Letter 271

Nilus of AncyraHilarius|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted

To Hilarius the Presbyter.

When you are able to persevere for two months in prayer and in stillness, then you may be able to grasp in your mind even a fingernail's worth somewhere, or some small impression, of the toilsome endurance and the much-laboring manner of life of those who, throughout their whole life, cling to the solitary rule [the monastic discipline] and to freedom from disturbance.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

"Οταν δυνηθῇς δύο μῆνας εὐχῇ, καὶ τῇ ἡσυχίᾳ
προσκαρτερῆσαι, τότε κἂν ὀνυχά πού τινα, ἢ φαντα-
σίαν μικράν τινα ἐν νῷ λαβεῖν δυνηθῇς τῆς ἐπιπόνου
τληπαθείας, καὶ τῆς πολυμόχθου διαγωγῆς, τῶν διὰ
πάσης τῆς ζωῆς προσανεχόντων τῷ μονήρει κανόνι,
καὶ τῇ ἀκτυπησίᾳ.

---LETTER ΣΠΒ΄.---
Κλέπται δύστροποι ὄντες οἱ τῶν Ἑλλήνων σοφοί,
παρά τε Μωϋσέως, καὶ τῶν προφητῶν τὰ κυρώτερα
τῶν δογμάτων οὐκ εὐχαρίστως λαβόντες ἀλαζονείαν
καὶ τῦφον τυρεύουσιν, ὡς ἐπ' ἰδίοις τοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις
κεπμηλίοις γανύμενοι.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import

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