If these virgins are not saved by bodily virginity from punishment for their guilt, then what will happen to those who have corrupted the members of Christ and turned the temple of the Holy Spirit into a harlot? It will be said to them, "Come down and sit on the dust, O virgin, daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground; there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans, and henceforth they shall not call thee tender and luxurious. Take millstones, and grind flour; Take off your covering, pick up your hem, uncover your shins, cross the rivers. Your nakedness will be revealed, and even your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance, and spare no man (Isaiah 47:1-3). And so, after the marriage of the Son of God, after the kisses of the Brother and the Bridegroom, the one of whom it was once sung in the prophetic song: "The queen stands at Thy right hand, dressed in gilded garments" (Psalm 44:10), will be naked; her past will be laid before her face; she will sit by the waters of the wilderness, she will lay down the vessel, she will spread her feet to everyone who passes by, and even to the top of her head she will be defiled. It would be better for a man to enter into marriage and walk the straight path than to begin to climb the heights and fall into the depths of hell. I beseech thee, that faithful Zion may not be a harlot city, that the demons may not dance, that the sirens may not nest in the place of the dwelling place of the Holy Trinity. The union of the heart will be broken; but as soon as a desire touches a feeling, or the fire of voluptuousness showers us with pleasant warmth, let us cry out loudly: "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear that He will make me flesh" (Psalm 55:5). When the inner man begins to waver between virtues and vices, say: Are you sorrowful, O my soul? And dost thou trouble me? Trust in God, that we may trust Him for the salvation of my countenance, and my God (Psalm 41:12). Do not allow your thoughts to grow. Let nothing Babylonian reach youth in you, nothing that troubles you. Kill the enemy while he is young; let negligence be destroyed in the seed, so that tares may not grow. Listen to the Psalmist, who says: "O accursed daughter of Babylon, blessed is he who shall repay thee thy recompense, which thou hast repaid unto us." Blessed is he who has, and shall dash thy babes against a stone (Psalm 136:8-9). Since it is impossible that the innate inclination of the heart does not break into a person's feelings, he is boasted and called blessed who, at the first beginning of passionate thoughts, strikes them and breaks them against a stone. And the stone is Christ (1 Cor. 10:4).

Oh, how many times, already as a hermit and in the vast desert, burned by the rays of the sun and serving as a gloomy abode for monks, I imagined myself among the pleasures of Rome. I was in solitude because I was filled with sorrow. The emaciated limbs were covered with sackcloth and the contaminated skin resembled that of the Ethiopians. Every day there were tears, every day of lamentation, and when sleep threatened to overwhelm me during my struggle, I laid my bones on the bare ground, barely holding together at the joints. I am silent about food and drink, because even sick monks drink cold water, and it would be a luxury to have something boiled. And yet I, the one who, for the fear of hell, condemned myself to such imprisonment in the company of beasts and scorpions only, I was often in thought in the dance of the maidens. His face turned pale from fasting, and his mind boiled with passionate desires in his chilled body, and the fire of lust burned in a man who had died in his flesh beforehand. Deprived of all help, I fell down at the feet of Jesus, watered them with tears, wiped them with my hair, and tamed the hostile flesh with non-eating for whole weeks. I am not ashamed to convey the story of my miserable situation, on the contrary, I regret that I am no longer like that. I remember that I often cried out to God day and night, and no sooner had I ceased to beat my breast, when, at the voice of the Lord, silence fell. I was afraid even of my cell, as an accomplice in my thoughts. In anger and vexation with myself, I wandered alone in the deserts. Where I saw mountain caves, inconvenient cliffs, cliffs, there was a place for my prayer, there was a prison for my most accursed flesh; and the Lord is a witness — after many tears, after lifting up my eyes to heaven, I sometimes saw myself among the hosts of angels and in joyful ecstasy I sang: "We will run after thee" (Song of Songs 1:3).

