Letter 214: It is a bold claim — but the calamity threatening the Church does not come primarily from external enemies.
To Maron the Presbyter. To priests, concerning the stewardship of the poor. Even if you are thoughtless and ill-mannered, at least from hearsay you know that long ago the disciples of the divine apostles, selling their possessions at home, brought the proceeds to the church for the poor. But you, doing the very opposite, impiously gather the property of the church and of the poor into your own home. Cease therefore from your impiety; for the steward is so called from distributing to the poor what is their own. And what is their own is rightly the ecclesiastical property.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
ΣΕΘ. – ΜΑΡΩΝΙ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΩ,
Πρὸς ἱερεῖς, περὶ τῆς τῶν πενήτων οἰκονομίας.
Εἰ καὶ ἀλόγιστος εἶ καὶ ἀνάγωγος· ἀλλ᾽ οὖν κᾶν ἐκ παρακούσματος ἔχεις, ὅτι πάλαι οἱ τῶν θείων ἀποστόλων μαθηταὶ, τὰ οἴκοι πιπράσκοντες, τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ὑπὲρ πτωχῶν προσεκόμιζον. Σὺ δὲ πᾶν τοὐναντίον ποιῶν, τὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας καὶ τῶν πτωχῶν εἴκοι συνάγεις ἀσεβῶς. Παῦσαι τοίνυν τῆς ἀσεβείας· εἰκονόμος γὰρ εἴρηται παρὰ τὸ οἰκεῖα αὐτῶν νέμειν τοῖς πένησιν. Οἰκεῖα δὲ αὐτῶν, εἰκότως τὰ ἐκκλησιαστικά (45).
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