Letter 226: The one who neither transgresses himself nor leads others to transgress has achieved a double crown.
That the monk's profession does not extend only as far as the habit.
To Paulus.
I rejoice at the testimonies given about you, which lead to a great intensifying of self-control; and I pray that you may at all times hold fast to the sacred anchor, and wisely beat back the storm of deception, so that you may reach the waveless harbor of calm untossed by any surge, neither dreading the blasts of the temptations hurled against you, nor those breaking waves of high-mindedness [pride], which above all you must master, since they easily fan [one] toward falls.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι μέχρι τοῦ σχήματος τὸ ἐπάγγελμα τοῦ μοναχοῦ.
Χαίρω ταῖς περὶ σοῦ μαρτυρίαις, πολλὴν εἰς ἐπί- τασιν ἀγούσαις ἐγκρατείας (89)· καὶ εὔχομαι ἔχεσθαί σε [μέχρι] παντὸς τῆς ἱερᾶς ἀγκύρας, καὶ ὑπο- κρούεσθαι σοφῶς τὴν ζάλην τῆς ἀπάτης, ὡς ἂν εἰς τὸν ἀκύμονα τῆς γαλήνης λιμένα καταντήσῃς ἀχλυ- δωνίστως, οὔτε πνοὰς δειλιῶν πειρασμῶν ἐμβαλλού- σας σοι, οὔτε ὑψηλοφροσύνης πρὸς ῥηγνύμενα κύματα, ὧν μάλιστα χρή σε κρατεῖν, εὐχερῶς ῥιπι- ζόντων εἰς πτώματα.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern isidore pelusium workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/PatrologiaGraeca (PG vol.78)
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