Letters 1.85–1.128

To Ursenuphius. [On "Our Father, who are in heaven."] The Lord's teaching in the prayer, together with all its other teachings that befit God, includes "Your will be done, as in heaven so also on earth," which bids us pray for the peace of the powers above, that peace free from strife; as if to say: grant this to us also on earth, so that as all your wishes are accomplished among them, so also what pleases you may come about among us. Since you knew this before, and now have learned it from me, take hold of peace and cling to it tightly; for it is heavenly and draws near to God.

To Ophelius the grammarian. [That nothing is loftier than virtue.] The race of a seed and the boast of blood, excellent man, [of the poets] are not virtue, but a kind of involuntary succession drawn down and flowing from bodies. Virtue is prudence, justice and courage, and self-control. Whoever holds to these is altogether beautiful, admired, and lacking nothing for a good life. [Letter 1.87] To the Alexandrian nuns [the Sandalarian ones]. Nature knows no excuse; the female sex has no plea for pardon. For it can rise up nobly against slackness and firmly beat off the siege-engines of desire. Teachers of this are the glorious Susanna, the daughter of Jephthah, and the admirable Judith: the first overcame the licentiousness of old men in her youth; the second chose even death courageously and departed gloriously together with her virginity; the third received from God, as the reward of her chastity, the power to become a tyrant-slayer. And the crown of women's victories and trophies is the all-praised Thecla, who stands as an everlasting pillar of purity, kindled like a beacon in the midst of the surge of passions, and has run into the waveless harbor. If, then, you desire to be so proclaimed, keep your lamps unquenched, for the Bridegroom is coming at once; and let no sleep of soft living lay you down, the sleep that keeps the drowsy and careless outside the door of the bridal chamber.

To Arsenius. [That above all those who have done nothing good ought not to boast.] If the Pharisee did what he boasted of, why do you boast, merely exercising your throat and not acting well, and making yourself liable to a worse judgment than the one the Pharisee incurred? He had done nothing worthy of blame, and was charged only with conceit about his good deeds.

To Isidore the bishop. One should avoid all conversations with women, if possible, since they carry a certain tendency to slackness; but if this is impossible because of necessary circumstances or the care of the poor, one should speak with them with eyes cast down. For to most, or nearly all, of those overcome by women's beauty, death came up through the windows; it even overpowered the great prophet and king, when he looked toward that deadly bath. [Letter 1.90] To the same. [That it is apostolic for women to sing in the churches; and on ascetic women.] The Lord's apostles, the instructors of our order, wishing to stop the chatter in the churches, wisely allowed women to sing in them. But, as with all the God-inspired teachings that have been turned to the opposite, this too has become for most an occasion of dissipation and sin. They feel no compunction from the divine hymns, but, using the sweetness of the melody to stir up passions, they think it no better than the songs of the stage. If, then, we mean to seek what pleases God and do what is for the common good, we must stop these women both from singing in church and from living in the city, as peddlers of Christ who make the divine gift a wage of destruction.

To Elias the monk. [That the monk's profession does not stop at the habit.] I rejoice at the testimonies about you, which point to a great increase of self-control; and I pray that you may hold fast to the sacred anchor at all times and wisely beat back the storm of deceit, so that you may reach the waveless harbor of calm without being tossed, neither afraid of the blasts of temptation that strike you, nor growing proud toward the breaking waves, which you must above all master, since they easily blow one into falls. [Letter 1.92] To Thomas the monk. [On the need to be always sober.] Philosophy turns away from commotion, and monastic training is achieved away from confusion, so that it may use as the base of the height of humility the solitary leisure, having eagerly and completely forgotten troublesome affairs and unseemly words. But if we think a cloak, a beard and a staff enough for accomplishing the angelic way of life, and mix ourselves in the middle of crowds and of the city's sights and sounds, priding ourselves only on the instruments of victory while avoiding the wrestling and the battle from which victory comes, or rather kindling within ourselves the causes of the struggle, we fail to notice that we are dogs returning to their vomit, or a sow wallowing in the mire of old habit. [Letter 1.93] To … [On not many becoming teachers.] "Let not many of you become teachers, brothers," writes the righteous James. Do not many of you become teachers, monks, writes Isidore the least; though not an approved monk, yet a hearer of James. You would therefore be right, even if you disregard the lowliness of the hearer, at least to respect the just sentence of the righteous and wise man. [Letter 1.94] To Pansophius the deacon. [On "All things are naked and laid bare to his eyes."] "Naked and laid bare" was written by the wise Paul by a metaphor from the victims brought for sacrifice. For as these, when their hides are removed, are stripped of all their visible covering and show the state of what is hidden within, and are laid open by the neck for the examination of every bone and limb, so that all may be cleansed, because of the purity of the one to whom they are offered; so too on the great day of the Lord the uncovering of our hidden and unseen actions will appear like a stripping and laying bare, since nothing can escape notice, but all things will be brought into the open.

