Letter 17
To my beloved brother Fructuosus,
Your letter reached me and I have read it with admiration and a certain amount of concern — admiration for the genuine holiness that comes through in everything you write, and concern about some of the specific practices you describe.
I want to be clear: I have no doubt about your motives or your sanctity. What I question is not your intention but the wisdom of prescribing for all monks, or even for many monks, practices that may be appropriate for exceptional souls but harmful for ordinary ones. The fasting regimes you describe are severe enough that I think they risk doing damage to health that will ultimately undermine the very spiritual work they are meant to support. A monk who has permanently weakened his constitution through extreme abstinence may find himself unable to pray, unable to study, unable to serve others — which is a worse outcome than if he had fasted less rigorously and preserved his strength for the long term.
Augustine's warning about the tendency to make one's own spiritual preferences into universal requirements has always seemed to me wise. The ascetic temperament is a great gift; it can also be a trap, when it mistakes the form of self-denial for the substance of it.
None of this should be read as a criticism of your monasteries or your rule. I am writing as a brother who is thinking aloud in your company, and I may be wrong.
Your affectionate brother in Christ,
Braulio
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.