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Letters to the Monks

Epistulae ad monachos

Written 358 to 360, perhaps in Aegyptus (now Egypt, region). The date is the usual view of scholars; some doubt it.

Two short letters to the monks of Egypt: one sent with his history of the Arians, one a warning against Arian visitors.

Letter · first written in Greek

Letters 52 and 53 in the NPNF numbering.

Translated by Archibald Robertson (editor) (1892). Athanasius, Select Works and Letters, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 4 (1892); older Oxford translations by J. H. Newman, M. Atkinson and others, revised Public domain. Source and rights

About this text (2 notes)

No source line in the file. The text, its translator line and its note numbers match the CCEL copy of this series.

Letters 52 and 53 in the NPNF numbering.

How we know the date and place
Date written probable
Robertson (in the corpus file): "Written 358-360"
Place written not sure
Written in hiding during his third exile (356-362), among the monks of Egypt or in Alexandria itself; Robertson, introduction in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series 2 vol. 4 (1892), https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204

1,931 words. 2 sections.

Contents
  1. Letter LII.—First Letter to Monks [4641] . (Written 358-360).
  2. Letter LIII.—Second Letter [4656] to Monks.

Letter LII. First Letter to Monks [4641] . (Written 358-360).

§ 52›

1. To those in every place4642 who are living a monastic life, who are established in the faith of God, and sanctified in Christ, and who say, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee4643,' brethren dearly beloved and longed for, heartiest greeting in the Lord.

1. In compliance with your affectionate request, which you have frequently urged upon me, I have written a short account of the sufferings which ourselves and the Church have undergone, refuting, according to my ability, the accursed heresy of the Arian madmen, and proving how entirely it is alien from the Truth. And I thought it needful to represent to your Piety what pains the writing of these things has cost me, in order that you may understand thereby how truly the blessed Apostle has said, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God4644;' and may kindly bear with a weak man such as I am by nature. For the more I desired to write, and endeavoured to force myself to understand the Divinity of the Word, so much the more did the knowledge thereof withdraw itself from me; and in proportion as I thought that I apprehended it, in so much I perceived myself to fail of doing so. Moreover also I was unable to express in writing even what I seemed to myself to understand; and that which I wrote was unequal to the imperfect shadow of the truth which existed in my conception.

2. Considering therefore how it is written in the Book of Ecclesiastes, I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me; That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who shall find it out4645?' and what is said in the Psalms, The knowledge of Thee is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it4646;' and that Solomon says, It is the glory of God to conceal a thing4647;' I frequently designed to stop and to cease writing; believe me, I did. But lest I should be found to disappoint you, or by my silence to lead into impiety those who have made enquiry of you, and are given to disputation, I constrained myself to write briefly, what I have now sent4648 to your piety. For although a perfect apprehension of the truth is at present far removed from us by reason of the infirmity of the flesh, yet it is possible, as the Preacher himself has said, to perceive the madness of the impious, and having found it, to say that it is more bitter than death4649.' Wherefore for this reason, as perceiving this and able to find it out, I have written, knowing that to the faithful the detection of impiety is a sufficient information wherein piety consists. For although it be impossible to comprehend what God is, yet it is possible to say what He is not4650. And we know that He is not as man; and that it is not lawful to conceive of any originated nature as existing in Him. So also respecting the Son of God, although we are by nature very far from being able to comprehend Him; yet is it possible and easy to condemn the assertions of the heretics concerning Him, and to say, that the Son of God is not such; nor is it lawful even to conceive in our minds such things as they speak, concerning His Godhead; much less to utter them with the lips.

3. Accordingly I have written as well as I was able; and you, dearly beloved, receive these communications not as containing a perfect exposition of the Godhead of the Word, but as being merely a refutation of the impiety of the enemies of Christ, and as containing and affording to those who desire it, suggestions for arriving at a pious and sound faith in Christ. And if in anything they are defective (and I think they are defective in all respects), pardon it with a pure conscience, and only receive favourably the boldness of my good intentions in support of godliness. For an utter condemnation of the heresy of the Arians, it is sufficient for you to know the judgment given by the Lord in the death of Arius, of which you have already been informed by others. For what the Holy God hath purposed, who shall scatter4651?' and whom the Lord condemned who shall justify4652? After such a sign given, who do not now acknowledge, that the heresy is hated of God, however it may have men for its patrons? Now when you have read this account, pray for me, and exhort one another so to do. And immediately send it back to me, and suffer no one whatever to take a copy of it, nor transcribe it for yourselves4653. But like good money-changers4654 be satisfied with the reading; but read it repeatedly if you desire to do so. For it is not safe that the writings of us babblers and private persons should fall into the hands of them that shall come after. Salute one another in love, and also all that come unto you in piety and faith. For if any man' as the Apostle has said, love not the Lord, let him be anathema. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you4655. Amen.'