If such temptations are endured by those who, having exhausted the body, are overwhelmed by thoughts alone, then what can be said about the virgin who enjoys pleasures? It remains to repeat the saying of the Apostle: "She died alive" (1 Tim. 5:6). Therefore, if I can give any advice, if my experience is trustworthy, then first of all I exhort and beseech that the bride of Christ will avoid wine as poison. This is the first weapon of demons against youth. Young people are not crushed by avarice, puffed up by pride, or amused by ambition. We easily shun other vices; but the enemy of which we speak lies within ourselves. Wherever we go, he is with us. Wine and youth are a double ignition for sensuality. Why add fuel to the fire? Why bring tinder to a flaming body? Paul says to Timothy: "From now on, drink not only water, but drink a little wine, for the sake of your stomach and your frequent infirmities" (1 Tim. 5:23). Note for what reasons it is permissible to drink wine: to heal stomach pains and frequent ailments through it. And in order that we should not misuse the pretext of illness, Paul commanded us to partake of a little wine, giving this advice more as a physician than as an apostle (for, as an apostle, he is a spiritual physician), fearing that Timothy, weakened by infirmity, would not be able to carry out the work of preaching the Gospel, and at the same time remembering that in another place he said: "Do not be drunk with wine, whereby there is debauchery" (Ephesians 5:11). 18) and: it is better not to eat meat, not to drink wine (Romans 14:21). Noah drank wine and drank. After the flood, in the age of simplicity, Noah perhaps did not yet know the intoxicating power of wine. And (so that you may understand that the Holy Scriptures are full of mysteries and the word of God is a precious stone found everywhere) drunkenness was followed by the baring of the loins, lust combined with licentiousness. First the womb is filled, then the other members are aroused. The people sat down to eat and drink, and then got up to play (Exodus 32:6). Lot, the friend of God, who was saved on the mountain, who turned out to be the only righteous man out of so many thousands of people, is brought into a state of intoxication by his daughters; And although they thought that the human race was ending, and they did it more out of the desire of childbearing than for the sake of lust, yet they knew that a righteous man would not have done this if he had not been in a state of drunkenness. At last he no longer knew what he was doing; and although the crime was committed involuntarily, nevertheless the criminal act is not alien to sin. It is from this that the Moabites and Ammonites lead their generation, who up to the fourth and tenth generation, and even forever, do not enter into the Church of God.

When Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel, and being weary, he was lying under an oak tree in the wilderness, an angel of the Lord came to him, stirred him up, and said to him, Arise, eat. And Elijah looked, and behold, at his head was a baked cake and a pitcher of water (3 Kings 19:5-6). Could it be that God could not send the prophet good wine, and excellent dishes, and broken meat? Elisha invited the sons of the prophets to dinner and, treating them to the herbs of the field, heard the unanimous cry of those who dined: "Death in the cauldron" (4 Kings 4:40). The man of God was not angry with those who cooked the food, because he was not accustomed to a more luxurious table, but, pouring flour into the pot, he sweetened the bitterness with the same spiritual power that Moses delighted Merah. And when Elisha led the messengers to seize him, blinded in equal eyes and mind, unconsciously into Samaria, then listen to what dishes he ordered them to be treated. Offer them, said the prophet, bread and water; let them eat and drink, and go to their lord (2 Kings 6:22). Daniel could have received a more luxurious table of royal dishes: but Habakkuk brought him a reaper's dinner, I think it was a village dinner. That is why Daniel is called a man of desires, because he did not eat the desired bread and did not drink the water of desire.

In the Holy Scriptures there are countless sayings condemning excess and approving simplicity in food. But since we do not intend to discuss the fasts, and it would be the business of a separate treatise and a separate book to consider this subject in full, what has been said is sufficient, a small of many. In addition to the above examples, you yourself may recall how the first man, serving the womb more than God, was cast down from paradise into this deplorable vale. And Satan tempted the Lord Himself in the wilderness with hunger. And the Apostle says: Food is for the belly, and the belly for food; but God will destroy both (1 Corinthians 6:13). He also says of gluttons that for them God is the belly (Phil. 3:19). For he who loves what he honors. For this reason, care must be taken that we, who have been expelled from paradise by intemperance, are returned there by fasting.

But if you object that you, who come from a noble family, who have always lived in pleasure and bliss, cannot give up wine and exquisite foods, and submit to the severe laws of abstinence, then I say to you: live according to your own law, if you do not want to live according to the law of God. God, the Creator and Master of the universe, does not need grumbling in the intestines and emptiness of the stomach and an inflamed state of the lungs; but without this, your chastity cannot be safe. Listen to what Job, who is dear to God and according to his own testimony blameless and righteous, says about the devil: "Strength is in his loins, and his strength is in the muscles of his belly." The generic members of a man and a woman are decently called by indirect names. Thus, the Lord promises to place him who comes from the loins of David on His throne. 75 souls descended from the loins of Jacob entered Egypt. When, as a result of the struggle with the Lord, he damaged the composition of Jacob's thigh (Gen. 32:25), Jacob ceased to bear children. Whoever intends to celebrate the Passover must celebrate it with his loins girded and mortified. God says to Job: "Gird up thy loins like a man" (Job 40:2). John girded himself with a leather girdle, and the apostles were commanded to hold the lamp of the gospel with their loins girded. To Jerusalem, sprinkled with blood and on the path of error, it is said in Ezekiel: "Thy navel has not been cut off" (Ezekiel 16:4). Thus, all the power of the devil against men lies in the loins; all his strength against women is in the navel.

