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they were clothed in this, he received with much honor, calling them "blessed of the Father" and calling them to himself and granting them the inheritance of the kingdom and proclaiming it in the midst of the world; and he did not refuse, with angels and all of creation present, to address them as his nourishers and hosts. You too will hear that blessed voice then, you will enjoy that reward with much abundance. But if for almsgiving alone there are such great recompenses, so many crowns, such great brightness, such great distinction and glory, if I should also go through for you the other parts of virtue, what pardon would you have, you who ought henceforth to already keep festival and leap and dance and be crowned, but instead, because so-and-so went mad and so-and-so went over a cliff, are cutting yourself to pieces and making the devil's assault against your holy soul an easy thing, he whom to this day you have not ceased to tear to pieces? For what might one say of your patience, so varied and manifold and multiform, and how much speech will suffice us for this, and how great a measure of history, if one were to recount your sufferings from your earliest years until now, those from your own household, those from strangers, those from friends, those from enemies, those from relatives by birth, those from those in no way related, those from those in power, those from the lowly, those from rulers, those from private citizens, those from those numbered in the clergy? For the narrative of each of these, if one were to go through it by itself alone, is able to make a whole history. But if one should move on to the other forms of this virtue, and no longer narrate the sufferings inflicted by others, but those fashioned by yourself, what stone, what iron, what adamant will he not find to have been conquered by you? For having received flesh so soft and delicate, raised with every kind of luxury, you so besieged it with various sufferings that now it is in no better state than one that has been mortified, and you kindled in yourself such a swarm of diseases as to defy the art of physicians and the power of medicines and every mode of treatment, and to live with continual pains. 8.5 But the endurance and self-control at the table and that during the nights, if one wished to go through it, how many words would he need? Or rather, you did not allow it henceforth to be called self-control or endurance in your case, but we must seek for these virtues another name, one much greater. For we say that he exercises self-control and endures who is troubled by some desire and overcomes it. But you have nothing to overcome; for having blown with great force against the flesh from the beginning, you extinguished these its desires, not by bridling the horse, but by hobbling it and throwing it to the ground and making it remain motionless. And so having achieved self-control then, but now, finally, dispassion. For the desire for luxury does not trouble you, nor do you have the labor of overcoming it; but having utterly destroyed it and having made the flesh inaccessible to it, you have trained your stomach to enjoy only so much food and drink as not to die and pay the penalty. For this very reason I do not call this fasting or self-control, but something else greater than this. This it is also possible to see in the case of your sacred vigil; for the desire to sleep, when that other was extinguished, was extinguished along with it; for food is the nourishment of sleep. And you destroyed it in another way also: at first by doing violence to nature itself and passing whole nights sleepless, but later by continuous habit also bringing the practice to be second nature. For just as for others it is natural to sleep, so for you it is to be awake. These things, then, are marvelous and full of astonishment, even in themselves. But if someone should also examine the time, that these things were achieved at an untimely age, and the lack of teachers, and the multitude of those who caused scandal, and that in a soul from an impious house now

