Caesarius, a bishop, the least servant of all the servants of God, to Caesaria the holy sister abbess, and to all her congregation in Christ, eternal salvation. I fear, venerable daughters in Christ, lest, while for the sake of preserving your quiet and modesty I presume to suggest something to you in rustic and unskilled speech, I may seem, among those who do not know how great is the power of true charity, to incur the mark of presumption. For I, though I be conscious of my sins and not ignorant of your purity, yet presume, lukewarm, to admonish the fervent, slow and negligent, to spur on the running, languishing, to give counsel to the healthy, and, remaining on the road, to rouse you toward the desire of the eternal fatherland.
And because, according to your holy vow, I am not able to visit you more frequently, this little admonition, in which I have also inserted a few chapters of the ancient Fathers, and have seasoned the dryness of my own understanding as with the pleasantness of strong men, I have with perfect charity taken care to transmit to your sincerity in place of the voice of my presence, with pious humility. But this presumption, as I have said, charity itself, which knows not to fear, presses upon me. And therefore I beg you, venerable daughters, that, granting pardon to my boldness, you may patiently and kindly receive whatever I shall suggest.
and, having regard for my rusticity and modesty, read over whatever exhortation of mine more privately, imparting it to no one else, lest the ears of anyone more cultivated be struck by the roughness of our most rustic speech. For we, God being favorable, although I perceive nothing sinister concerning your most holy manner of life, yet on account of the manifold snares of the enemy, of whom it is said: whose names are a thousand, a thousand arts of harming, on account therefore of his venomous cunning and ill-flattering desires, admonish your holy conscience with words however lukewarm; and though we are less than fit warriors, we provide you spiritual arms against the fiery arrows of the devil.
Rejoice therefore and exult in Christ, venerable daughters, and give Him unceasing and abundant thanks, who has deigned to draw and call you out of the dark manner of life of this world to the harbor of quiet and religion. Consider continually whence you have come, and where you have feared to arrive. You have faithfully forsaken the darkness of the world, and have happily begun to behold the light of Christ. You have despised the fire of lust, and have come to the refreshment of chastity. You have spat out gluttony, and have chosen abstinence. You have repudiated avarice and luxury, and have held fast to charity and mercy. And although the struggle will not be lacking to you even to the end of life, yet, by God's gift, we are secure concerning your victory.
But I beg you, venerable daughters, that as much as you are secure concerning the past, so much may you be anxious concerning the future. For all crimes and sins swiftly return to us, if they are not daily overcome by good works. Hear the apostle Peter saying: Be sober and watch, for your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5). As long as we live in this body, day and night, with Christ as our helper and leader, let us fight back against the devil. For there are some—which is worse—who are negligent and lukewarm, who glory only in the name of Christianity, and think it is enough for them to have changed their garment and to have taken up merely the habit of religion, not knowing that word of the prophet:
My son, coming to the service of God, stand in justice and fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation (Sirach 2:1). Nor do they consider the saying of the Psalmist: For the words of thy lips I have kept hard ways (Psalm 16:4). And that which the Apostle said: Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of heaven (Acts 14:22). For to lay aside worldly garments and to take up religious ones we can do in the moment of this hour; but to retain good morals continually, and to labor against the evilly sweet pleasures of this world as long as we live, with Christ as our helper, we must do; because not he who has begun, but he who has persevered shall be saved (Matthew 10:22).
First of all, therefore, let every soul that desires to keep religion strive with all the strength of faith to conquer the craving of gluttony and to avoid drunkenness, and so keep a temperate meal with a moderation of the table, that her flesh may neither be weakened by excess of abstinence, nor provoked to luxury through abundance of delicacies. Then, casting off pride, which God resists, let her lay the foundations of deep humility; let her detest and flee envy as a viper's poison; let her bridle the tongue; let her spit out detraction as poison; let her neither utter idle words herself, nor willingly admit into her ears those uttered by another; let her accustom herself to have a manner of dress neither too mean, nor too showy, nor dangerously elegant;
let her either read the lesson more frequently herself, or receive the words of the reader with the whole eagerness of her heart; let her continually draw the water of salvation from the divine fountains of the Scriptures; that water indeed of which the Lord says: He that believeth in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). From the flowers of paradise also, that is, from the meanings of the holy Scriptures, let the holy soul strive continually to adorn herself; from them let her hang precious pearls unceasingly upon her ears; from these let her fashion rings and bracelets while she practices good works: there let her seek the medicines for her wounds, there the spices of chastity, there the burnt-offerings of compunction.
