Letters

³⁶ As my present subject is virgins, I have said rather too much about monks. I will pass on, therefore, to the third class, called anchorites, who go from the monasteries into the deserts, with nothing but bread and salt. Paul introduced this way of life; Antony made it famous, and— to go farther back still— John the Baptist set the first example of it. The prophet Jeremiah describes one such in the words: “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sits alone and keeps silence, because he has borne it upon him. He gives his cheek to him that smites him, he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever.” The struggle of the anchorites and their life— in the flesh, yet not of the flesh— I will, if you wish, explain to you at some other time. I must now return to the subject of covetousness, which I left to speak of the monks. With them before your eyes you will despise, not only gold and silver in general, but earth itself and heaven. United to Christ, you will sing, “The Lord is my portion.”