Letter 911

To Eudaemon the Scholasticus [a lawyer/advocate]. Whenever you are about to go out past the front of the gateway, utter this saying first: "I renounce you, Satan, and your pomp, and your service, and I enlist myself with you, O Christ" [the renunciation and profession spoken at baptism]; and never go out without this utterance. This will be a staff for you, this a weapon, this an unassailable tower. Together with this saying, trace also the cross upon your forehead. For in this way not only will no man who meets you, but not even the devil himself, be able to do you any harm, when he sees you appearing everywhere armed with these weapons.

Ὅταν μέλλῃς προβαίνειν τὰ πρόθυρα τοῦ πυλῶνος, τοῦτο φθέγξαι τὸ ῥῆμα πρῶτον, Ἀποτάσσομαί σοι, Σατανᾶ, καὶ τῇ πομπῇ σου, καὶ τῇ λατρείᾳ σου, καὶ συντάσσομαί σοι, Χριστὲ, καὶ μηδέποτε χωρὶς τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης ἐξέλθῃς. Τοῦτό σοι βακτηρία ἔσται, τοῦτο ὅπλον, τοῦτο πύργος ἄμαχος. Μετὰ τοῦ ῥήματος τούτου καὶ τὸν σταυρὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ μετώπου διατύπωσον. Οὕτω γὰρ οὐ μόνον ἄνθρωπος ἀπαντῶν, ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ αὐτὸς ὁ διάβολος βλάψαι τι δυνήσεται, μετὰ τούτων σε τῶν ὅπλων ὁρῶν πανταχοῦ φαινόμενον.