And so, my Eustochia, daughter, mistress, co-servant, relative (the first name is according to age, the second according to worth, the third according to faith, the fourth according to love), listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah: "Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors behind thee, hide thyself for a moment, until the wrath shall pass away" (Isaiah 26:20). Foolish virgins wander outside; thou shalt be within with the Bridegroom; for if thou shuttest the doors, and according to the commandment of the Gospel pray to thy Father in secret, he shall come, and knock, and say, Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Rev. 3:20), and thou shalt immediately answer with solicitude: "The voice of my brother knocking at the door: Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my pure!" (Song of Songs 5:2).

Do not say: I threw off my tunic; How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; How can I get them dirty? (Song of Songs 5:3). Get up immediately and open it, so that during your delay the Bridegroom will not depart, and so that you will not have to look for it afterwards and say: "I have opened it to my brother; my brother is gone" (Song of Songs 5:6). For what good is it if the doors of your heart are closed for the Bridegroom? Let them be opened to Christ and shut up for the devil, according to the following saying: "If the wrath of the ruler burn against you, do not leave your place" (Ecclesiastes 10:4). Daniel dwelt in the uppermost upper room (for he could not dwell in the lower) and had windows open to Jerusalem. And thou shalt have windows open to whence the light comes, whence thou seest the city of the Lord. Do not open those windows of which it is said: "Death enters into our windows" (Jeremiah 9:21).

Most carefully you must avoid the fire of vanity. How, Jesus said, can you believe when you receive glory from one another? (John 5:44). See how great is the evil that he who possesses cannot believe? But we say: "Thou art my glory" (Ps. 3:4) and: "He who boasts, let him glory in the Lord" (2 Corinthians 10:17). And if I were to please men even now, I would not be a servant of Christ (Gal. 1:10), and I do not wish to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified for me, and I for the world (Gal. 6:14). And again: In Thee we will boast all the day; in the Lord my soul shall glory (Psalm 33:3). When you give alms, let God alone see; when you fast, let your face be joyful. Your clothes should not be very clean and dirty, and should not be distinguished by anything special, so that a crowd of passers-by does not stop in front of you and point their fingers at you. Thy brother is dead; the sister's body must be weakened: take care lest, by acting in this way often, you yourself die. Do not try to appear too pious and humble more than is necessary, lest, by avoiding fame, you acquire it. Many, shunning the witnesses of their poverty, compassion, and fasting, thereby want to be glorified, because they despise glory; and in a surprising way avoiding fame, they seek it. I find that many are strangers to other worries, from which the human mind rejoices and sorrows, hopes and fears. But there are too few who are free from the vice of vanity; and the best is he who occasionally stains his beauty with the mud of transgressions. I do not urge you not to boast of wealth, not to boast of the nobility of your family, not to exalt yourself before others. I know your humility; I know that you sincerely say: Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are lifted up lower (Psalm 130:1). I know that you and your mother have no place for pride, through which the devil fell. Therefore, it would be superfluous to write to you about this. It would be extremely stupid to teach what the person you teach knows. But beware lest you be led to vanity by despising the glory of this world; so that a secret thought does not creep in, abandoning the intention of being liked in gold-woven garments, and try to be liked in gloomy ones; When you come to the congregation of brothers or sisters, sit down, acknowledging that you are not worthy even of the footstool. Do not speak deliberately in a low voice, as if exhausted by fasting; do not lean on the shoulders of another, imitating the gait of a man who is exhausted in strength. There are others, darkening their faces, let them appear to men fasting; when they see someone, they immediately sigh, frown, and, lowering their heads, seem to barely look with one eye. A mourning dress, a belt of coarse cloth, hands and feet not washed — one womb, since it is not visible, is filled with food.

About these women it is sung daily in the psalm: the Lord scatters the bones of people who like Himself (Psalm 52:6). Others with a masculine appearance, having changed their clothes, are ashamed that they were born women, cut off their hair and shamelessly lift up their faces, like the faces of eunuchs. There are also those who are dressed in sackcloth and, having made caps to return to childhood, are like owls and owls.

