Letter 119: The most destructive thing in the world is false doctrine, and the labors of those who follow it are utterly fruitless.
It is exceedingly dreadful to sell or to purchase the priesthood. You did well to study the psalm and to gather the solitary ones in the house of the Lord, yoking Maron with Zosimus, taking every care, as I suppose, that nothing base should stand outside the altar. Know, then, that the trafficking in sacred things is an abomination that cries to heaven for vengeance, and that the one who buys is no less guilty than the one who sells.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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.
Latin / Greek Original
ΡΙΘ. – ΕΥΣΕΒΙΟ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟ.
῾Ὅτι φρικτὸν εἰς ὑπερβολὴν τὸ πιπράσκειν ἱe-
ρωσύνην ἢ ἐξωνεῖσθαι.
Καλως τὸ Ψαλμικὸν ἐμελέτησας, καὶ τοὺς μονο-
τρόπους ἐν τῷ τοῦ Κυρίου οἴκῳ συνήγαγες, Ζωσίμῳ
συζεύξας [καὶ] Μάρωνα · πᾶσαν σπουδὴν, ὡς οἶμαι,
τιθέμενος, μὴ τι τῶν φαύλων ἔξω τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου
σταίη. Ἴσθι τοίνυν ὡς πληθύνων τοὺς Σίμωνας, τοὺς
χρήμασι κτᾶσθαι τὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ Πνεῦμα νομίζοντας,
κοινὸν ἐκτήσω βαλάντιον τῷ προδότῃ, εἰς χολὴν πι-
κρίας καὶ σύνδεσμον ἀδικίας καλινδούμενος, καὶ
προπίνων τολμηρῶς τὰ καὶ ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῖς περι-
πόθητα.
ΡΛϚ΄. – ΕΥΑΓΡΙΩ
Ναύτην ἐοικότας ἑαυτὸν γυμνάζειν.
Related Letters
The advisory and beneficial words of sound teaching reach your hearing — but certain people have stopped up their ears.
When you were approaching the high mountain of ascetic practice, you cleansed both your clothes and senses.
The apostles, as students of wisdom and lovers of truth, saw the Savior paying attention to the blind man and...
You may be surprised that I'm recommending a bishop.
1. The noble Volusianus read to me the letter of your Holiness, and, at my urgent solicitation, he read to many more the sentences which had won my admiration, for, like everything else coming from your pen, they were worthy of admiration. Breathing as it did a humble spirit, and rich in the grace of divine eloquence, it succeeded easily in plea...