Letter 586
To Martyrius.
Every kind of impurity-such as fornication, adultery, licentiousness, and sodomy [arsenokoitia], and the things resembling these-is named "winter" by Solomon. Since, then, all who through repentance have employed right reasoning are set free from such transgressions, and thereafter attend lovingly to words that lead to self-control, for this reason it is written that "The winter is past, the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land" [Song of Songs 2:11-12]; for the turtledove signifies chastity.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Πᾶν εἶδος ἀκαθαρσίας, οἷον πορνεία, μοιχεία, ἀσέλγεια, καὶ ἀρσενοκοιτία, καὶ τὰ ὅμοια τούτοις, χειμὼν προσονομάζονται παρὰ τῷ Σολομῶντι. Ἐπειδὴ οὖν πάντες οἱ ἐκ μεταμελείας τῷ ὀρθῷ χρησάμενοι λογισμῷ ἀπαλλάττονται τῶν τοιούτων ἀπλακημάτων, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο ἐρασμίως προσέχουσι τοῖς σωφρονικοῖς λόγοις, διὰ τοῦτο γέγραπται, ὅτιπερ «Ὁ χειμὼν παρῆλθε, φωνὴ τρυγόνος ἠκούσθη ἐν τῇ γῇ ἡμῶν»· τὴν γὰρ δὴ σωφροσύνην ἡ τρυγὼν κατασημαίνει.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import
Related Letters
This letter is extant also among those of Procopius of Gaza, to whose works it properly belongs. As this Procopius flourished a century later than Jerome, the letter cannot be addressed to him. About this page Source.
Jerome writes to Julian, a wealthy nobleman apparently of Dalmatia (§5), to console him for the loss of his wife and two daughters all of whom had recently died. He reminds Julian of the trials of Job and recommends him to imitate the patience of the patriarch. He also urges him to follow the example set by Pammachius and Paulinus, that is, to g...