Do you want to be convinced of the truth of my words? Pay attention to the examples. Samson, who was braver than a lion and harder than a stone, who alone unarmed pursued thousands of armed men, lost his strength in the arms of Delilah. David, chosen after the Lord's heart, who often sang the praises of the coming Holy Christ, after walking on the roof of his house, was captivated by the naked Bathsheba, then after adultery he committed murder. Note, by the way, that no one, even sitting at home, is safe from seduction through sight. For this reason David, repenting, says to the Lord: "To Thee alone have I sinned, and have done evil before Thee" (Psalm 50:6). For he was a king, fearing no one else. Solomon, through whose mouth wisdom itself spoke, who discussed everything from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that came out of the wall, apostatized from the Lord, because he was a lover of women. And so that no one may rely on himself in relations with intimate relatives, let Amon, who was inflamed with a criminal passion for his sister Tamar, be brought to mind.

It is bitter to say how many virgins fall every day, how many the Mother Church loses from her bosom, how many stars the proud enemy sets up his throne above; how many stones he hollows out, and nests like serpents in their hollows. You will even see many widows before marriage, covering with pretended clothes the unfortunate consciousness of their crime. And if they are not betrayed by the fullness of the womb and the cry of the child, then they walk with their heads raised and playful steps. Some of them take some drink for barrenness and commit the murder of a person even before they receive him in the seed. Others, when they feel themselves conceived from a crime, take medicines to poison the fetus, while often they themselves die and go to hell, guilty of three crimes – suicide, adultery from Christ, infanticide of an unborn child. These are the ones who like to say: "Everything is clean – pure. For me, my own consciousness is enough. God desires a pure heart. When they want to rejoice and celebrate, then, drunk with whole wine and with drunkenness combining the desecration of the holy, they say: "Let it not be that I depart from the communion of the blood of Christ." And when they see a woman pale and sad, they call her accursed and Manichaean, justly reasoning that fasting for Manichaean motives is heresy. These are those who, in full view of all, pass through the square and, secretly waving their eyes, draw crowds of young men with them; these are those to whom the prophetic word is always addressed: "Thou hadst the forehead of a harlot, thou hast cast away shame" (Jeremiah 3:3). Only the purple on the thin garment and the head slightly bandaged so that the hair would scatter, a light shoe and a hyacinth-colored fur coat fluttering behind the shoulders, garter mittens attached to the shoulders, and a well-dressed gait with twisted knees—this is what all their virginity consists of. Let them have their own praisers, who help them to perish for a higher price under the name of virgins. For my part, I would very much like not to please them.

It is shameful to point out indecent, sad, but real facts: where did the plague of Agapetus come from in the Church? Where does the naming of wives without marriage come from? Where does the new line of concubines come from? I will say more: whence come the fornicators of the same language? A man and a woman are in the same house, in the same bedroom, often in the same bed, and call us suspicious if we think anything. The brother leaves the maiden sister, the girl dismisses her unmarried relative, calls a stranger a brother, and, pretending both for the same purpose, they seek spiritual consolation on the side, in order to have bodily communion at home. Solomon convicts such people in parables, saying: "Can a man take fire in his bosom, lest his garment be burned? Can anyone walk on burning coals without burning his feet? (Proverbs 6:27-28).

Now that I have finished speaking of those who wish to appear but not to be virgins, I will address myself exclusively to you, the first of the noble virgins of Rome, who for this reason alone must take special care not to be deprived of blessings, both present and future. You have learned the painful side of marriage and the uncertainty of your fate in marriage from an example at home, because your sister Blasilla, the eldest in age, but the youngest by choice of lot, when she was married, became a widow in the seventh month. Oh, unfortunate human fate with an unknown future! Your sister has lost both the crown of virginity and the pleasures of marriage. And although widowhood stands on the second degree of chastity, yet what crosses do you think she bears at times, seeing every day in her sister what she herself has lost, and intending to receive a lesser reward for abstinence, while having experienced the pleasures of marriage, she endures their deprivation with greater difficulty. But let it also be calm and joyful. A hundredfold fruit and a sixty-fold fruit grow from the same seed of purity.