To Eutonius the deacon. Since the thorn was the crop of the curse, which the earth was condemned to bear after our transgression, and the Lord came to heal all of it in himself, for this reason he was crowned with thorns as a victor, as the approved among victors do, celebrating in triumph the very weapon or instrument by which they won the victory, saying: "Take courage; I have overcome the world." For he who came to be in the nature of men [and did not come to be in their offenses] both gave back to the race its ancient beauty and destroyed the power of the curse in that very nature. [Letter 1.96] To Maximus, a Greek philosopher. [Against the Greeks.] You boast of a philosophy that is the enemy of true wisdom, and you deny the very name of the thing. For philosophy is nothing other than loving wisdom wholly. If, then, you truly wish to be a lover of wisdom, love the true wisdom, which ennobles not only speech but life, and teaches the true religion. For the one you profess both incurs laughter now, calling the springs of shamefulness deities, and in the future is in labor with [unpardonable] punishment, where Plato threatened you with Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon.

To Hymetius. [Against the Macedonians, or Pneumatomachi.] To show the union of the all-holy Spirit with himself and the Father, our Lord and Master said to his disciples when he had risen from the dead: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven": clearly by the authority of the Spirit whom you receive, who has power to forgive sins as God does.

To Frontinus the monk. [On the one struck on the cheek.] If you were wounded by words and carried away into uncontrolled anger, how can you become a worker in the Master's vineyard? For he defines the one who, struck on one cheek, can offer the other also, as the one who bears the burden of the day and the scorching heat, as having fulfilled all the work of the Lord's commandment. If, then, you long for [those] great wages, do not be distraught at lesser toils, but accustom yourself to welcome greater ones, since you will not otherwise receive the denarius unless the completeness of your labors bears witness for you. [Another letter] To Gelasius the dux. [On pride, weakness, and nothingness.] It is the custom of men, though foreign to the divine laws, to be lifted up on many grounds: birth, intelligence, possessions, beauty, or rank. But nothing justifies pride in those who are from the earth and return to it again. That none of these at all belongs to you, you yourself would not deny. If, then, you are deprived of everything that puffs up to pride, being low-born, poor, ill-natured, [very] uneducated and ugly, why [do you strut through the city] as if more distinguished than everyone, [and] become the leader of much commotion in it? Either know yourself, then, and acquire a manner proportioned to your nothingness, or prepare for toils and dangers with which those in power will repay you. For you lack the gold that often smooths the roughness of trials and whips. [Another letter] [Against the Novatianists.] Say to the disciple of Novatus's haughtiness: Why do you snort as one pure, you fool? Why do you pretend to be sinless? Why do you deny that you share our nature? Isaiah declares himself unclean; David knows that every man is a liar, and that all are conceived and carried in the womb in sins. God himself knows that men are diligently inclined to wickedness and in need only of the mercy of his love for mankind; and you boast of a vain show of purity? Either stop lying, then, or you will be seen to be laughed at for what you do, or rather to be put to great shame.

To Theognostus, a monk newly settled. [On the need to be always sober.] You did well to take up the mattock without delay; you do well to flee the material things as choking you; you did well to step out toward the lofty way of life. Stand, then, keeping watch like a soldier, lest some sleep steal in, slackening you, and show you to be one who has thrown away his shield, which God forbid. For we are not ignorant of the designs of the Evil One.

To Timothy the reader. [Against the Theopaschites and those who say there is one nature in Christ.] As fishermen hide the hook in food and catch the fish unawares, so the wicked allies of the heresies, covering their ill intentions with fine words, hook the simpler people to death. Guard your heart, then, with all vigilance, lest you accept [one] nature of Christ after the incarnation. For to assent to one of them is to do away with the other: either the divine is changed, or ours is diminished. This is Mani's Charybdis, by which he strove to drag everyone down to Gehenna.