But so that it does not seem that I am speaking only of women, I will add: flee also from men, whom you see in chains with hair grown like women's, contrary to the Apostle's commandment, with a goat's beard, in a black cloak, with their feet bare for a victim of cold. These are all tools of the devil. Such, unfortunately, was once Anthimus in Rome, such was Sophronius recently. Having penetrated into the houses of nobles and deceived women, burdened with sins, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, they take on the guise of holiness and asceticize, as it were, in long fasts, devoting their nights to secret feasts. It is shameful to speak of them more, so as not to appear not to be a teacher, but to be deceived. There are others (I am speaking of people of their own class) who seek the presbytery and deaconate, in order to see women with greater freedom. All their care is about clothes, so that they are fragrant, so that the foot is smoothly covered with soft skin. Hair curled with tongs; rings glitter on his fingers: they step a little, so as not to get their soles wet on a wet road. When you see such people, consider them grooms rather than clerics. Others devoted all their efforts and their whole lives to learning the names, houses and manners of noble women. I will briefly describe one of them, especially skillful in this, so that, knowing the teacher, you will recognize the disciples the more easily. At sunrise, he gets up hastily, makes a plan of congratulatory visits, chooses the shortest roads, and the impudent old man makes his way even to the bedrooms to the beds of the sleepers. When he sees a headboard, an elegant towel, or something else made of household junk, he feels, is surprised, praised, and, complaining that he needs it, he does not beg, but simply extorts, because every woman is afraid to offend the city postman. Purity is his enemy, fasting is also his enemy; He loves a sumptuous lunch of delicious cranes, popularly called Pipizo.

His tongue is coarse and impudent, and is always ready for backbiting. Wherever you turn, he is the first in sight. Whatever new happens, he is either the culprit or the spreader of the rumor. His horses change every minute, now docile, now mad: you would think that he is the brother of the Thracian king.

The cunning enemy uses various shackles. The serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field, which the Lord God created (Gen. 3:1). For this reason the Apostle says: "We are not ignorant of his intentions" (2 Corinthians 2:11). Neither deliberate cynicism nor refined neatness are befitting for a Christian. If you do not know something, if you doubt something in the Scriptures, ask him whose life is righteous, whose years are venerable, who is not condemned by rumor, who could say: "I have betrothed you to one man, that I may present you to Christ as a pure virgin" (2 Corinthians 11:2). Or if there is no reliable mentor, it is better to remain in safe ignorance than to seek and fear. Remember that you walk among the snares: many virgins of venerable years with undoubted chastity have let the crown slip from their hands at the very sepulchre. If there are maids among the accomplices of your vow, do not exalt yourself before them, do not puff yourself up with the fact that you are a mistress; you have come to have one Bridegroom, you sing psalms together, you receive the Body of Christ together: what is the difference in relationships? Let others be invited to the feat. Let the crown of virginity be a call for others. If you notice any one who is unsteady in her faith, accept her, console her, caress her, and make her chastity an acquisition for yourself. If any of the maidservants pretends to express her zeal for virginity, wishing to be delivered from slavery, read him directly from the Apostle: "It is better to marry than to be inflamed" (1 Corinthians 7:9). And those maidens and widows who idly but diligently wander from house to house of matrons and, having lost all shame, surpass the jesters in parasitism, remove them as an infection. Bad associations corrupt good morals (1 Cor. 15:33). They have no more concern for the womb and for that which is closest to the womb. They advise and say in this way: "My little one, use your fortune and live as long as you live; Do you save everything for your heirs?" even hard souls they soften to sensuality. Falling into luxury in opposition to Christ, they wish to enter into marriage. They are subject to condemnation because they have rejected the former faith (1 Tim. 5:11-12). Do not try to appear to yourself to be particularly eloquent; do not find pleasure in poetic lyrical songs. Do not follow out of delicacy the effeminate taste of matrons, who now through clenched teeth, now with widened mouths, pronounce words half with a whisper, considering everything that is natural to be rude. To such an extent they like fornication even in language; But what has light to do with darkness? What agreement is there between Christ and Belial? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). How will Horace get along with the Psalter, Maron with the Gospel, Cicero with the Apostle? Will not the brother also be offended, seeing you reclining in the trebice? And although everything is pure for the pure, and nothing should blaspheme, which is received with thanksgiving, yet we should not drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons together. I will tell you my unfortunate adventure.

