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that was the time, since it is not right that she who has chosen virginity should be hindered even when necessity presses, but one must stand nobly against all things that interrupt this good impulse, hear what Christ says: “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” For whenever we pursue any of the things that seem good to God, let everyone who hinders be an enemy and a foe, whether it be father or mother or anyone else. But Paul, still bearing with the imperfection of his hearers, wrote these things, saying: “But he who stands steadfast, having no necessity.” And he did not stop his discourse even at this point; and yet “having no necessity” and “having power” are the same thing. But by the length of his discourse and the continuity of his concessions, he comforts the lowly and small mind, adding to these also another reason: “who has decided in his heart.” For it is not enough to be free, nor from this alone is he responsible, but when he chooses and decides, then he does well. Then, lest you should think because of the great condescension that there is no difference, he again sets forth the distinction, with reservation indeed, but sets it forth nonetheless, saying: “So that he who gives in marriage does well, but he who does not give in marriage does better.” But here he did not show how much better, again for the same reason; but if you wish to learn, hear Christ saying: “They neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven.” Have you seen the difference, where virginity at once lifts up the mortal man, when it is truly virginity?

79 That those around Elias were in no way different from the angels, and that virginity made them so. For in what were they different from the angels, tell me, Elias, Elisha, John, these genuine lovers of virginity? In nothing else than that they were bound to a mortal nature. But if one should examine the other things accurately, he will find them in no way disposed worse than them. And this very thing that seems to be a defect is a great matter for praise. For to be able, while inhabiting the earth and being subject to the necessity of a mortal nature, to attain to that virtue, see of how much courage, of how much philosophy it was. And that virginity made them such is clear from this: for if they had had a wife and children, they would not have easily inhabited the wilderness, they would not have despised houses, nor the other furnishings of life. But now, released from all these bonds, they lived on earth as if they were in heaven. They did not need walls, nor a roof, nor a bed, nor a table, nor any other such thing, but instead of a roof they had the sky, and instead of a bed the earth, and instead of a table the wilderness. And a thing which seems to be a cause of famine to others, the barrenness of the wilderness, this placed those saints in abundance. For they needed no vineyards, nor wine-presses, nor corn-fields, nor harvest. But springs and rivers and lakes provided them with abundant and sweet drink, and for one an angel prepared a table, a certain wonderful and extraordinary one, and greater than according to human custom. “For the one loaf,” it says, “lasted for a forty-day fast.” And the grace of the Spirit often nourished another while he was working miracles, and not only him but also others through him. And John, more than a prophet, than whom none greater has arisen among those born of women, did not even need human food; for not wheat and wine and oil, but locusts and wild honey sustained his bodily life. Have you seen angels on earth? Have you seen the power of virginity? It prepared those entwined with blood and flesh, those who walk on the ground, those subject to the necessity of mortal nature, to do all things as if they were incorporeal, as if they had already obtained heaven, as if they had partaken of immortality.

80 What is seemly and devoted. For to them all things were superfluous, not only these things which are truly superfluous, luxury and wealth and power and glory and the rest of the string of these dreams, but also the things that seem to be necessary, houses and cities and arts. This is to be “seemly and devoted,” this

