Letter 238

To Euphrasius the Bishop. Let us pray earnestly that the leprosy of the soul be driven out from the warp, and from the weft, and from the skin [the reference is to the leprosy of garments in Leviticus 13:47-59]: by the warp being understood the sinewy part of the Church of Christ, I mean the bishops, and all who enjoy the prerogatives of the Levitical rank; by the weft being taken to mean the consecrated people who are guided and shepherded under them; and by the skin being understood those who have recently approached God and are as yet catechumens, lest somehow, having cast off through the regeneration of holy baptism the deadness of the old garments of sin, they be rejected.

Εὐξώμεθα ἐκτενῶς ἐδιωχθῆναι τὴν λέπραν τὴν ψυχικὴν ἀπό τε τοῦ στήμονος, καὶ τῆς κρόκης, καὶ τοῦ δέρματος· στήμονος μὲν νουμένου τοῦ νευρώδους μέρους τῆς Χριστοῦ Ἐκκλησίας, ἐπισκόπων λέγω, καὶ ὅσοι τῆς Λευϊτικῆς ἀξίας τὰ γέρα καρπίζονται· κρόκης δὲ ἐκλαμβανομένης τοῦ εὐθυνομένου, καὶ ποιμαινομένου ὑπ’ αὐτοῖς ἡγιασμένου λαοῦ, δέρματος δὲ γουμένου τὴν νεωστὶ προσελθόντων τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ τέως κατηχουμένων, μὴ πῶς ἀποβεβλήκων τῶν διὰ τῆς ἀναγεννήσεως τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος τὴν νεκρότητα τῶν παλαιῶν τῆς ἁμαρτίας χιτώνων.