Letter 748

To Nikon the Archimandrite. The life of monks, formerly longed-for and exceedingly admired, has now become loathsome, as you see. Therefore all cities and villages are burdened by the false monks, who run about to no purpose and at random, in much vulgarity and indifference; and all householders are troubled, and are truly disgusted even at the very sight of them, seeing them lingering at their own doors more shamelessly than beggars. Hence the judgment passed on those who live rightly and according to virtue, and their manner of life, is now, because of these men, reckoned as a deception and a mockery. And what new Jeremiah [the prophet of the book of Lamentations] might now appear, able fittingly and worthily to lament our condition? For I am ashamed to write anything further.

Ὁ πρώην περιπόθητος καὶ ἄγαν περίβλεπτος τῶν μοναζόντων βίος, νῦν βδελυρὸς γέγονε, καθὼς ὁρᾷς. Διὸ βαροῦνται μὲν πᾶσαι πόλεις καὶ κῶμαι ὑπὸ τῶν ψευδομονάχων, περιτρεχόντων μάτην καὶ ὡς ἔτυχεν, ἐν πολλῇ χυδαιότητι καὶ ἀδιαφορίᾳ · ἐνοχλοῦνται δὲ πάντες οἰκοδεσπόται, καὶ ἀηδῶς ἔχουσιν ἀληθῶς καὶ πρὸς αὐτὴν τὴν ὄψιν, βλέποντες αὐτοὺς τῶν προσαιτῶν ἀναιδέστερον ταῖς ἑαυτῶν παραμένοντας θύραις. Ὅθεν καὶ ἡ τῶν ὀρθῶς καὶ κατ’ ἀρετὴν βιοτευόντων κρίσις καὶ πολιτεία, διὰ τούτους ἀπάτῃ καὶ χλεύῃ ἀρτίως νομίζεται. Καὶ τίς νῦν Ἰερεμίας νέος παραφανείη, θρηνεῖν προσφόρως καὶ κατ’ ἀξίαν δυνάμενος τὰ ἡμέτερα ; Αἰσχύνομαι γὰρ περαιτέρω τι γράφειν.