But whoever desires to preserve religion in an immaculate and pure heart, let him either never go out in public, or certainly not except for some great and unavoidable necessity; let him have the familiarity of men, as much as he can, more rarely: yet in such a way that, whenever the necessity of seeing or greeting men demands it, those may be seen whom age and a holy life commend; but even they, as I have said, more rarely; and let there be conversation with them not lasting long, but very brief. Let young men either never or with difficulty be seen. But in assiduous familiarity let neither laymen ever, nor the religious, be received; which thing let not only women concerning men, but also men concerning women strive to observe, if they desire to guard the entire purity of chastity.
Let no one say: 'My own conscience is enough for me.' Let each say to himself whatever pleases him, yet that excuse is wretched and altogether hateful to God, since it proceeds more from shamelessness than from a good conscience. For when a first intimacy begins between a man and a woman, or between a woman and a man, it is recognized as modest enough and holy, because at the outset the devil withdraws his contrivances, until, as constant familiarity gradually increases, he may nourish a hostile friendship between the two. For the cunning enemy causes them for a little while to serve one another without any titillation of lust, without any loss of chastity;
and thus he ensnares them with a false security, so that, as if in a soothing calm, he brings two little boats out into the deep; and while they think themselves safe, they neither seek the aid of fastings as of oars, nor look for the rudder of vigils; and when he has made them secure, dashing them one against the other, he plunges them beneath a sudden storm, and driving them into wounding entanglements, he deals death to both at a single blow. So long did he keep the fire dormant, hidden without any flame, until, joining two brands together, he sets them both ablaze at once. Thus the devil unfolds what before he seemed to conceal; thus, as it were out of a simple charity, he forges an illicit love. At first he is content to yield, that so he may prevail to seize the more.
Behold, each is secure about his own conscience, that when he has looked upon someone he cannot be led into scandal by that person. But surely, just as he knows his own conscience, does he see the will of another? Behold, your eye looks upon another with simplicity, and perhaps that one lusts for you cruelly. You rejoice over your own chastity, and do you not fear another's ruin? For if you show yourself overly familiar, you nourish another's concupiscence; even if you yourself do not sin, you nonetheless destroy another; and it will be a cause to you even without cause, that another's lust may defile you.
I beg you, do not, do not give occasion or grant familiarity to anyone whatsoever, lest perchance someone's concupiscence, wickedly kindled against you, begin to seek elsewhere what it could not find in you. But perhaps some woman says: 'I am secure about my own conscience.' Far be it that this should proceed from a religious mouth. For he has already fallen who trusts in his own virtue. If, with Christ's help, you desire to conquer lust, you ought to flee familiarity. Let her know most certainly that whoever has not spurned unworthy familiarity will quickly destroy either herself or another. But perhaps someone says: 'For this reason I do not flee familiarity, because I wish to have something to conquer; I desire to hold my adversary captive.'
Take care lest the adversary begin to rebel against you; take care lest that captivity lead you into captivity. Hear the Apostle saying: 'Flee fornication' (1 Cor. 6:18). Against the remaining vices we must resist with all our strength, but against lust it is not expedient for you to fight, but to flee. Be therefore a fugitive from lust, if you wish to be an outstanding warrior of chastity. But heed diligently what I have said. When anyone is provoked by the goads of lust, let him, with Christ's help, fight against himself as much as he prevails, because he has nowhere he can flee. But when the devil supplies an occasion for pleasure through another's company, let the holy soul flee that very familiarity, as far as she prevails, as I said above;
and if at any time someone is tempted within himself, let him resist, with God's help, against himself; when through someone's company he is tickled even by a slight concupiscence, let him flee it with all the speed he can, as a poisonous serpent. But that we may be able to keep all these things, let us maintain a reasonable abstinence, for that saying of the most holy man is true: 'As you restrain the belly, so also its venomous stirrings.' Let us also preserve our humility as much as we can; for the integrity of the flesh is not long kept where the mind is corrupted by the swelling of pride. Especially if the flame of anger too rises up more frequently, it quickly consumes the flowers of chastity and virginity.