To the same. [Why after the resurrection the Lord asked Peter three times about love.] The Lord's threefold question to Peter about love does not suggest ignorance on the Master's part (let no one reason falsely so); rather, the good Physician banished the threefold denial by the threefold assent.

To Leontius. [On touching the ordination of a bishop unworthily.] It is not for any chance person to love the office of bishop, admirable man, but for those whose life is directed by Paul's laws. If, then, you see that exactness in yourself, go gladly to the ascent of so great a height. But if it is not in you, do not touch what is not to be touched until you acquire it. Beware of drawing near to a fire that consumes the material.

To Eutonius the deacon. [Why John called the Jews offspring of vipers.] John called the Jews offspring of vipers, as offspring more wicked than wicked parents. For they say that this beast eats through its mother's womb when it is born. Since, then, they had forsaken God who begot them and, abolishing every grace given them, had put it to death, he rightly likens them to those venomous creatures, who destroy, or rather, so to speak, devour their benefits by ingratitude.

To Timothy the reader. [On "Do not make my Father's house a house of trade."] To one who asks with understanding I must answer: for "Speak," it says, "in the ears of those who hear"; and "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." "Do not make my Father's house a house of trade," the Lord said to those who sold the doves, hinting at the priests who sell the gifts of the Holy Spirit; since the divine Spirit appeared in the form of a dove, putting to shame those who make merchandise of God. And "Take these things away from here" means: there is no more need of blood; I grant a bloodless forgiveness of offenses; from now on I wish only the spirit to make propitiation. The fleshly law has been fulfilled; let the law of the Spirit prevail and lead the way of salvation.

To the same. [On the agreement of the Testaments.] The Son of God, my friend, brought no novelty of doctrines into the law and the prophets, but put the completion to what had been prophesied about him of old. And if you unroll the Old Testament with understanding, you will certainly find in it everything proclaimed in the New. Make the truth of the doctrines of grace clear, then, from the words of the law, to those who rest on the law and think the gospel way a strange one; and so they will see the inner agreement of the two Testaments.

To Proaeresius the scholasticus. [On the living word.] You have a collection of words, as I learn, which delight the ear but do not nourish the soul. But you need the living Word; whoever is without him is a clanging cymbal. If, then, you take him to yourself, you will be a sweet-sounding instrument, well tuned both to God and to men.

To Marathonius the monk. [Against the Macedonians, or Pneumatomachi.] If our God and Savior, having become man, taught that the all-holy Spirit completes the divine Trinity, numbered with the Father and the Son in the invocation of holy baptism as setting free from sins, and on the mystical table making the common bread the very body of his incarnation, how can you teach, you thunderstruck man, that the Holy Spirit is made, or created, or of the servile nature, and not akin to and of one essence with the essence that is master, creator and sovereign? For if he is a servant, let him not be numbered with the Master; and if a creature, let him not be ranked with the Creator. But he is united and numbered with them, since we must obey Christ, the exact teacher of such doctrines, who teaches securely about his own essence; even if you think otherwise, you who boast of being wiser and of knowing heavenly things better than God, or rather who rashly make speeches against God. [Letter 1.110] [That one who professes ascetic discipline ought to embrace all its hardships eagerly.] One who wishes to practice discipline and longs for salvation eagerly embraces all its hardships, whatever and however many they may be. But one who thinks that in the discipline, or in its services, he is doing something beneath his dignity has put on the pride of the world, which he cannot put off unless he remembers the body, from what it came into being and into what it is dissolved again.

To Zosimus the presbyter. [On one ordained for money.] You received the priesthood unpriestly, you unpriestly man, stealing a heavenly thing with money, a second Caiaphas, taking the ineffable things for silver. But there is hope that you may change for the better; I do not wish to say anything against you.

To Eusebius the bishop. [That we priests ought to do what we say.] You teach in church delightfully, but would that you taught beneficially. For you are like someone who throws stones up high and does not reckon that their fall comes straight back, and calls it down on himself. For if the reproof of sins is seen to be in us, denying our words by our works, we not only fail to stop our hearers from doing evil but also incur laughter, teaching one thing and doing another.

To the same. [That he sold the priesthood for money.] You are building the church with useless stones, your lawless, or rather impious, revenues. For you took a price for the priesthood, as one selling the priesthood, and gave it to Zosimus. So this story is sung throughout the whole country that both ears of everyone who hears it ring.

