The letter sets pastoral responsibility above private quietude when a flock has already been entrusted to the recipient. Source id VII.3; Brooks page 371; source-facing English extracted by body markers from the Archive OCR text; original Syriac source-text backfill remains pending.
A report has reached us that Your Religiousness, out of love for quietude and constant prayer with God, wishes to neglect the rational flock of brothers entrusted to you by our God and Savior Jesus Christ. We hear that your mind is not strongly set on caring for them, and that for this reason you want to appoint someone else to administer the monastery.
When we heard this, we were astonished, and even now we do not think it can be true. It is foreign to your perfection. You know the apostolic rule that each person should remain in the calling in which he was called, and that we were bought with a price. God's will is not that one seek his own profit, but his neighbor's. Keeping charge of the rational sheep committed to you brings you nearer to God than quietude.
Even if Your Holiness spoke some careless verbal bond or oath, we judge it not right and release you from it, if it should be called a bond at all. Preside over your flock with your whole mind, not half of it, and officiate at the bloodless sacrifice.
A report has reached us that your religiousness in the pursuit of quietude and the desire of remaining constantly in prayer and holding intercourse with God wishes to neglect the rational flock of brethren that ^ Tit. ii. 7. 2, Qq xiii. i. 3 pg cxviii. 131. has been entrusted to you by our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, and that your mind is not much set upon the charge of them: but that for this reason you are desirous of nominating an administrator of the ofovern- ment of the monastery. When we heard this, we were astonished: and we did not, and still even now do not think it true: for this is alien to your perfection. You know well the apostolic statute that says, " Let every man wherein he was called therein abide," and that "we were bought with a price," ^ and that we must with all our might fulfil the will of the Lord who bought us the captives with His own blood. But what is God's will, except that a man seek not his own profit, but his neighbour's? '" That the retention of the charge of the rational sheep who have been committed to you brings you nearer to God than quietude our Lord and Saviour is witness, who in the Gospels said thrice to Peter, "Peter, lovest thou me?", and said that this is the token of love towards Him, " Feed my sheep" and "Feed my lambs. "^ Therefore retain while you are on a path that is higher than all paths, turn your mind to another which cannot make God so near to you: I forbear to say that it actually grieves His Holy Spirit. The allegation that you have also cut yourself off from the sacred ministry I am ashamed even to write. It was this especially which made me not think the statements true: so that, even if some ^ I Co. vii. 23, 24. 2 j^ X. 24. 3 John xxi. 15-17. verbal bond or oaths have been put forward by your sanctity without consideration, we reckon this as a thing that is not right. Wherefore we release you from such a ban, if we ought to call this a ban at all, and we also urge you to preside over your flock entirely, not with half your mind, and to officiate at the bloodless sacrifice
◆
A report has reached us that Your Religiousness, out of love for quietude and constant prayer with God, wishes to neglect the rational flock of brothers entrusted to you by our God and Savior Jesus Christ. We hear that your mind is not strongly set on caring for them, and that for this reason you want to appoint someone else to administer the monastery.
When we heard this, we were astonished, and even now we do not think it can be true. It is foreign to your perfection. You know the apostolic rule that each person should remain in the calling in which he was called, and that we were bought with a price. God's will is not that one seek his own profit, but his neighbor's. Keeping charge of the rational sheep committed to you brings you nearer to God than quietude.
Even if Your Holiness spoke some careless verbal bond or oath, we judge it not right and release you from it, if it should be called a bond at all. Preside over your flock with your whole mind, not half of it, and officiate at the bloodless sacrifice.
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
Original text not yet available in this corpus.
This letter still needs a Latin or Greek source-text backfill. The source link, when available, is preserved so the text can be checked and added later.