Letter 28: It goes beyond all audacity to make theological pronouncements when your life contradicts the faith you claim to uphold.
To Domitios.
That the priesthood is awe-inspiring and hard to attain.
Many things arise in many men's minds [as objects of desire], but do not fall in with their wishes, being unattainable. For not everyone who wishes attains to a kingdom, nor to wealth, nor to the marriage he wants. If, then, as you say, Zosimus too is shamelessly forcing his way in to thrust himself upon the mysteries of God, let him learn through your exactitude that the temple of God is shut against lepers until they have scoured away the defilement of their affliction.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Ὅτι φρικτὸν καὶ δυσέφικτον ἱερωσύνη.
Πολλῶν πολλοῖς ἐγγίνεται (28), οὐ συνέρχεται ταῖς βουλαῖς, ὡς ἀνέφικτος. Οὔτε γὰρ βασιλείας πᾶς ὁ βουλόμενος ἐφικνεῖται, οὔτε περιουσίας, οὔτε συζυγίας ἧς βούλεται. Εἰ τοίνυν, ὡς φῂς, καὶ Ζώσιμος εἰσφρῆσαι ἑαυτὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ μυστηρίοις ἀναισχύντως βιάζεται, μαθέτω διὰ τῆς ἀκριβείας σου, ὅτι λεπροῖς ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ ναὸς ἀποκλείεται, μέχρις ἂν τὴν τοῦ πάθους λώβην ἀποσμήξωνται.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern isidore pelusium workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/PatrologiaGraeca (PG vol.78)
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