Many years ago, when I wanted to leave home, my parents, my sister, my acquaintances, and, what is even more difficult, from the habit of a luxurious life, and go to Jerusalem for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, I could not leave the library that I had compiled in Rome with such care and labor. And so I, accursed, fasted and intended to read Tullius. After frequent sleepless nights, after tears, torn from the very depths of my soul by the memory of former sins, I still held Plautus in my hands. A little sometimes I came to my senses and began to read the prophets, I was horrified by the lack of raw speech; With blind eyes, not seeing the light, I thought that it was not the eyes that were to blame, but the sun. When the ancient serpent was playing with me in this way, almost in the middle of the Forty Days, a fever spilled over my emaciated body and, without giving me rest (which is even incredible), devoured the unfortunate limbs so much that I barely had bones left. The funeral was not far away; the vital force of the soul, with a completely cold body, throbbed only in the barely warm chest; how suddenly, raptured in spirit, I was presented to the Throne of the Judge, where there was so much light, so much brilliance from the brightness of those around me, that when I fell to the ground, I did not dare to look up. When asked who I was, I called myself a Christian. But the One Who Sat said: "You lie, you are a Ciceronian, and not a Christian; for where your treasure is, there is your heart" (Matt. 6:21). I fell silent, and under the scourges (for He commanded me to be beaten), still more tormented by the fire of conscience, I repeated the verse in my mind: In hell, who will be known to Thee? (Psalm 6:6). Then he began to cry out and, weeping, said: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, have mercy on me." These sounds were heard among the blows of the whips. Meanwhile, those who stood before me, falling down on the knees of the One who sat down, begged Him to forgive the sin of youth and instead of error to give place to repentance, in order to punish me later if I ever began to read works of pagan literature. Placed only under this condition, I, who was ready to promise much more, began to swear and, calling on the name of God, say: "Lord, if ever I have secular books, if I read them, it means that through this very thing I have renounced You." Released after these words of oath, I return to earth, to the surprise of all, and open my eyes, so abundantly filled with tears, that even incredulous people, seeing my sorrow, should have believed my story. It was not a fainting, not an idle dream, such as we often laugh at. The witness was the Throne before which I lay, the witness was the Last Judgment, which I feared, so that I would never again be subjected to such a test. I confess that I even had blue shoulders, I felt the pain of blows after sleep, and since then I began to read the Divine with such zeal as I had not read secular things before.

Also avoid the vice of covetousness, and not only do not appropriate what is not yours (for this is punished even by social laws), but do not even guard what is yours, as if it were someone else's to you. If in the things of others, it is said, you have not been faithful, who will give you yours? (Luke 16:12). Piles of gold and silver are strangers to us; our possessions are spiritual; it is said of him: "With his riches a man redeemeth [his life]" (Proverbs 13:8). No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or he will be zealous for the one, and not care for the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matt. 6:24), that is, wealth. For in its native, Syriac language, mammon means wealth. Concerns about food are obstacles to faith. At the basis of covetousness lies pagan care. But you will say: "I am a gentle girl, and I cannot work with my own hands. Listen to what Jesus says to the apostles: Do not be anxious for your soul what you will eat or drink, nor for your body what you will wear. Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your Father in heaven feedeth them (Matt. 6:25-26). If there are no clothes, look at the lilies. If you are hungry, listen to Him Who blesses the poor and the hungry. If any other sorrow burdens you, then read: "I am pleased in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:10), and "A thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, has been given to me to afflict me, that I may not be exalted" (2 Cor. 12:7). Rejoice, O thou in all the decrees of God. Rejoice in the daughter of Judah, for Thy destinies, O Lord" (Psalm 96:8). Let it always be heard from your mouth: "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, naked and I will return" (Job 1:21). And we brought nothing into the world; it is evident that we can take nothing [out of it] (1 Tim. 6:7).