To Timothy the reader. [On the three days and nights of the Lord's burial.] This is the explanation of the three days and nights of the Lord's burial. It is written: "As Jonah was in the belly of the sea monster three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." So he who promised to fulfil the type of Jonah, knowing it exactly (for he [even] was present with Jonah both when he was thrown into the deep and when he was cast up out of it), fulfilled it securely, staying in the tomb as long as Jonah was in the sea monster. If you want a second explanation, here it is. At the sixth hour of the Preparation the Lord was crucified. From then until the ninth there was darkness: count this a night for me. Again from the ninth there was light: count this again a day. Then the night of the Preparation; then the Sabbath; then the night of the Sabbath, the dawn of the Lord's Day, as the evangelist says: "As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week." If you demand a third, it is this. On the Preparation the Lord gave up his spirit: that is one day. He spent the whole Sabbath in the tomb, then its night. As the Lord's Day dawned he rose from the tomb, and this is a day; since, as you know, the whole is known from the part. So too we are accustomed to keep the commemorations of those who die: at whatever hour of the day someone dies, we pass over only the next day, and on the one after, at dawn, we keep his third day. You have, I think, the answer to the question. But if the contentious demand three complete days and nights, answer that if a king who received an embassy and petition from those in the mines and prisons promised to grant them release after three days, and gave the redemption before the appointed time, he was all the more truthful by his speed. And the Master, who rose sooner than he promised, will rightly be worshiped by all. [Letter 1.115] "What have you to do with the road to Egypt, to drink the water of Gihon?" the prophet says to the backsliding people, or rather God says through him. What have you to do with the confusion from which you were set free by a mighty hand and a lofty arm? Why, having laid hold of virtue and tasted the highest philosophy, are you going back to vice, not keeping in mind the word of Scripture: "The one who turns from righteousness to sin, the Lord will prepare for the sword"? Flee the surge, and flee the waves. Christ rebuked the wind. No trial of storm will overtake you, if you hold Christ as your harbor.

To Ausonius the corrector. Since you have the many-formed machinery of tortures as a clever means of finding out the truth, use the fear of it for judging; for the divine law has appointed you a fear to evildoers.

To Athanasius the archimandrite. [On "Concerning that day and hour no one knows."] Why do the blasphemers draw the Lord's judgment upon themselves? Why do the fighters against God stoke the fire of Gehenna? The Lord, they say, did not know the day of the consummation. He did not fail to know it, away with the thought! but declined to make clear problems of no use. For how could he be ignorant of the hour or day, he who made the ages, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom? It was not the part of one who did not know to foretell the signs and terrors of the last day and to describe it by its marks as if present. But, as I have just said, he did not declare the answer to an idle question. For what good is it, tell me, to learn the day of the end? It is useful not to know it, so that, thinking every day to be that day, we may be ready for it, keeping watch and awaiting our Lord. [Letter 1.118] To Zosimus and Maron. [On presbyters who do not walk according to God's commandment.] You alone, most shameless Zosimus, were enough to ruin the divine priesthood and heap every outrage upon it; but you have also got a partner like yourself, and the two of you are yoked together as a pair of oxen, working the thorn-bearing land of the passions. Stop, then, you wretches, from your outrageous madness. Cease, you who dare everything, to defile the royal court. Cleanse yourselves from your pollutions. Free the altar from its stain. Spare us our tears; free those who see you from scandal; let those who mock you fall silent; think on God's judgment; spare your own soul and body.

To Eusebius the bishop. [That it is dreadful beyond measure to sell or to buy the priesthood.] You have practiced the psalm well, and "gathered those of one manner" in the house of the Lord, yoking Maron [too] with Zosimus, taking every care, I think, that none of the base should stand outside the altar. Know, then, that by multiplying Simons, who think the Spirit of God can be acquired with money, you have acquired a purse in common with the traitor, wallowing in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity, and boldly drinking away things that even the angels long for.

To Eusebius the presbyter. [On the bishop Eusebius and Zosimus.] Do not wonder at the daring of Eusebius and the boldness of Zosimus, but at God's long-suffering, which so waits for us to repent and accepts incense from an unclean hand. For if someone reared in sins and branded with every pollution and offense touches God's altars and handles the holy things impurely, he himself will bear the judgment, but the divine sanctuary is not made common by his deeds.

