1. It is good to be an eyewitness to the exploits of the best men and champions of virtue, and, looking at them with one's own eyes, to derive benefit for oneself. Everything praiseworthy, when you see it with your own eyes, is attractive, becomes desirable and inspires the viewer with a desire to join it. But there is also a great deal of benefit in the narration of such virtuous deeds, transmitted by eyewitnesses to those who have not seen them themselves. Sight, as some say, is more reliable than hearing; However, the ear is also trustworthy if it is able to discern the truth of what is said. Just as it is characteristic of the tongue and the larynx to distinguish the sweetness, bitterness, and other qualities of food, and to form its judgment of it, so the ear is entrusted with the power of recognizing words, and it is able to distinguish between speeches that are spiritually useful and those that are harmful.

2. If, therefore, useful narratives could be preserved in the memory intact, and the darkness of forgetfulness did not swallow them up like an open abyss, it would undoubtedly be superfluous and useless to write them down, since the benefit they bring would easily reach later generations even without writing. But just as time damages bodies, causing them to grow old and die, so it also destroys the memory of good deeds, covering with oblivion and erasing the memories of them; Therefore, no one can reproach us for having dared to describe the lives of God-loving men. For just as physicians, who are entrusted with the treatment of bodies, prepare medicines to combat disease and help the afflicted, so the work of writing such a work is like a salutary medicine that helps in the fight against forgetfulness and contributes to the preservation of memory. Would it not be strange to us when poets and historians describe feats of war, and tragedians openly depict carefully concealed misfortunes, perpetuating in their writings the memory of them, when some waste words on comedies and jokes—would it not be strange for us to leave to oblivion men who, in a mortal and passionate body, showed impassivity and were jealous of bodiless Angels? What kind of heat would we be worthy of, if with indifference we allowed the memory of their astonishing feats to fade away? For if they, being themselves imitators of the supreme wisdom of the ancient saints, did not inscribe their memory on brass or in writings, but, having imprinted all their virtue in their hearts, made themselves as it were animated images and monuments of them, then can there be any excuse for us, if we do not even honor their glorious life in writing?

3. In honor of wrestlers and fist fighters who struggle at the Olympic Games, their images are exhibited; likewise, the charioteers who win the horse lists receive the same reward. But not only that: even effeminate men who play the part of women on the stage, so that you do not know whether they are men or women, are honored with images on boards from lovers of such spectacles, who compete to keep the memory of them as long as possible, although this memory is harmful, not beneficial to the soul. In spite of this harm, admirers honor such people with pictorial images, each of them his favorite. As death seizes its prey, the mortal body, these worshippers, by mixing paints and imprinting images of their favorites on boards, manage to preserve the memory of them after death.

But we shall record in writings a life that teaches wisdom and is like the life of the inhabitants of heaven. We will not paint bodily features in order to show their impressions to people who do not know, but we will outline the ideals of invisible souls and show the invisible battles and secret disputes of the soldiers of Christ.

4. In such armor they were clothed by the commander and foremost fighter of their phalanx, the holy Apostle Paul, who said: "Put on the whole armor of God... that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having overcome all things, to stand" (Ephesians 6:11, 13). And again: "Stand up, girding your loins with truth, and putting on the breastplate of righteousness, and shod your feet with the readiness to preach the gospel of peace; and above all, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Ephesians 6:14-17). Having clothed the soldiers of Christ in such armor, he led them out to asceticism. And the nature of their enemies is the same: it is incorporeal, invisible, capable of attacking imperceptibly, secretly plotting, striking suddenly and unexpectedly. This is taught to the soldiers of Christ by their commander, who said: "... our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12). However, even with such adversaries, the host of these saints, or rather each of them separately, surrounded by a multitude of similar enemies (for these enemies did not attack all at once, but at one time approached one, and at another another), gained such glorious victories that they put their opponents to flight, slaying them on the run, and erected a trophy in memory of the victory, no longer encountering any obstacle.

5. This victory was granted to the saints not by their nature, which is mortal itself and filled with innumerable passions, but by their will, which attracted to itself the grace of God. Ardently loving the Divine Beauty, joyfully deciding to do everything and endure everything for the sake of the Beloved, they bravely endured the rebellion of the passions, with efforts they repelled the barrage of the devil's blows, and, in the words of the Apostle, "taming and enslaving their bodies" (1 Corinthians 9:27), extinguished the flame of the fierce principle of the soul and silenced the agitations of its desires. By fasting and unceasing vigilance, having put the passions to sleep and tamed their impulses, they forced the body to be reconciled to the soul and put an end to the innate struggle between them.6

6. Having thus established peace between soul and body, they drove away from them the whole crowd of enemies, who, not knowing the secret thoughts of the soul and having no assistance from the members of the human body, could no longer attack successfully. For the arrows that are thrown at us are the members of our nature for the devil. Therefore, if the eyes are not deceived, the ear is not enchanted, the sense of touch is not delighted with any pleasant sensation, and the mind does not perceive evil desires, then all the efforts of the malefactors are in vain. Just as a city built on a hill, surrounded by a thick wall, and surrounded on all sides by deep ditches, cannot be taken by any enemy, unless there is a traitor among its inhabitants, who will open some secret entrance to the enemies, so the demons attacking from without cannot take possession of the soul, protected by the grace of God, unless some impure thought opens the secret entrance of our external senses and through it lets the enemy in.