But now you will see very many people stuffing their wardrobes with dresses, changing their tunics every day, and still not being able to get rid of moths. Another, in order to appear more pious, wears only a dress, and in full chests she keeps all kinds of fabrics. Parchment is painted purple, gold glitters in the letters, the binding is decorated with precious stones — and behind the doors, a naked Christ dies. When they stretch out a hand to someone in need, they blow the trumpet. They invite you to the supper of love — they send a herald. I have recently seen one of the noblest women of Rome (I am silent about the name, lest you think that I am writing a libel), preceded by eunuchs in St. Peter's Basilica, distributing a coin to each of them in St. Peter's Basilica, in order to be considered more pious. Meanwhile (as is often the case with beggars) an old woman, covered with gray hair and rags, ran ahead to get another coin. The latter, when she reached her in order, gave her a fist instead of a denarius, so that the poor old woman's blood flowed. Covetousness is the root of all evil, and for this reason the Apostle calls idolatry. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all this will be added to you. The Lord will not kill a righteous soul with hunger. A young man, for he is old, and hath not seen the righteous man, and beseecheth less than his seed bread (Psalm 36:25). The Elijah carried food into the wounds. The widow of Zarephath, herself and her children intending to die of hunger the next night, fed the prophet; and he who came to her to feed her, nourished her from a miraculously inexhaustible vessel. The Apostle Peter said: "I have neither silver nor gold; but what I have, I give unto thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk (Acts 3:6). And now many, without saying a word, say in deed: "I have no faith and mercy, but what I have, silver and gold, I will not give you." Having food and clothing, let us be content with these things (1 Tim. 6:8). Listen to what Jacob asks in his prayer: "If God be with me, and keep me in this way in which I go, and give me bread to eat, and clothes to wear" (Gen. 28:20). He prayed only for what was necessary, and twenty years later he returned to the land of Canaan as a rich lord and an even richer father. Innumerable are the examples in the Scriptures that teach us how to avoid covetousness.

However, since we have now touched upon this subject (hoping, if Christ helps, to reveal it in a special work), we will also tell you what happened a few years ago in Nitria. One of the brethren, more thrifty than covetous, not knowing that the Lord had been sold for thirty pieces of silver, left a hundred solidi, which he had acquired with flax yarn, as he died. The monks (up to five thousand of them lived in that place in separate cells) gathered for advice on what should be done. Some said: to distribute to the poor, others to give to the church, some to send to relatives. But Macarius, Pamba, Isidore and others, who were called fathers, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, determined to bury them together with their owner, saying: "Let thy money perish with thee" (Acts 8:20). Let no one think that such an act was cruel: such fear was found on all Egypt as a whole, that it was considered a crime to protect even one solidus.

Since I have mentioned monks and I know that you are willing to hear about holiness, stop your attention for a while. There are three kinds of monks in Egypt. The first is the Kinovites, called by the natives "sauzes"; we can call them coenobitic. The second is anchorites, who live one by one in the desert and are so called because they go far away from people. The third is the so-called remobots, gloomy, untidy; They are exclusively or mainly located in our country. They live in twos, threes together, no more, and live according to their own will and their own means, only from what they earn, they contribute part to the pool, in order to have a common table. They live for the most part in cities and castles; and as if their trade and not their life should be sacred, whatever they sell is always more expensive. There are often quarrels between them, because, living on their own dependents, they do not tolerate being subordinate to anyone. It is they who most often argue over fasts, make domestic affairs the subject of litigation. Everything is made up of them: wide sleeves like furs, boots, the coarsest clothes, frequent sighs; they see maidens, revile the clergy; and when the feast day comes, they are satiated to vomit.

