Letter 1

To Ptolemaeus, the senator. So great a grace has God bestowed upon the monks, even before the age to come, that they for their part neither wish for human glory nor desire the manifold dignities that are in the world, but often even hide themselves and strive rather to escape the notice of others, because they have willingly mingled themselves among the lowly, drawn from among the despised brethren. Yet many magnates, and every rank that is in the world, whether willingly or unwillingly through some turn of circumstance, take refuge with the humble monks, and so are ransomed from deadly dangers and obtain salvation, both the temporal and the eternal. For divine providence drives the powerful, willing and unwilling alike, to take refuge with the least, and to be saved.

Τοσαύτην χάριν ὁ Θεὸς καὶ πρὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος τοῦ μέλλοντος τοῖς μοναχοῖς ἐδωρήσατο, ὥστε τούτους μὲν μὴ θέλειν τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην δόξαν, μήτ' ἐπιθυμεῖν τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ παντοίων ἀξιωμάτων, ἀλλὰ καὶ κρύπτεσθαι πολλάκις, καὶ σπουδάζειν μᾶλλον λανθάνειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους διὰ τὸ ἐγκαταμίξαι ἑκουσίως ἑαυτοὺς τοῖς εὐτελέσι · ἐξ ἐξουθενωμένων τῶν ἀδελφῶν πολλοὺς δὲ μεγιστᾶνας, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ἐν κόσμῳ ἀξίαν, εἴθ' ἑκουσίως, εἴτ' ἀδουλήτως διά τινος περιστάσεως προσφεύγειν τοῖς ταπεινοῖς μοναχοῖς, καὶ λυτροῦσθαι μὲν κινδύνων θανατηφόρων, σωτηρίας δὲ, καὶ προσκαίρου, καὶ αἰωνίου τυγχάνειν. Ἡ γὰρ θεία πρόνοια συνωθεῖ τοὺς δυνάστας, ἑκόντας τε καὶ ἄκοντας, προσφεύγειν τοῖς ἐλαχίστοις, καὶ σώζεσθαι.