I do not want you to make the acquaintance of society ladies, to go to the houses of nobles, to often look at what you have despised, desiring to be a virgin. Women love to be honored for the sake of their husbands, who are in judicial or any other dignity. If a crowd of congratulators flocks to the Emperor's wife, then why do you not value your Husband? Why do you, the bride of God, hasten to the spouse of men? In this case, learn holy pride: know that you are above this nobility. I wish that you would withdraw from acquaintance not only with those women who are puffed up with the honors of husbands, surrounded by crowds of eunuchs, and dressed in gold-woven garments, but also avoid those who have become widows out of necessity and not out of will; I say this not in the sense that wives should wish for the death of their husbands, but that they should gladly take advantage of the opportunity for chastity that presents itself to them. And the widows, against whom I warn you, did not change their former way of life with the change of clothes. In front of the stretcher is a row of eunuchs: the widows' cheeks are flushed, their wrinkles are smoothed out so that it is easy to understand that they have not lost, but are looking for husbands. The whole house is full of caresses, full of feasts. The clergy themselves, who should be teachers of the law and the fear of God, kiss the heads of the matrons and, stretching out their hands as if for a blessing, accept gifts for their affability. And the matrons, noticing that the priests need their help, are filled with pride; having already experienced the dominion of men, they prefer the freedom of widowhood, they are called blameless and nones, and after a doubtful supper they see the apostles in a dream.

May women be your friends, exhausted by fasting, pale in face, wise in age and life, who daily sing in their hearts: Where are you pasture? Where do you rest at noon? (Song of Songs 1:6) and saying from the heart: I have a desire to depart and be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). Be obedient to your parents: imitate your Bridegroom. Go out into society infrequently. Remember the martyrs on your bed. You will never lack excuses to go out into society, if you wish to go out always if necessary. Let your food be moderate and your stomach always unfilled. Many, abstaining from wine, become intoxicated with an abundance of food. When you get up to pray at night, let you feel sick, not from indigestion, but from emaciation. Read more often, study as much as possible. Let sleep take hold of you as you hold the book, and let your face bow to the holy page. Let you have daily fasting and relaxation for yourself, devoid of satiety. It is useless to fast for two or three days to fill an empty belly, while at the same time stopping the fast and rewarding oneself for it with excessive satiety. From this the burdened mind becomes dull, and the irrigated earth gives birth to thorns of lusts. When you feel that the outer man is reviving in the flower of youth, when after eating on the bed you will be enveloped by the pleasant luxury of desires, take up the shield of faith, with which the flammed arrows of the devil will be quenched. They all burn with adultery, like the furnace (Hos. 7:4) of their hearts. And you, who have followed in the footsteps of Christ, who have hearkened to His words, say: Did not our hearts burn within us when He spoke to us on the way, and when He explained the Scriptures to us? (Luke 24:32). And again: Thy word is kindled, and Thy servant loves Thee" (Psalm 118:140). It is difficult for the human soul not to love anything, it is necessary that our mind be attracted to some kind of attachment. Carnal love is overcome by spiritual love. One desire is extinguished by another. As much as it decreases here, so much does it increase there. Therefore, all the more sigh always, and say on your bed: "By night I sought him whom my soul loves" (Song of Songs 3:1); put to death, says the Apostle, your earthly members (Col. 3:5); therefore he himself later said frankly: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). He who kills his limbs, who lives in this world, only apparently is not afraid to say: "Like a fur on a slate" (Psalm 118:83). All the phlegm of lust that was in me evaporated. My knees are weary from fasting (Psalm 108:24). And forget to carry my bread. By the voice of my sighing my bone cleaveth to my flesh (Psalm 101:5-6).

Be a nocturnal dragonfly. Thou shalt wash thy bed every night, and with thy tears I will lay thy bed. Watch and be like a bird in the wilderness. Sing with your spirit, sing with your mind: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His rewards, Who is merciful to all thy iniquities, Who healeth all thy infirmities, Who delivereth thy life from corruption (Psalm 102:2-4). And who among us can say from the heart: "Ashes are like bread, and my drink is mixed with weeping" (Psalm 101:10).

In sickness and sorrow you will give birth to children. But this is (say) the law of a woman, and not mine. And your attraction to your husband. Let her be submissive to her husband who does not have Christ as a spouse. And finally, you will die of death (Gen. 3). This is the end of marriage, and my goal is where no marriage is encroached upon. Let those who are married have their own time and name. And let me be granted virginity in Mary and Christ.