Letter 90: The apostles, as students of wisdom and lovers of truth, saw the Savior paying attention to the blind man and...

That it is apostolic for women to sing in the churches, and concerning female ascetics. Wishing to put a stop to the idle chatter in the churches, the apostles of the Lord, and the instructors of our condition, wisely permitted women to sing in them. But, since all the God-bearing teachings have been turned into their opposite, this too has become for the majority an occasion of dissolution and of sin. For from the divine hymns they do not endure compunction; rather, using the sweetness of the melody to arouse the passions, they reckon that it has nothing more in it than the songs sung upon the stage. It is therefore necessary, if we are to seek what is pleasing to God and to do what is of common benefit, to bar these women both from the singing in church and from the convent in the city, as traffickers in Christ [Christokapeloi, those who peddle Christ for profit] and as men who make the divine gift a wage of perdition.

Ὅτι ἀποστολικὸν τὸ ἐν ἐκκλησίαις ψάλλειν γυναῖκας, καὶ περὶ ἀσκητριῶν. Τὰς ἐν ἐκκλησίαις φλυαρίας καταπαῦσαι βουλόμενοι οἱ τοῦ Κυρίου ἀπόστολοι, καὶ τῆς ἡμῶν παιδευταὶ καταστάσεως, ψάλλειν ἐν αὐταῖς τὰς γυναῖκας συνετῶς συνεχώρησαν. Ἀλλ' [ὡς] πάντα εἰς τοὐναντίον ἐτράπη τὰ θεοφόρα διδάγματα, καὶ τοῦτο εἰς ἔλυσιν καὶ ἁμαρτίας ὑπόθεσιν τοῖς πλείστοις γέγονε. Καὶ κατάνυξιν μὲν ἐκ τῶν θείων ὕμνων οὐχ ὑπομέ- νουσι· τῇ δὲ τοῦ μέλους ἡδύτητι εἰς ἐρεθισμὸν παθη- μάτων χρώμενοι (88), οὐδὲν αὐτὴν ἔχειν πλέον τῶν ἐπὶ σκηνῆς ἀσμάτων λογίζονται. Χρὴ τοίνυν, εἰ μέλ- λοιμεν τὸ τῷ Θεῷ ἀρέσκον ζητεῖν, καὶ τὸ κοινῇ συμφέρον ποιεῖν, παύειν ταύτας καὶ τῆς ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ ᾠδῆς, καὶ τῆς ἐν πόλει μονῆς, ὡς Χριστοκαπήλους, καὶ τὸ θεῖον χάρισμα μισθὸν ἀπωλείας ἐργαζομέ- νους.