Letter 466

To Sosipater the Tribune. Walking in accordance with divine knowledge, you are zealous to do all things with knowledge as well, most excellent one, following its rules and measures. For this reason you also pour out, for the most part, the whole of your God-guarded wealth upon the monks, gaping after them with much longing, and breathing them in by night and by day, reckoning that you have no kinsfolk or children at all, even though these are so many. And the very fact that you say, when occasion arises, that you exist as a beast of burden of the monks, serving without grumbling and eagerly in all their needs, this too is a settled token of knowledge. And surely you know that, together with the Levites, God through Moses blessed their cattle as well? Reckoning all things, therefore, by divine knowledge, both speak and act with knowledge. Lover of God, you will without doubt enter together into the kingdom of the heavens with the monks, as their good attendant and servant, and you will be co-heir with them of the unspeakable good things unto endless ages.

Τῇ θείᾳ γνώσει στοιχῶν, τῇ γνώσει καὶ πάντα ποιεῖν σπουδάζεις, πανάριστε, τοῖς ἐκείνης κανόσι καὶ ῥυθμοῖς ἑπόμενος. Ὅθεν καὶ πάντα τὸν σαυτοῦ θεοφύλακτον πλοῦτον, ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πλεῖστον τοῖς μοναχοῖς ἐξαντλεῖς, πρὸς τούτους τε κεχηνὼς πολλῷ τῷ πόθῳ, καὶ τούτους ἀναπνέων νύκτωρ καὶ μεθ’ ἡμέραν, μήθ’ ὅλως ἔχειν νομίζων συγγένειαν ἢ τέκνα, καίτοι τοσούτων ὄντων. Καὶ αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ λέγειν σε κατὰ συντυχίας, κτῆνος ὑπάρχειν τῶν μοναχῶν ἀγογγύστως τε καὶ προθύμως ἐξυπηρετούμενον πάσαις ταῖς τούτων χρείαις, καὶ τοῦτο ἀπηντισμένος ἐστὶ τεκμήριον γνώσεως. Ἐπίστασαι δὲ πάντως, ὅτι σὺν τοῖς Λευίταις, καὶ τὰ τούτων κτήνη κατηυλόγησε Θεὸς τε Μωϋσῇ; Πάντα τοὐνυν γνώσει λογιζόμενος θείᾳ, καὶ γνώσει λέγων καὶ πράττε. φιλόθεε, ἀναμφιβόλως εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν συνεισελεύσῃ σὺν τοῖς μοναχοῖς, ὡς καλὸς ἀκόλουθος καὶ ὑπηρέτης τούτων, καὶ συκληρονομήσεις τούτοις τὰ ἄφραστα ἀγαθὰ εἰς ἀπεράντους αἰῶνας.