Letter 173: They stood firm against the passions — the very passions they had previously acknowledged defeat against.

To Peter. On a monk who keeps changing from one place to another. The Prophet [the psalmist] called those who are unstable and resemble you, O inconstant one, dust driven from the face of the earth [cf. Psalm 1:4]. For if, having been planted by the blessed Ammon [Ammon, a renowned Egyptian desert father], and watered in a manner pleasing to God, and firmly established, and having blossomed into fruit, as we supposed, you now wander around many houses not for the sake of instruction but for the sake of a softer diet, who could lament you as you deserve, you who are both destroying yourself and rendering useless many others, for whom youth makes ease seem advantageous?

Πρὸς μοναχὸν τόπον ἐκ τόπου ἀμείβοντα. Τοὺς ἀστηρίκτους καὶ σοὶ προσεοικότας, ἀβέβαιε, χοῦν ἐχριπτούμενον ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς γῆς ὁ Προφήτης ἐκάλεσεν. Εἰ γὰρ φυτευθεὶς παρὰ τοῦ μακαρίου (67) Ἀμμωνος, καὶ ποτισθεὶς θεοφιλῶς, καὶ ἀσφαλῶς ἕδρασθες, καὶ καρπὸν ἤνθηκας, ὡς ᾠόμεθα, πολλοὺς οἴκους περινοστεῖς οὐ χάριν παιδεύσεως, ἀλλ᾽ ἁβροτέρας σιτήσεως· τίς σε κατ᾽ ἀξίαν ὀδύραιτο, καὶ σαυτὸν ἀπολλύντα, καὶ πολλοὺς ἀχρειοῦντα, οἷς ἡ νεότης τὴν εὐκολίαν εἰσποιεῖται συμφέρουσαν;