agency (or operation) of that evil Devil who hateth the things which are good, and [their writers] made use of arrogance and hatred, and in order to corrupt the children of men whose minds have been laid waste and who have no understanding they introduced [them] that they might defile the purity of the holy Catholic Church, and hinder its pure life and deeds of ascetic excellence.
And, moreover, it hath seemed to me—I who fall short of the hope which is in Christ, and who am shamefaced before the command of thy great mindedness—O thou man who lovest doctrine, that I ought first of all to narrate to thee the story of how I was reared, and concerning the gradual growth of my mind of such excellence as I possess towards God. I lived a life of rule and was in a monastery of solitary brethren for the first part of my life, that is to say until the thirty-third year of my age, and I served the office of Bishop for twenty years; thus the whole period of my life hath included fifty-six years.[1]
It is, therefore, absolutely necessary, inasmuch as it hath seemed to me that thou art very anxious to hear the triumphs of the holy Fathers, because of the divine and spiritual profit [which is therein], that I should tell thee in writing [concerning] the men and the women, of whom some I have myself seen, and concerning others of whom I have heard from believing men, and concerning others whom I have met with when I was travelling about in the land of Egypt, and in Libya, and in the Thebaïd, and also in the region of Syene, and among those who are called men of Tabenna, and afterwards in Mesopotamia, and in Palestine, and in Syria, and among these in the countries of the West, and among the Romans, and among the people of the Campagna. And I must also set down in writing with careful exactitude the history of everything which appertaineth closely to these men from the very beginning and set before thee as an example that which will be a most excellent memorial and a benefit of the soul, that is to say, a sure and certain binding up, so that by means of it thou mayest be able to dispel from thy soul all the slumber of error, which cometh into being through irrational desire, and all the doubts of the soul in respect of faith, and sluggishness in respect of the things which are useful, and all loathing and littleness of soul concerning habits of virtue, that is to say, keenness of wrath and perturbation and animal ferocity and empty fear.
Then shalt thou flee from the vain and corrupt delight of this world, and through [thy] constant eager desire thou shalt
- ↑ There is some mistake in the numbers here give, for 33+20=53
