Reader

Since you recently wrote to me in Scetis from the Holy Mountain, dear brother Anatolius, demanding that I explain to you the symbolic habit of the Egyptian monks- for you believe it to be neither accidental nor superfluous that[ the habit] is so different from what other people wear- I will therefore tell you what we have learned concerning this from the holy fathers.

The hood( koukoullion) is a symbol of the grace of our Saviour[ and] God: it shelters their mind( hegemonikon) and nurses their childlike[ relationship] with Christ in the face of those who are always attempting to beat and wound it. Anyone who bears this hood on his head is truly chanting[ the inner meaning of the psalm], Unless the Lord builds the house and guards the city, in vain do the builder and watchman labor. Words like these produce humility and uproot the primordial vice of pride that cast Lucifer the Day- Star down to the earth.

The nakedness of their hands manifests the absence of hypocrisy in their way of life. Vainglory is[ terribly] clever at covering and darkening virtues, always hunting for the esteem[ glory] that comes from men and chasing faith away. For how it is possible for you to believe, it says, when you receive glory from one another; and the glory that comes only from God you do not seek? For the good ought to be chosen for no other[ reason] than itself. Apart from this, anything that moves us to do good will appear far more precious than the good itself: and nothing could be more absurd than to consider and assert that something is better than God!

And again, the scapular that wraps a round the shoulders in the form of a cross is a symbol of the faith in Christ that sustains those who are gentle, and always, despite obstacles, permits them to work unimpeded.

The belt tied around their loins repels all impurity and declares,' It is good for a man not to touch a woman'.

They wear the sheepskin- those always carrying around in their bodies the death of Jesus and muzzling all the irrational passions of the body, cutting back the wickedness of the soul by their communion in good; and loving poverty but fleeing from avarice as the mother of idolatry.

The staff is a tree of life to all who hold it, reliable for those who lean on it as on the Lord.

The habit, then is like a symbol which summarizes[ these] things. And these are the words the fathers always say to them when conferring it:" Faith, oh my child is steadied by the fear of God, and this fear in turn is strengthened by continence. This latter virtue is made unshakable by patient endurance and hope: from these is born apatheia( dispassion), which brings into being love. Love is the door to knowledge of nature which leads to theology and the supreme blessedness.

And so concerning the holy habit and the teaching of the elders, let these things we have said suffice. But concerning the life of the ascetic and the knower I now propose to describe in detail not merely what I have heard or seen, but what I have also been taught by the elders to say to others. I have compactly divided ascetical matters into a hundred chapters, and mattters of knowledge into fifty, plus six hundred. And some things I have concealed and shadowed over, so that we do not throw holy things to dogs nor cast pearls before swine. But this will be clear to those who have embarked on the same quest.