Letter 163: The richness of divine teaching is such that a single passage of Scripture often contains answers to questions we...
To the same. There are, O most learned one, two modes of piety. The more holy and divine is in the soul. For the noblest sacrifice, most pleasing to God, is to have a pure disposition and to envision the divine presence, established and firm in the sanctuaries of the soul. The second mode is in the purity of the body. For he who lacks both these modes, even if he should offer the most precious treasures of land and sea, even if he should sacrifice all the animals formerly prescribed by law, would not find favor.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
ΡΕΓ'. – ΤΟ ΑΥΤΟ.
Εὐσεβείας, ὦ ἑλλογιμώτατε, διττὸς ὁ τρόπος (7).
Ὁ μὲν ἁγιώτατος καὶ θειότατος ἐν ψυχῇ. Ἱερεῖον
γὰρ τοῦτο κάλλιστον, καὶ Θεῷ προσφιλέστατον, τὸ
τὴν γνώμην έχειν εὐαγῆ, καὶ τὴν θείαν παρουσίαν
φαντάζεσθαι, Ἰδρυμένην τε καὶ βεβαίαν ἔχειν ἐν τοῖς
τῆς ψυχῆς τεμένεσιν. Ὁ δὲ δεύτερος ἐν τῇ ἁγνείᾳ
τοῦ σώματος. Ὁ γὰρ τούτων τῶν δύο τρόπων χη-
ρεύων, οὐδὲ εἰ τὰ γῆς τε καὶ θαλάττης τημαλφέστα-
τα προσάγοι κειμήλια, οὔτε εἰ πάντα τὰ ἱερουργεῖ-
σθαι πρώην νενομοθετημένα ζῶα καταβάλλοι, χαρι-
εῖται θεῷ.
ΕΥΛΟΓΙΩ.
Κατὰ ᾿Ωριγένους.
Τὸν περὶ τῆς τῶν ψυχῶν (5) ἐκπτώσεως λόγον, ἀληθῆ
---
ΡΜ΄. – ΑΝΔΡΟΝΙΚΩ
Τὸ τολμᾶν ἐπὶ τὸ ἀμείνοστον καταξιοῦντα.
Related Letters
The spiritual life is a journey with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
1. Recollecting your request and my promise, that as soon as time and opportunity should be given by Him to whom we pray, I would write you something on the subject of prayer to God, I feel it my duty now to discharge this debt, and in the love of Christ to minister to the satisfaction of your pious desire. I cannot express in words how greatly...
Jerome's answer to Letters 28, 40 and 71. To Augustine, My Lord Truly Holy, and Most Blessed Father, Jerome Sends Greeting in Christ. 1.
1. Desiring to reply to the letter which I received from you through our holy brother, my co-bishop Boniface, I have sought for it, but have not found it. I have recalled to mind, however, that you asked me in that letter how the magicians of Pharaoh could, after all the water of Egypt had been turned into blood, find any with which to imitate t...
The deaconess Olympias to whom seventeen of Chrysostom's extant letters are addressed was the most eminent of his...