To Timothy the reader. [On "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."] "I was not sent," the Lord said to the Canaanite woman, "except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," wishing to fulfil the promise to Abraham: taking hold of his seed, choosing a mother from there, taking flesh in her and from her, becoming truly man, like us in all things except sin, and removing every excuse of the Jews. For since, as I said, he had promised the fathers salvation, and to multiply their seed as the stars of heaven, he came to them and from them; and for a while he did not admit those of the nations, keeping the first entry for the others. But when he saw the obstinacy of the one and found the readiness to turn of the other, and saw that the one had cultivated death and a cross for him, while the other bore the fruit of worship and confession of his Godhead, he rose from the dead and gave the command to the disciples to make disciples of all nations, rejecting the unfeeling and ungrateful attitude of the Jews. For this reason they turned to the nations and made the splendor of the divine preaching shine out over the whole world.

To Dorotheus the count. [Interpretation of the priest's exclamation.] The priest pronounces "Peace" to the church from the height of his throne, imitating the Lord, who, as he was taken up, left and gave his own peace. And the people's answer, "And with your spirit," means this: You have given us, Lord, the peace of concord with one another; give us also the peace of undivided union with you, so that, being at peace with your spirit, which you placed in us at the beginning of creation, we may be inseparable from your love.

To the same. [Explanation of the church's sacred rite.] The clean linen cloth spread out for the service of the divine gifts is the ministry of Joseph of Arimathea. For as he wrapped the Lord's body in linen and laid it in the tomb, through which our whole race reaped the resurrection, so we, consecrating the bread of the offering on a linen cloth, find without doubt the body of Christ, pouring forth for us that incorruption which Jesus the Savior, buried by Joseph and risen from the dead, granted. [Letter 1.124] To the same. [Against the Theopaschites and those who say there is one nature in Christ.] One does not speak of the suffering of God; for the suffering was Christ's, that is, of God made flesh, who endured the suffering by his assumption of the flesh. For bare Godhead not only cannot suffer, but cannot even be held or seen, unless it has been united in love for mankind to the nature of men.

To Gregory the bishop. [On the angel who met Moses and sought to kill him.] I am ashamed at the length to which my letter has run; but I could not bear to be proud when asked by you. Still, since parents too delight in their children's exercises, even if they are mere toys, I will speak briefly. The angel who met Moses as he went down to Egypt and wished to kill him did not stretch out his sword against him to avenge the killing he had once committed in zeal, but charging him with transgression of the law he was going to fulfil. For having been appointed lawgiver by God, and being bound to keep the law exactly, he was himself breaking it from the start, bringing his sons uncircumcised into Egypt, and abolishing that commandment which alone distinguished Hebrews from foreigners. But when Zipporah took a stone and circumcised her son, becoming aware of the offense, and fell at the angel's feet, he at once withdrew, showing that the cause of God's just indignation was what the woman's faith had guessed. For women in emergencies are apt to use more earnest devices than men and to take refuge in God more genuinely. She did, then, what we now say in sharp emergencies: We are surrounded by evils; let us quickly baptize the children; perhaps the angel will respect the mystery. For the Jews used circumcision in place of baptism. [Letter 1.126] [On what is written, "Wise as serpents and innocent as doves."] The Lord bids us be wise like the serpent, preserving in every trial our head, which is our faith, most teachable man. For in whatever troubles and blows the serpent is caught, it keeps its head unharmed. And again it cleverly strips off its old age, squeezing into some narrow crevice and putting off its old skin. So he wishes us too, through the narrow way and affliction, to strip off the old man and put on the new, renewed according to his image. [Letter 1.127] [That owning many books profits those who use them, but brings the utmost punishment on those who think themselves rich merely by owning them.] You have acquired a great many books, as I have learned, and in your conceit think yourself rich, while you do not know how to read; you are doing the same as those who hoard grain and feed the worms. For books too, when they are tied up, become mothers and nurses of bookworms. Either use your possession, then, or do not harm learning, collecting much ridicule here by being called a book-carrier, a book-burier and a worm-feeder, and gathering an accusation before God, as one who hid a great talent of benefit, which was entrusted to others and wisely traded with, but by you was rashly buried …

To Zosimus. [On vainglory.] It is natural that, being unlearned, you should have shamelessness proportioned to your lack of education. But since, as I have learned, besides these a proud spirit also puffs you up, know yourself. In your own words you have the proof close at hand. See how much laughter you raise with your barbarisms; look at your hearers smiling at your solecisms. Either stop saying ridiculous things, or think humbly in proportion to your words.