15 notes
  1. 4641 This beautiful and striking Letter (Migne xxv. 691) formed the introduction to a work, which the Author, as he says in the course of it, thought unworthy of being preserved for posterity. Some critics have supposed it to be the Orations against the Arians; but this opinion can hardly be maintained (supr. p. 267). The Epistle was written in 358, or later, before the Epistle to Serapion. On its relation to the Arian History,' see above, pp. 267, 268.
  2. 4642 This appears inconsistent with the directions below, §3 (note 3). The heading is, therefore, of doubtful genuineness.
  3. 4643 Matt. xix. 27.
  4. 4644 Rom. xi. 33.
  5. 4645 Eccles. vii. 23, 24.
  6. 4646 Ps. cxxxix. 6.
  7. 4647 Prov. xxv. 2.
  8. 4648 Probably a lost writing.
  9. 4649 Eccles. vii. 26.
  10. 4650 Newman observes in loc. "This negative character of our knowledge, whether of the Father or of the Son, is insisted on by other writers.....All we can know about the Divine Nature is, that it is not to be known; and whatever positive statements we make concerning God, relate not to His Nature, but to the accompaniments of His Nature.' Damasc. F.O. i. 4; S. Basil c. Eunom. i. 10, Totum ab animo rejicite; quidquid occurrerit, negate....dicite non est illud.' August. Enarrat. 2. in Psalm xxvi. 8. Cyril, Catech. xi. 11. Anonym. in Append. Aug. Oper. t. 5. p. 383." [Patr. Lat. xxxix. 2175.]
  11. 4651 Is. xiv. 27.
  12. 4652 Rom. viii. 33, 34, so quoted Ep. Æg. 19.
  13. 4653 Letter 54, fin.
  14. 4654 "On this celebrated text, as it may be called, which is cited so frequently by the Fathers, vid. Coteler. in Const. Apol. ii. 36. in Clement Hom. ii. 51. Potter in Clem. Strom. i. p. 425. Vales. in Euseb. Hist. vii. 7." [Westcott, Introd. to Study of Gospels, Appendix C.]
  15. 4655 1 Cor. xvi. 22, 23.

Letter LIII. Second Letter [4656] to Monks.

ܤ 53

Athanasius, Archbishop4657 of Alexandria, to the Solitaries.

Athanasius to those who practise a solitary life, and are settled in faith in God, most beloved brethren, greeting in the Lord.

I thank the Lord who hath given to you to believe in Him, that ye too may have with the saints eternal life. But because there are certain persons who hold with Arius and go about the monasteries with no other object save that under colour of visiting you, and returning from us they may deceive the simple; whereas there are certain who, while they affirm that they do not hold with Arius, yet compromise themselves and worship with his party; I have been compelled, at the instance of certain most sincere brethren, to write at once in order that keeping faithfully and without guile the pious faith which God's grace works in you, you may not give occasion of scandal to the brethren. For when any sees you, the faithful in Christ, associate and communicate with such people, [or worshipping along with them], certainly they will think it a matter of indifference and will fall into the mire of irreligion. Lest, then, this should happen, be pleased, beloved, to shun those who hold the impiety [of Arius], and moreover to avoid those who, while they pretend not to hold with Arius, yet worship with the impious. And we are specially bound to fly from the communion of men whose opinions we hold in execration. [If then any come to you, and, as blessed John4658 says, brings with him right doctrine, say to him, All hail, and receive such an one as a brother.] But if any pretend that he confesses the right faith, but appear to communicate with those others, exhort him to abstain from such communion, and if he promise to do so, treat him as a brother, but if he persist in a contentious spirit, him avoid. [I might greatly lengthen my letter, adding from the divine Scriptures the outline of this teaching. But since, being wise men, you can anticipate those who write, and rather, being intent upon self-denial, are fit to instruct others also, I have dictated a short letter, as from one loving friend to others, in the confidence] that living as you do you will preserve a pure and sincere faith, and that those persons, seeing that you do not join with them in worship, will derive benefit, fearing lest they be accounted as impious, and as those who hold with them.

3 notes
  1. 4656 This short letter, like those to Lucifer, was printed at first in Latin, evidently the almost servile rendering of a Greek original. The latter was discovered by Montfaucon after the completion of the Benedictine edition, and printed in his Nova Collectio Patrum' (1706). (Migne xxvi. 1185.) The date is fixed a parte post in an interesting manner. We read in the Life of Pachomius, §88 (the story is also found in the Coptic documents in the collection of Zoega p. 36), that when Duke Artemius came to the monastery of Pabau in search of Athanasius, the steward of the community replied, Although Athanasius is our Father under God, we have never seen his face.' The Duke answered by a request for the prayers of the brethren before he left. The abbat Psarphi' replied that the Father' had forbidden the monks to pray with strangers who consorted with the Arians,—a clear allusion to the letter before us. Now Duke Artemius was in search of Athanasius in 359-60 (Fest. Ind.). Accordingly our letter was issued before that date. The Greek text is evidently imperfect: the square brackets in the translation denote passages supplied from the Latin. The first part of the letter (down to the words along with'...) is preserved in a contemporary inscription (Boeckh. C.I.G. iv. 8607) on the walls of an ancient Egyptian tomb at Abd-el-Kurna, which in those later days had become a monastic cell. The remainder is effaced. (See Fialon, p. 134, who has failed to notice the identity of the inscription with our present letter.)
  2. 4657 This first heading is from the inscription mentioned above, note 1, and is important as recording a very early use of the title archbishop.' See also Letter 55, note 1, supr. p. 137, note 6, and Epiph. vol. ii. p. 188 c (Migne).
  3. 4658 2 John 10.