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ἦν ὁ καιρός, ἐπεὶ ὅτι γε οὐδὲ ἀνάγκης ἐπικειμένης θέμις τὴν προῃρημένην παρθενεύειν κωλύεσθαι, ἀλλὰ πρὸς πάντα ἵστασθαι χρὴ γενναίως τὰ διακόπτοντα τὴν καλὴν ταύτην ὁρμήν, ἄκουσον τί φησιν ὁ Χριστός· «Ὁ φιλῶν πατέρα ἢ μητέρα ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ οὐκ ἔστι μου ἄξιος.» Ὅταν γάρ τι μετίωμεν τῶν τῷ Θεῷ δοκούντων, ἅπας ὁ κωλύων ἐχθρὸς ἔστω καὶ πολέμιος, κἂν πατὴρ ᾖ κἂν μήτηρ κἂν ὁστισοῦν ἕτερος. Ἀλλ' ὁ Παῦλος ἔτι διαβαστάζων τῶν ἀκουόντων τὸ ἀτελὲς ταῦτα ἔγραφε λέγων· «Ὃς δὲ ἕστηκεν ἑδραῖος μὴ ἔχων ἀνάγκην.» Καὶ οὐδὲ μέχρι τούτου τὸν λόγον ἔστησε· καίτοι γε τὸ «Μὴ ἔχων ἀνάγκην» καὶ «Ἐξουσίαν ἔχων» ταὐτόν ἐστιν. Ἀλλὰ τῷ μήκει τοῦ λόγου καὶ τῇ συνεχείᾳ τῶν συγχωρήσεων τὴν εὐτελῆ καὶ μικρὰν παραμυθεῖται διάνοιαν, μετὰ τούτων καὶ ἑτέραν αἰτίαν προσθεὶς τὸ «Ὃς κέκρικεν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ.» Οὐ γὰρ ἀρκεῖ τὸ ἐλεύθερον εἶναι οὐδὲ ἀπὸ τούτου μόνον ὑπεύθυνός ἐστιν ἀλλ' ὅταν ἕληται καὶ κρίνῃ τότε καλῶς ποιεῖ. Εἶτα ἵνα μὴ νομίσῃς διὰ τὴν πολλὴν συγκατάβασιν μηδὲν εἶναι τὸ μέσον, τίθησι πάλιν τὴν διαφορὰν μεθ' ὑποστολῆς μέν, τίθησι δ' ὅμως λέγων· «Ὥστε καὶ ὁ ἐκγαμίζων καλῶς ποιεῖ, ὁ δὲ μὴ ἐκγαμίζων κρεῖσσον ποιεῖ.» Ἀλλ' ἐνταῦθα μὲν ὅσον τὸ κρεῖττον οὐκ ἔδειξε διὰ τὴν αὐτὴν πάλιν αἰτίαν, σὺ δὲ εἰ θέλεις μαθεῖν ἄκουσον τοῦ Χριστοῦ λέγοντος· «Οὔτε γαμοῦσιν οὔτε γαμίζονται, ἀλλ' εἰσὶν ὡς ἄγγελοι ἐν οὐρανῷ.» Εἶδες τὸ μέσον, ποῦ τὸν θνητὸν ἡ παρθενία ἀθρόον αἴρει ὅταν ὄντως ᾖ παρθενία;