And so, passing by them as by some contagion, let us go to those who live in communities in multitudes, that is, to those who are called, as we have said, Cynovites. Their first condition is to obey their elders and do whatever they command. They are divided into tens and hundreds, so that in ten people the tenth is the chief, and the hundredth has ten ten chiefs under him. They live separately, but in interconnected cells. Until nine o'clock, as is customary, no one goes to another, except to the ten-commanders mentioned above, so that if anyone is overwhelmed by thoughts, he uses their advice. After nine o'clock, they come together, sing psalms, and read the Scriptures as usual. At the end of the prayers, when everyone is seated, the one whom they call father, standing in the middle, begins a conversation. During his speech, there is such silence that no one dares to look at another, no one dares to cough: praise to the speaker is expressed in the weeping of the listeners. Tears roll quietly down her cheeks, and sorrow does not break out even with a groan. And when he begins to proclaim the things to come, of the Kingdom of Christ, of the future blessedness and glory, you will see everyone with a restrained sigh and eyes raised to heaven, saying within yourself: Who will give me a wing, like a dove, and I will fly, and rest? (Psalm 54:7). Then the meeting is over, and each dozen with his senior goes to the table, at which they serve in turn. There is no noise during the table; No one is talking. They eat bread and vegetables, which are seasoned with salt alone. Wine is drunk only by old people, for whom dinner is often with youths, in order to support the advanced age of some and not to delay the incipient age of others. Then they get up at once and, having sung a hymn, disperse to their homes, here until evening everyone talks to his friends and says: "Have you seen so-and-so? How much grace is in him! How much quietness! What a humble step!" They see the weak, they console him, and those who burn with love for God are urged to a greater podvig. And since at night, in addition to the common prayers, everyone is still awake in his bedchamber, they go around all the cells and, putting their ears, carefully find out what is being done. When they notice someone lazy, they do not reprimand him, but, pretending that they do not know, they visit him more often and at first ask rather than force him to pray. Daily chores are arranged as follows: what has been done by the ten-commander is reported to the steward, who himself gives an account of the common father every month with great trepidation. He also tastes the food as it is prepared; and since it is not lawful for anyone to say, "I have no undergarment, no outer garment, no bed woven of reeds," he arranges everything in such a way that no one is deprived of what he needs. If someone falls ill, he is carried to a spacious chamber and the elders serve him with such zeal that he does not even think about the comforts of the city and about the cares of his mother. Sundays are devoted only to prayer and reading; however, the Kinovites do the same at any time after the end of their labors. Something from the Scriptures is read every day. Lent is the same throughout the year, except for the Forty Days, on which it is supposed to live more strictly. From Pentecost, supper is changed to dinners, in order to preserve the Church tradition and not burden the stomach with two meals. Philo, a follower of the Platonic school, and Josephus, that Greek Livy, represent the Essenes in the second part of the history of the Jewish captivity.

Although in my letter about the virgins I have now spoken almost unnecessarily of monks, I am also approaching their third kind, called anchorites. Coming out of the coenobia, they take nothing else with them to the desert except bread and salt. The founder of this way of life is Paul, the founder is Anthony, and if we go up, the first culprit was John the Baptist. Even the prophet Jeremiah describes a man in the same way, saying: "It is good for a man when he bears the yoke in his youth; he sits alone and is silent, for He has laid it on him; puts his mouth in the dust, [thinking]: "Perhaps there is still hope"; he offers his cheek to him who smites him, he is satiated with reproach, for the Lord does not forsake him forever (Lamentations 3:27-31). Their exploits and way of life, which are not carnal in the flesh, I will describe, if you wish, at another time. Now I will return to my subject, since I have passed from the discourse on covetousness to the monks. Having presented them to you as an example, I say: "Despise not only gold, silver and other riches, but even the earth and heaven itself, and in union only with Christ you will sing: 'My part is the Lord.'"