Letter 199: Do not confuse the apostolic life with a comfortable domestic arrangement.

To Olympiodorus. I marvel that certain men of our day who have taken up the teacher's chair, while admiring Paul, will not examine the very things through which that man became admirable. For he (to pass over the signs, and the fastings, and the vigils and cares, and his burning zeal; and the fact that he was weak together with the weak, and when others were made to stumble he himself was inflamed) was rightly shown forth to be illustrious and renowned from the public address he made to his students. For he said: "I coveted no one's silver, or gold, or clothing; you yourselves know that these hands ministered to my needs and to those who were with me." [Acts 20:33-34] But these men (yet I wish to say nothing harsh) do not blush to compare themselves to such a man, and to claim that they are his successors. But they do not escape notice: they admire that man for this reason, not that they may imitate him, but that, being reckoned the successors of a divine man, they may be honored, not from the things they themselves do, but from the things which that man did and for which he is admired.

Θαυμάζω, πῶς τὸν Παῦλον θαυμάζοντές τινες τῶν νῦν τὸν διδασκαλικὸν θρόνον ἐπανηρημένων, δι’ ὧν θαυμαστὸς ἐγένετο ἐκεῖνος οὐκ ἐξετάσουσιν. Ἐκεῖνος γὰρ (ἵνα τὰ σημεῖα παρῶ, καὶ τὰς νηστείας, καὶ τὰς ἀγρυπνίας καὶ φροντίδας, καὶ τὸν πεπυρωμένον ζῆλον · ὅτι τε τοῖς ἀσθενέσι συνησθένει, καὶ ἄλλων σκανδαλιζομένων αὐτὸς ἐπυροῦτο), ἀφ’ ἧς πεποίηται δημηγορίας πρὸς τοὺς φοιτητάς, λαμπρῶς εἰκότως καὶ περίβλεπτος ἀπεφάνθη. Ἔφη γὰρ, « Ἀργυρίου, ἢ χρυσίου, ἢ ἱματισμοῦ, οὐδενὸς ὑμῶν ἐπεθύμησα · αὐτοὶ γινώσκετε, ὅτι ταῖς χερσίν μου, καὶ τοῖς οὖσι μετ’ ἐμοῦ ὑπηρέτησαν αἱ χεῖρες αὗται. » Οὐτοὶ δὲ (ἀλλ’ οὐδὲν βούλομαι δυσχερὲς εἰπεῖν) οὐκ ἐρυθριῶσιν ἑαυτοὺς τοιούτῳ παραβάλλοντες ἀνδρί, καὶ φάσκοντες ἐκείνου εἶναι διάδοχοι. Ἀλλ’ οὐ λανθάνουσι, διὰ τοῦτο ἐκεῖνον θαυμάζοντες, οὐχ ἵνα μιμήσωνται, ἀλλ’ ἵνα θείου ἀνδρὸς διάδοχοι νομισθέντες τιμηθῶσιν, οὐκ ἀφ’ ὧν αὐτοὶ πράττουσιν, ἀλλ’ ἀφ’ ὧν ἐκεῖνος πράξας θαυμάζεται.