Nilus of Ancyra→Peter (correspondent of Nilus of Ancyra)|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To Peter the Reader [anagnostes, lector].
You have said that, after having dried out your body excessively by fasting, you were heavily weighed down by the lust of the evil demon, which had slipped through to the very depths of your members and kindled a flame of pleasure, so that you were greatly disturbed about this. But do not be disturbed; for such things often happen through the envy of the devil. And attend to your reading. For Ezekiel says, addressing the enemy of our life, that "You have crushed every loin" [Ezekiel 29:7] -- that is, you have dared to befoul with the lusts of intercourse and with disordered movements, and to rot away, those who are contending [in the ascetic struggle]. And Jeremiah, speaking of the Lord, who at times hands us over to the demons for training, and permits our secret things to be searched out by him, and all the hidden storehouses of matter, uttered: "The Lord humbled me in the day of his wrath, he sent fire into my ears and brought it down" [cf. Lamentations 1:12-13] -- that is, into the depths of the body, even as the translator Symmachus rendered it: "He chastened me, he spread out a net for my feet, he turned me back, he made me as one annihilated and in pain the whole day long." It is necessary, then, that the one contending be much afflicted by the demons who hate virginity, and be tested, and be plundered, and be darkened, and be handed over, and be made to pass through water and fire, and through mist -- a refreshing, and an air of freedom, and to behold the light of blessedness. The swiftness of a horse goes unnoticed unless there is a contest, and the strength of an athlete is not made manifest unless there is an opponent, and gold proves genuine [when tested], as did Job, as did Joseph, and all the saints.
You have said that, after having dried out your body excessively by fasting, you were heavily weighed down by the lust of the evil demon, which had slipped through to the very depths of your members and kindled a flame of pleasure, so that you were greatly disturbed about this. But do not be disturbed; for such things often happen through the envy of the devil. And attend to your reading. For Ezekiel says, addressing the enemy of our life, that "You have crushed every loin" [Ezekiel 29:7] -- that is, you have dared to befoul with the lusts of intercourse and with disordered movements, and to rot away, those who are contending [in the ascetic struggle]. And Jeremiah, speaking of the Lord, who at times hands us over to the demons for training, and permits our secret things to be searched out by him, and all the hidden storehouses of matter, uttered: "The Lord humbled me in the day of his wrath, he sent fire into my ears and brought it down" [cf. Lamentations 1:12-13] -- that is, into the depths of the body, even as the translator Symmachus rendered it: "He chastened me, he spread out a net for my feet, he turned me back, he made me as one annihilated and in pain the whole day long." It is necessary, then, that the one contending be much afflicted by the demons who hate virginity, and be tested, and be plundered, and be darkened, and be handed over, and be made to pass through water and fire, and through mist -- a refreshing, and an air of freedom, and to behold the light of blessedness. The swiftness of a horse goes unnoticed unless there is a contest, and the strength of an athlete is not made manifest unless there is an opponent, and gold proves genuine [when tested], as did Job, as did Joseph, and all the saints.
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.