Letter 400
To Faustus the Monk.
The haircloth garment requires, above all, a humble frame of mind; for humility is more surely entrusted to the righteous, who imitate their own Master. But if you are boastful, and quarrel every day, and strike certain people, and imitate those who are frenzied, for what reason do you also wear the haircloth? For the garment is at odds with your disposition. The solitary life ought to cherish the beauty of truth and righteousness, not hypocrisy, and play-acting, and a mask of truth and of righteousness.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Τὸ τρίχινον φόρεμα δεῖται πάντως φρονήματος
ταπεινοῦ· τοῖς γὰρ δικαίοις μᾶλλον πεποίθηται ἡ
ταπεινοφροσύνη, μιμουμένοις τὸν ἑαυτῶν Δεσπότην.
Εἰ δὲ ἀλαζονεύῃ, καὶ μάχη καθ’ ἑκάστην, καὶ τύ-
πτεις τινάς, καὶ τοὺς φρενητιῶντας ἀπομιμῇ, τίνος
χάριν καὶ τὸ τρίχινον φορεῖς; Ἀσύμβατον γὰρ
ἔνδυμα τῇ γνώμῃ· ὁ δὲ μονήρης βίος τὴν ἀλήθειαν
καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην φιλοκαλεῖν ὀφείλει, οὐχ ὑπό-
κρισιν, καὶ σκηνήν, καὶ προσωπεῖον τῆς ἀληθείας,
καὶ τῆς δικαιοσύνης.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import
Related Letters
I received your letter, rich with the wealth of many joys, and I give thanks for the grace God has shown in...
If the heavenly ruler had looked at my merit, I would have received scant blessings — or none at all.
The man who labors at unnecessary expense to secure a favor works in vain when the same result would have come...
King Theodoric to Faustus, Praetorian Prefect.
Things that are often given with modest means gain a value beyond their cost whenever they flow from a generous heart.