay to give.

Have no quarrels, or end them as quickly as possible, lest anger grow into hatred, make a beam out of a splinter, and make the soul a murderer. For what is written, “He who hates his brother is a murderer,” does not apply to men alone; but with the male sex, which God made first, the female sex too received the commandment. Whoever has hurt another by insult or abuse or even by charging her with a crime should remember to heal what she has done by making amends as quickly as possible, and the one who was hurt should forgive without argument. But if they have hurt each other, they must forgive each other's debts, for the sake of your prayers, which you ought certainly to keep the holier, the more frequent they are. For she is better who, though often tempted by anger, still hastens to ask forgiveness from the one she knows she has wronged, than she who is slower to anger and harder to bring to ask pardon. She who does not wish to forgive her sister should not hope to receive the fruit of prayer; but she who never wishes to ask pardon, or does not ask it from the heart, is in the monastery without reason, even if she is not expelled from it. So spare yourselves harsh words; and if they have come out of your mouth, do not be ashamed to bring forth healing from the same mouth that made the wounds. But when the necessity of discipline compels you to speak harsh words in restraining those under you, even if you feel that you have gone too far in them, it is not required of you to ask their pardon, lest, by keeping too much humility toward those who ought to be subject, the authority of governing be broken. Yet pardon must be asked of the Lord of all, who knows with how much goodwill you love even those whom you perhaps rebuke more than is just. But the love among you ought not to be carnal but spiritual; for the things that women forgetful of modesty do even with women, in base jesting and play, ought not to be done not only by widows and untouched handmaids of Christ established in a holy purpose, but not at all even by married women or by maidens who are to marry.

Let the prioress be obeyed as a mother, with due honor, lest God be offended in her; much more the presbyter, who has the care of you all. So, that all these things may be observed, and that, if anything has not been observed, it may not be negligently passed over but seen to be amended and corrected, belongs above all to the prioress; so that she refers to the presbyter, who watches over you, whatever exceeds her measure or strength. But let her not think herself happy in power that dominates but in love that serves. In honor before men let her be set over you; before God let her lie beneath your feet. Toward all let her show herself an example of good works. Let her rebuke the restless, comfort the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient toward all; let her keep discipline willingly and impose it with fear. And although both are necessary, still let her seek rather to be loved by you than feared, always thinking that she will render account to God for you. Hence, by obeying more, have pity not only on yourselves but also on her, because among you, the higher her place, the greater her danger.

May the Lord grant that you observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty and fragrant with the good odor of Christ from your good way of life, not as handmaids under the law but as free women established under grace. And so that you may look at yourselves in this little book as in a mirror, and not neglect anything through forgetfulness, let it be read to you once a week; and where you find yourselves doing what is written, give thanks to the Lord, the giver of all good things; but where any one of you sees that she lacks something, let her grieve for the past and guard against the future, praying that her debt may be forgiven and that she may not be led into temptation.

I commend to Your Reverence, in the love of Christ, the honorable handmaids of God and eminent members of Christ, Galla, a widow under holy vows, and her daughter Simpliciola, a consecrated virgin, subject to her mother in age but above her in holiness, whom we have nourished with the word of the Lord as best we could; and by this letter, as though with my own hand, I hand them over to you to be comforted and helped in everything their benefit or need requires. Your Holiness would no doubt do this even without my commendation. For if we, for the sake of the heavenly Jerusalem, of which we are all citizens and in which they have desired to have a place of more excellent holiness, owe them not only a citizen's but also a brother's affection, how much more do you, among whom is also their earthly homeland, in which those ladies despise worldly nobility for the love of Christ! I ask you also to be good enough to receive my greeting through them in the same love with which I send it, and to remember us in your prayers. They are carrying with them relics of the most blessed and glorious martyr Stephen; Your Holiness is not unaware, as we have done, how fittingly you ought to honor them.