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ταύτην ἦσαν περιβεβλημένοι, μετὰ πολλῆς ὑπεδέξατο τῆς τιμῆς, «εὐλογημένους τε τοῦ Πατρὸς» ὀνομάζων καὶ πρὸς ἐαυτὸν καλῶν καὶ τῆς βασιλείας τὴν κληρονομίαν αὐτοῖς χαριζόμενος καὶ ἐν μέσῃ ἀνακηρύττων τῇ οἰκουμένῃ· καὶ οὐ παρῃτήσατο καὶ ἀγγέλων καὶ τῆς κτίσεως πάσης παρούσης, τροφέας τε αὐτοῦ καὶ ξενοδόχους αὐτοὺς προσειπεῖν. Ταύτης καὶ αὐτὴ ἀκούσῃ τότε τῆς μακαρίας φωνῆς, ταύτης ἀπολαύσῃ τῆς ἀμοιβῆς μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς περιουσίας. Εἰ δὲ ὑπὲρ ἐλεημοσύνης μόνον τοσαῦται αἱ ἀντιδόσεις, τοσοῦτοι οἱ στέφανοι, τοσαύτη ἡ λαμπρότης, τοσαύτη ἡ περιφάνεια καὶ ἡ δόξα, εἰ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐπέλθοιμί σοι μέρη, ποίαν ἂν σχοίης συγγνώμην, ὀφείλουσα ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη ἑορτὴν ἄγειν καὶ σκιρτᾶν καὶ χορεύειν καὶ στεφανοῦσθαι, ἐπειδὴ δὲ ὁ δεῖνα ἐμάνη καὶ ὁ δεῖνα κατὰ κρημνῶν ἦλθε, κατακόπτουσα ἑαυτὴν καὶ εὔκολον κατὰ τῆς ἁγίας σου ψυχῆς τῷ διαβόλῳ ποιοῦσα τὴν ἔφοδον ὃν μέχρι σήμερον καταξαίνουσα οὐκ ἐπαύσω; Τί γὰρ ἄν τις εἴποι τὴν ὑπομονὴν τὴν ποικίλην καὶ πολυειδῆ καὶ πολύτροπον, καὶ πόσος ἡμῖν εἰς τοῦτο ἀρκέσει λόγος, πόσον δὲ ἱστορίας μέτρον, εἴ τις τὰ ἐκ πρώτης ἡλικίας μέχρι τοῦ νῦν παθήματά σου καταλέγοι, τὰ παρὰ τῶν οἰκείων, τὰ παρὰ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων, τὰ παρὰ τῶν φίλων, τὰ παρὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν, τὰ παρὰ τῶν γένει προσηκόντων, τὰ παρὰ τῶν μηδαμόθεν προσηκόντων, τὰ παρὰ τῶν ἐν δυναστείαις, τὰ παρὰ τῶν εὐτελῶν, τὰ παρὰ τῶν ἀρχόντων, τὰ παρὰ τῶν ἰδιωτῶν, τὰ παρὰ τῶν εἰς τὸν κλῆρον τελούντων; Τούτων γὰρ ἕκαστον, εἴ τις διεξίοι αὐτὸ καθ' ἑαυτὸ μόνον, ἱστορίαν ὁλόκληρον ἱκανὸν ποιῆσαι τὸ διήγημα. Εἰ δέ τις καὶ πρὸς τὰ ἕτερα εἴδη τῆς ἀρετῆς ταύτης μετασταίη, καὶ μηκέτι τὰ παρ' ἑτέρων, ἀλλὰ τὰ παρὰ σοῦ κατασκευασθέντα διηγήσαιτο πάθη, τίνα λίθον, τίνα σίδηρον, ποῖον ἀδάμαντα οὐχ εὑρήσει νικηθέντα παρὰ σοῦ; Ἁπαλὴν γὰρ, οὕτω σάρκα λαβοῦσα καὶ τρυφεράν, παντὶ εἴδει τρυφῆς συντραφεῖσαν, οὕτως αὐτὴν ποικίλοις ἐπολιόρκησας πάθεσιν ὡς μηδὲν ἄμεινον τῆς νεκρωθείσης διακεῖσθαι νῦν καὶ τοσοῦτον ἀνῆψας ἐν σεαυτῇ νοσημάτων ἐσμὸν ὡς καὶ ἰατρῶν τέχνην καὶ φαρμάκων δύναμιν καὶ πάντα ἐπιμελείας ἐλέγξαι τρόπον καὶ διηνεκέσι συζῇν ὀδύναις. 8.5 Τὴν δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς τραπέζης καρτερίαν τε καὶ ἐγκρά τειαν καὶ τὴν ἐν ταῖς νυξὶν εἴ τις βουληθείη διεξελθεῖν, πόσων δεήσεται λόγων; Μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ εἴασας αὐτὴν ἐγκράτειαν καλεῖσθαι λοιπὸν οὐδὲ καρτερίαν ἐπὶ σοῦ, ἀλλ' ἕτερον ὄνομα ταύταις ἡμῖν ζητητέον ταῖς ἀρεταῖς πολλῷ μεῖζον. Καὶ γὰρ ἐγκρατεύεσθαι ἐκεῖνόν φαμεν καὶ καρτερεῖν τὸν ὑπό τινος ἐπιθυμίας ἐνοχλούμενον καὶ κρατοῦντα ταύτης. Σὺ δὲ οὐκ ἔχεις ὅτου κρατήσεις· πολλῇ γὰρ τῇ ῥύμῃ παρὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν πνεύσασα κατὰ τῆς σαρκὸς ἔσβεσας αὐτῆς τὰς ἐπιθυμίας ταύτας, οὐ χαλινώσασα τὸν ἵππον, ἀλλὰ συμποδίσασα καὶ χαμαὶ ῥίψασα καὶ ποιήσασα μένειν ἀκίνητον. Καὶ τότε μὲν ἐγκράτειαν κατορθώσασα, νῦν δὲ ἀπάθειαν λοιπόν. Οὐ γὰρ διενοχλεῖ τρυφῆς ἐπιθυμία καὶ πόνον ἔχεις ὥστε αὐτῆς κρατῆσαι· ἀλλὰ καθάπαξ αὐτὴν ἀφανίσασα καὶ ἄβατον αὐτῇ τὴν σάρκα ποιήσασα, τοσοῦτον ἀπολαύειν σίτου καὶ ποτοῦ τὴν γαστέρα ἐπαίδευσας ὅσον μὴ ἀποθανεῖν καὶ δίκην δοῦναι. ∆ιά τοι τοῦτο οὐ νηστείαν οὐδὲ ἐγκράτειαν τοῦτο καλῶ, ἀλλ' ἕτερόν τι τούτου μεῖζον. Τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγρυπνίας σου τῆς ἱερᾶς ἔστιν ἰδεῖν· καὶ γὰρ ἡ τοῦ καθεύδειν ἐπιθυμία, ἐκείνης σβεσθείσης, συγκατεσβέσθη· τροφὴ γὰρ ὕπνου σιτία. Καὶ ἑτέρῳ δὲ αὐτὴν κατέλυσας τρόπῳ ἐξ ἀρχῆς μὲν καὶ αὐτὴν βιασαμένη τὴν φύσιν καὶ ὁλοκλήρους νύκτας ἀΰπνους διάγουσα, ὕστερον δὲ τῇ συνεχεῖ συνηθείᾳ καὶ εἰς φύσιν ἀγαγοῦσα τὸ πρᾶγμα. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τοῖς ἄλλοις κατὰ φύσιν τὸ καθεύδειν, οὕτω σοὶ τὸ ἐγρηγορέναι. Θαυμαστὰ μὲν οὖν ταῦτα καὶ ἐκπλήξεως γέμοντα, καὶ καθ' ἑαυτά. Εἰ δέ τις καὶ τὸν καιρὸν ἐξετάσειεν ὅτι ἐν ἀώρῳ ἡλικίᾳ ταῦτα κατωρθοῦτο καὶ τὴν ἐρημίαν τῶν διδαξόντων καὶ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν σκανδαλιζόντων καὶ ὅτι ἐν ψυχῇ ἐξ ἀσεβοῦς οἴκου νῦν