Having received instruction concerning this from the Holy Scriptures, and having heeded the voice of God, which says through the prophet: "Death has ascended through the window" (Jeremiah 9:21), the saints whom we have blessed have closed their senses, as with locks and locks, by the laws of God, handing over the keys to them to the mind, so that without the command of the mind their tongue will not open their mouths, their pupils will not dare to show themselves from behind their eyelashes, unless they were allowed to do so, and the ear, not being able to bar its entrance with something like eyelashes or lips, avoided meaningless speeches and accepted only those that delighted the mind. In the same way, they have taught the sense of smell not to have a passion for fragrances that can pamper and relax the soul. In the same way they removed satiety from the belly, teaching it to take only that which is not pleasurable, but beneficial, and they ate only as much food as was necessary in order not to die of hunger. They also destroyed the sweet tyranny of sleep, and, freeing their eyelashes from its bondage, learned, instead of submitting to it, to rule and use it, not when it attacks, but only when they themselves invoke it for a brief reinforcement of natural powers.

Having thus taken care of the enclosure of the walls and the strengthening of the gates, as well as establishing harmony between internal thoughts, they laughed at the enemies attacking from without, who could not forcibly invade their city. For the saints were protected by God's grace, and within them there was no traitor who would dare to let their enemies in. And the enemies, who were of an invisible nature, could not take possession of their body, which was visible and subject to natural needs, because the driver, the musician, and his pilot, holding the reins well, made the horses go in order; he, by striking the strings of the senses in a measured manner, taught them to produce harmonious sounds; And he, skillfully controlling the rudder of the ship, successfully repelled both the onslaught of waves and gusts of wind.

7. What person who is not devoid of a sense of justice will not be amazed at these people who have made their earthly journey in innumerable labors, tamed their bodies in sweat and deprivation, did not know what laughter is, and spent their whole lives in sobs and tears? Who will not give worthy praise to them, who considered fasting to be the most exquisite food of the sybarites, exhausting wakefulness the sweetest sleep, hard ground the soft bed, and prayer and psalmody the greatest and immeasurable pleasure? Who will not sing a song of praise to them, who have acquired all kinds of virtue?

I am aware that no word can adequately convey the greatness of their virtue, and yet I will try to do so. For it would be a great injustice not to give even the slightest praise to these perfect men, the worshippers of true wisdom.

8. Nevertheless, in my work I will not give praise to all of them, but to each individually, for God has given them various gifts, as Blessed Paul also taught, saying: "To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit; to another miracle-working, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another divers tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues" (1 Cor. 12:8-10). And pointing out the source of these gifts, he adds: "All these things are wrought by one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one separately as He pleases" (1 Corinthians 12:11). Since they possessed various gifts, it is natural that we will narrate each of them separately, without presenting all the deeds they performed (even a whole life would not suffice for such a description); Having told a little about the life and deeds of one and having shown in some way the characteristic essence of the life of this ascetic, we will move on to another in our narration.

9. Nor will we undertake to describe the way of life of all the saints who live everywhere, for we do not know the ascetics who shone forth in all the ends of the world; And it is impossible for one person to describe everything. I will only tell you about the lives of those who, like the dawn, shone in the east and embraced all the ends of the universe with their rays. And the speech here will be narrative, artlessly recounting a few acts of the saints and alien to the refined devices of panegyrics.

10. Those who begin to read this "History of the God-Lovers" or "The Ascetic Life" — let everyone call this work what he wants — I ask you not to harbor distrust of what is written, even if they happen to hear something beyond their strength. I also ask you not to measure the virtues of these holy men by your own measure, but to firmly remember that the Lord usually measures the gifts of the Holy Spirit with the spiritual disposition of pious people, and sends great gifts to the most perfect. This I have said to those who have not yet sufficiently penetrated into the hidden depths of the works of God. For those who are initiated into the hidden mysteries of the Spirit know how He is pleased with those who worship Him, and how many miracles He works in people and through people, drawing unbelievers to the knowledge of God by the greatness of His accomplishments. And whoever does not believe the events of which we are going to speak, will show that he does not believe in the truth of the deeds of Moses, Joshua and Elisha, and even considers the miracles of the holy Apostles to be fables. However, if the testimonies about these deeds are true, then he should consider these stories to be alien to falsehood, for the same grace that worked in the Apostles also created in others what it created.