79 Ὅτι τῶν ἀγγέλων οὐδὲν ἀπεῖχον οἱ περὶ τὸν Ἡλίαν καὶ ὅτι ἡ παρθενία τοιούτους αὐτοὺς ἐποίησεν. Τί γὰρ τῶν ἀγγέλων ἀπεῖχον, εἰπέ μοι, ὁ Ἡλίας, ὁ Ἑλισσαῖος, ὁ Ἰωάννης, οὗτοι οἱ γνήσιοι τῆς παρθενίας ἐρασταί; Οὐδὲν ἄλλ' ἢ ὅσον θνητῇ προσεδέδεντο φύσει. Τὰ δὲ ἄλλα εἴ τις ἀκριβῶς ἐξετάσειεν, οὐδὲν χεῖρον ἐκείνων εὑρήσει διακειμένους. Καὶ τοῦτο δὲ αὐτὸ τὸ δοκοῦν ἐλάττωμα εἶναι μέγα εἰς ἐγκωμίου λόγον ἐστί. Τὸ γὰρ γῆν οἰκοῦντας καὶ τῇ τῆς θνητῆς φύσεως ὑποκειμένους ἀνάγκῃ δυνηθῆναι φθάσαι πρὸς ἐκείνην τὴν ἀρετήν, ὅρα πόσης ἀνδρείας, πόσης φιλοσοφίας ἦν. Ὅτι δὲ αὐτοὺς ἡ παρθενία τοιούτους ἐποίησε δῆλον ἐκεῖθεν· εἰ γὰρ γυναῖκα εἶχον καὶ παῖδας, οὐκ ἂν εὐκόλως τὴν ἐρημίαν ᾤκησαν, οὐκ οἰκίας κατεφρόνησαν, οὐκ ἂν τῆς ἄλλης τοῦ βίου κατασκευῆς. Νῦν δὲ πάντων τούτων ἀπολυθέντες τῶν δεσμῶν ὡς ἐν οὐρανοῖς ὄντες οὕτως διέτριβον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Οὐ τοίχων ἐδέοντο, οὐκ ὀροφῆς, οὐ κλίνης, οὐ τραπέζης, οὐκ ἄλλου τῶν τοιούτων τινός, ἀλλ' ἀντὶ μὲν στέγης εἶχον τὸν οὐρανόν, ἀντὶ δὲ κλίνης τὴν γῆν, ἀντὶ δὲ τραπέζης τὴν ἐρημίαν. Καὶ πρᾶγμα ὃ τοῖς ἄλλοις αἴτιον εἶναι λιμοῦ δοκεῖ τῆς ἐρημίας ἡ ἀκαρπία, τοῦτο τοὺς ἁγίους ἐκείνους ἐν ἀφθονίᾳ καθίστησιν. Οὐ γὰρ ἀμπέλων αὐτοῖς ἐδέησεν οὐδὲ ληνῶν οὐδὲ ληΐων οὐδὲ ἀμητοῦ. Ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν ποτὸν αὐτοῖς ἄφθονον παρεῖχον καὶ ἡδὺ πηγαὶ καὶ ποταμοὶ καὶ λίμναι, τράπεζαν δὲ τῷ μὲν ἄγγελος κατεσκεύαζε θαυμαστήν τινα καὶ παράδοξον καὶ μείζονα ἢ κατ' ἀνθρωπίνην συνήθειαν. «Ὁ γὰρ εἷς ἄρτος», φησί, «πρὸς τεσσαράκοντα ἡμερῶν ἀσιτίαν διήρκεσε.» Τὸν δὲ ἡ τοῦ πνεύματος χάρις πολλάκις ἔτρεφε θαυματουργοῦντα, καὶ οὐκ αὐτὸν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ δι' ἐκείνου ἑτέρους. Ὁ δὲ προφήτου πλέον Ἰωάννης, οὗ μείζων ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν οὐκ ἐγήγερται, οὐδὲ ἀνθρωπίνης ἐδεήθη τροφῆς· οὐ γὰρ σῖτος καὶ οἶνος καὶ ἔλαιον ἀλλ' ἀκρίδες καὶ μέλι ἄγριον τὴν τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ διεκράτουν ζωήν. Εἶδες ἀγγέλους ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς; Εἶδες παρθενίας ἰσχύν; Τοὺς αἵματι καὶ σαρκὶ συμπεπλεγμένους, τοὺς χαμαὶ ἐρχομένους, τοὺς ἀνάγκῃ φύσεως ὑποκειμένους θνητῆς ὡς ἀσωμάτους, ὡς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἤδη λαχόντας, ὡς ἀθανασίαν μετειληφότας, οὕτως ἅπαντα ποιεῖν παρεσκεύαζεν.

80 Τί τὸ εὔσχημον καὶ εὐπρόσεδρον. Πάντα γὰρ ἐκείνοις ἦν περιττά, οὐ ταῦτα μόνον τὰ ὄντως ὄντα περιττά, τρυφὴ καὶ πλοῦτος καὶ δυναστεία καὶ δόξα καὶ ὁ λοιπὸς τῶν ὀνείρων τούτων ὁρμαθός, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ δοκοῦντα εἶναι ἀναγκαῖα, οἰκίαι καὶ πόλεις καὶ τέχναι. Τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ «Εὔσχημον καὶ εὐπρόσεδρον» εἶναι, τοῦτο