Sophia Scriptura

Letters

Epistolae

About the English. Route 3: the Syriac original is not in hand in readable form; the source is Kmosko's Latin translation (1915), translated by Claude with a note; the Latin is never shown.

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Contents

Reading pages: 1–8 · 9–12 · 13–14

  1. 1Ammonas rejoices that his disciples’ “body” is alive, contrasts the dead fasting rebuked in Isaiah 58, and prays that they may grow in every fruit of holiness.
  2. 2Love of God leads through fear, tears and joy to a divine power that drives off Satan, which few hermits acquire because few labour for it.
  3. 3Works done to please men are not heard by God; Ammonas urges his disciples to fight the spirit of vainglory and to rekindle their fervour, as David did.
  4. 4Ammonas prays that his sons may receive the discernment that Paul sought for his churches, and warns them against companions whose talk quenches the Spirit.
  5. 5Ammonas remembers his disciples in prayer as Paul remembered Timothy, and hopes to visit them to impart what he cannot write.
  6. 6The mysteries of God are revealed only to the pure and obedient; Ammonas prays that his disciples may reach this perfection and become examples to their generation.
  7. 7As Jacob received his fathers’ blessing and saw the angels, so Ammonas prays that his obedient disciples may receive the fathers’ blessing and be kept from the Evil One.
  8. 8Ammonas urges his disciples to ask for the Holy Spirit without doubting, promising that those who receive him live as though already in the kingdom and pray for others as Moses did.
  9. 9Temptation follows every blessing, as with Jacob, Abraham and the saints; those who keep praying through the Spirit’s withdrawal receive a greater joy.
  10. 10Temptations lead the soul upward through orders of light; the first, unruly fervour must give way to a calmer second fervour, recovered by self-rebuke and prayer.
  11. 11Ammonas forbids his disciples to leave their place on their own judgment, distinguishing thoughts from the Enemy, from oneself and from God, and pointing to Jacob, who left only when sent.
  12. 12Elijah and John were first formed in silence and only then sent to heal others; monks who cannot bear silence remain unhealed and cannot receive the divine power.
  13. 13The Spirit, given only to the pure, is the Gospel’s pearl and treasure; those who receive him are tested as Christ and Joseph were, and the four faces of Ezekiel’s creature picture the perfect soul.
  14. 14A short piece: the inheritance that righteous fathers leave their sons is not gold and silver but righteousness.

About this work

Author
Ammonas
Attribution
authentic · Fourteen letters to monks, transmitted in Syriac under the name of Ammonas (Ammon, Antony's disciple), edited with a Latin translation by M. Kmosko. A Greek version of some letters (edited by F. Nau, PO 11) exists but is not in hand. The further 'dubious' letters printed after them are not staged.
Standing
Honoured by the Orthodox tradition. Honoured as a saint in the Orthodox calendar (Abba Ammonas, disciple and successor of Antony).
Date
ca. 340-360 (approximate) · After Antony's death (356) if the author is the Ammonas who followed him; the letters themselves give no date.
Written at
Egypt (approximate)
Language
Greek
Genre
letter
Reference system
letter number (Kmosko's numbering of the fourteen letters of the old collection); sections within a letter may be added later
SBL abbreviation
Ep.Not yet checked
Clavis
CPG 2300 (not yet checked)
Text from
Michael Kmosko, ed. and trans. (Latin), Ammonii eremitae epistolae, in Patrologia Orientalis 10.6 (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1915) (Printed edition in the public domain; Internet Archive OCR of a public-domain scan)
Critical editions
F. Nau, ed., Ammonas, successeur de saint Antoine (Greek letters), Patrologia Orientalis 11.4 (Paris, 1915) (cited, not reproduced)