Letter 921

To Romanus the Monk. All those who are eager to guard their own virginity unblemished and untouched, and to present their own bodies as a living sacrifice to God, must chastise not only desire, but also the love of money, and vainglory, and gluttony, and deceit, and strife, and sloth, and grumbling, and drunkenness, and idle chatter, together with every vice. For the one whom I call a virgin is the one who keeps virginity in soul as well as in body. For when the Lord made mention of ten virgins in the parable [Matthew 25:1-13], he led the five into the bridal chamber of the kingdom, because they were pure in soul and in flesh, but he shut out the five, since they kept virginity in body alone, while in their reasonings they defiled themselves, deceiving themselves.

Ὅσοι ἄμωμον τε καὶ ἀθίκτον τὴν οἰκείαν παρθενίαν φυλάξαι σπουδάζουσι, καὶ τὰ ἑαυτῶν σώματα θυσίαν ζῶσαν τῷ Θεῷ παραστῆναι, οὐ μόνον τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν κολάσαι ὀφείλουσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ φιλοχρηματίαν, καὶ κενοδοξίαν, καὶ γαστριμαργίαν, καὶ δόλον, καὶ ἔριν, καὶ ὄκνον, καὶ γογγυσμὸν, καὶ μέθην, καὶ φλυαρίαν, σὺν πάσῃ κακίᾳ. Ἐκεῖνον γὰρ ἐγὼ παρθένον καλῶ, τὸν τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ σώματι παρθενεύοντα. Καὶ γὰρ δέκα παρθένων ἐν παραβολῇ μνημονεύσας ὁ Κύριος, τὰς μὲν πέντε εἰς τὸν νυμφῶνα τῆς βασιλείας εἰσήγαγε, διὰ τὸ τῇ ψυχῇ, καὶ τῇ σαρκὶ καθαρεύειν, τὰς δὲ πέντε ἀπέκλεισεν, ἐπειδὴ τῷ σώματι μόνῳ ἐπαρθένευον, τοῖς δὲ λογισμοῖς ἐῤῥυπαίνοντο ἑαυτὰς ἀπατῶσαι.