The letter is one of Severus' fullest surviving directions for female monastic governance. Source id VII.2; Brooks page 368; source-facing English extracted by body markers from the Archive OCR text; source terminology repaired where required; original Syriac source-text backfill remains pending.
Severus writes to Jannia, the deaconess and archimandritess, after the deacon Theodore asks about instructions he has received from her. Severus says that anyone entrusted with the governance of rational souls must have both fear and mercy: fear, so that God's commands are not neglected; mercy, so that discipline does not make Christ's gentle yoke heavy.
Jannia has done well to show condescension toward a woman who was weak and tempted, restoring her to repentance through pity. She should continue bearing with her as long as the woman shows penitence through real ascetic labor. But mercy has a limit when one person's corruption begins to injure the rest. If her faults spread like a disease through the community, Jannia must cut her off to protect the sisters. Severus is not asking for harshness as a first instinct; he is asking Jannia to read the difference between a wound that can be treated within the house and an infection that begins to endanger everyone.
Severus then turns from the single case to the whole convent. Jannia must drive out license, idle talk, uncontrolled laughter, bodily display, and careless speech. Even simple clothing can be worn immodestly if the heart is disorderly. The sisters must keep their hearts, remember judgment, work with their hands, sing the divine songs, obey promptly, and avoid useless words. The goal is not merely enclosure but a disciplined common life: labor should make them ready to help the poor, song should strengthen watchfulness, and obedience should be prompt without becoming servile fear. Above all, Jannia herself must teach by deeds. Without personal example, even daily suffering and eloquent teaching become only sounding brass and a clanging cymbal. Severus ends affectionately but firmly: she should show by her own conduct better things than he can put into words.
The religious deacon, father Theodore, has asked me about the commands which he received from your devoutness. But I, being poor in knowledge and having no right even to open my mouth, seeing that I am doing no good service that gives me freedom to speak, have been under the necessity of writing these things, since I yielded to his entreaties accompanied by adjurations, and I also shrink from distressing you by silence. Therefore I wish your religiousness to know that she who is entrusted with the governance and headship of rational souls must possess unlimited fear, and a heart of mercy: fear, lest she neglect any of God's judgments or commandments, and do not teach them to the sisters or enforce them upon them: goodness of heart, lest in enforcing strict discipline she harshly and without sympathy make the Lord's gentle yoke heavy, and render His light burden grievous to be borne, though He Himself says in the Gospels, '• For my yoke is gentle and my burden is light ".^ 1 I Ti. iv. 15. 2 Mt. xi. 30. You did well therefore in showing condescension towards her who has been weak and has been tempted by the evil one, and in restoring her to repentance by p- 416. displaying the mercy of pity towards her. Do not cease bearing with her as long as she displays peni- tence by works of asceticism that is worthy the name and able to wash away the pollution of sin. However, if her faults are such as to injure and stain the others also and inflict her leprosy upon them, like the stains of men of corrupt mind mentioned in the Aposde,^ cut her off and cast her from you: "for it is good for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should fall into hell."^ Only so long must you bear with her as the detriment is con- fined to her, and does not pass to the others also like some grievous flood. Expel from the company of the sisters all license and idle speech, unrestrained and unseemly laughter, and adornment of the body or of clothes, from which spring fornication and foul and filthy thoughts. For one may wear the lowly and dark tunic itself or cloak in no modest or chaste fashion, but wantonly and immodestly, and walk un- becomingly, and turn one's eyes about in a disorderly way, and use dissolute language, and place one's limbs in a languishing posture, and so satisfy the passion of elegance, and excite the lascivious desires. Command p. 417- them therefore to keep their heart "with all careful- ness,"^ and with David to cry, " My flesh trembled for 1 I Ti. vi. 5. 2 Mt. V. 29. 3 Pr. iv. 23. fear of thee: for I was afraid of thy judgments." ^ If the fear of God reach our mind, and we persuade ourselves that to-morrow we shall be dust and ashes, and that the fire of hell that is not quenched will receive us, we shall slay all carnal pleasure. For he that trembles for fear of God is dead to deeds of sin: but he is alive to works of righteousness: and he takes no account of the labour of watching: but he rejoices and delights in the consolation of song; and at work- ing with his hands he is ready and cheerful, seeing that, having fled from the greed and covetousness of the world, he gains by his own toil his daily bread to eat, and often also to give of it to a poor man, and to feed Christ when hungry. To all kinds of obedience also such a one is prompt, and carries out what is commanded without cause for blame and immediately, saying according to the Lord's commandment, " That which is my duty to do I have done,"^ and fears to open his mouth and speak idle and inexpedient words, and lose his toil. Let us pray therefore that the fear of God may be bestowed upon us, which is itself the beginning of good works and their preservation and completion. For "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ":^ he fall." ' Besides all other things I wish you to know this: ^ Ps. cxviii. 120. ^ Lu. xvii. 10. ^ Ps. ex. 10. * I Co. X. 12. that, if you do not through your honourable demeanour offer yourself as a model of good works to those who are being taught, and by your actual conduct show them uncorruptness and modesty, as the Apostle says,^ during your teaching, though you perish ten thousand times every day, you will profit nothing: but you will be " as sounding brass," and as " a tinkling cymbal " i^ since our teacher and God Jesus Himself first began to do, and then to teach, thereby giving us a model of virtue. The prophet David also shows that a man cannot otherwise open his mouth and speak spiritual words, unless he has first loved and served God's commandments: for he says, " I opened my mouth and breathed in spirit, because I loved thy command- ments."^ I have out of affection reminded your religiousness of these things as in a few words: but do you in your deeds show better things than these
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Severus writes to Jannia, the deaconess and archimandritess, after the deacon Theodore asks about instructions he has received from her. Severus says that anyone entrusted with the governance of rational souls must have both fear and mercy: fear, so that God's commands are not neglected; mercy, so that discipline does not make Christ's gentle yoke heavy.
Jannia has done well to show condescension toward a woman who was weak and tempted, restoring her to repentance through pity. She should continue bearing with her as long as the woman shows penitence through real ascetic labor. But mercy has a limit when one person's corruption begins to injure the rest. If her faults spread like a disease through the community, Jannia must cut her off to protect the sisters. Severus is not asking for harshness as a first instinct; he is asking Jannia to read the difference between a wound that can be treated within the house and an infection that begins to endanger everyone.
Severus then turns from the single case to the whole convent. Jannia must drive out license, idle talk, uncontrolled laughter, bodily display, and careless speech. Even simple clothing can be worn immodestly if the heart is disorderly. The sisters must keep their hearts, remember judgment, work with their hands, sing the divine songs, obey promptly, and avoid useless words. The goal is not merely enclosure but a disciplined common life: labor should make them ready to help the poor, song should strengthen watchfulness, and obedience should be prompt without becoming servile fear. Above all, Jannia herself must teach by deeds. Without personal example, even daily suffering and eloquent teaching become only sounding brass and a clanging cymbal. Severus ends affectionately but firmly: she should show by her own conduct better things than he can put into words.
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.
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