Letters

²⁹ And why should I speak of men? Judith, in no way moved by the luxurious banquet of Holophernes, carried off the triumph of which men's arms despaired, solely in right of her temperance; delivered her country from occupation and slew the leader of the expedition with her own hands. A clear proof both that his luxury had enervated that warrior, terrible to the nations, and that temperance made this woman stronger than men. In this case it was not in her sex that nature was surpassed, but she overcame by her diet. Esther by her fasts moved a proud king. Anna, who for eighty-four years in her widowhood had served God with fasts and prayers day and night in the temple, recognized Christ, Whom John, the master of abstinence, and as it were a new angel on earth, announced.