For a chaste soul devoted to God ought not to have constant familiarity, not only with strangers, but even with her own kinsfolk—neither of their coming to her, nor of her walking to them—lest either she hear what she ought not, or say what is not expedient, or see what can be contrary to chastity. For if the vessels which are offered to the Church and placed upon the sacred altar are called holy by all, and it is unlawful for them afterward to be recalled from the church to a lay household or fitted to human uses; if vessels have so great a dignity—which can have neither understanding nor senses—what dignity, do you think, do all things created after His own image have before God?
As therefore holy vessels, once to serve human uses, neither can nor ought to be recalled from the church, so it is not fitting, not becoming, not expedient that any religious person be entangled by the many obligations of her kinsfolk, or bound fast by the pernicious familiarity of any strangers whatsoever. Above all I admonish this: that you flee the evil of rivalry as a viper's venom; and that you so preserve among yourselves the sweetness of charity that you may prepare for one another spiritual remedies through holy conversations. For there are some—which is worse—who, when they join together, do themselves more harm by disparaging others or murmuring against their superiors, than they compose spiritual remedies.
But you, holy and venerable daughters, if you see any who is faint-hearted, bestow consolation; if one who is proud, apply the remedy of humility; if you see one who is angry, minister the refreshment of patience. If you are nobly born, rejoice rather in the humility of religion than in the dignity of the world; and so dispense your earthly substance that you may not, by reserving something for yourselves or bestowing it too slowly, have carnal fetters where you could, by giving well and quickly, possess spiritual wings. For earthly substance, if it is bestowed too slowly, is known to bind the soul's wings as with birdlime, because that is true which is written: 'The impediments of the world made them wretched.'
But if any woman was poor before she took up holy religion, she ought to give thanks to God, who was unwilling to bind her with the riches of this world. For many—which is worse—their possessions hold so bound that they cannot return to the eternal fatherland. But you, by Christ's favor, are already happy even in this age, you who have despised the riches and pleasures of this world not only in heart but even in body. Hold therefore your hand to the plough, and do not look back. And because you have already merited to ascend to the roof of perfection, let not the pleasures of this world bring you down from there. Remember Lot's wife, who, looking back, was turned into a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:17).
Let never an oath, never a curse proceed from a virgin's mouth. Guard not only your bodies but also your hearts with all diligence, on account of that which is written: 'With all watchfulness keep thy heart' (Prov. 4:23). And that which the Lord said in the Gospel: 'For out of the heart come evil thoughts' (Matt. 15:19). For if nothing evil is thought in the heart, whatever is holy is brought forth from the mouth; because, as it is written: 'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks' (Matt. 12:34). For the tongue is wont to bring forth this, which the conscience has supplied from the workshop of the heart. And therefore, if you wish to bring forth good things from the mouth, always think in your heart the things that are holy.
You ought so to devote yourselves to reading and meditation that above all you may also be able to work something with your hands, according to that which the Apostle says: 'He who does not work, let him not eat' (2 Thess. 3:10); yet especially accustom yourselves to be free for reading until the third hour, and dedicate the better part of the day to holy work. Let your prayer so proceed from the heart in silence that it is scarcely heard in the mouth; for whoever wishes to pray in a loud voice harms both himself and another greatly, while by his own garrulity he suspends another's mind from holy and sacred prayer.
In the very works which are done with the hands, loathe and despise worldly and pompous aids, which serve not usefulness but vanity, so that even in earthly things you may be able to practice whatever befits sobriety and honorableness. For many display in their works what they love in their behavior. Loving the world and serving pleasure or luxury, they prepare for themselves worldly ornaments. But to you, to whom the world is crucified, let there be nothing in common with such things; but let all ornaments by which the flesh is arrayed for luxury be rejected from your purpose as hostile and contrary.
For there are some—which is worse—who, for the vanity of this world, are more eager to give their labor to earthly desires than to apply themselves to divine reading: while they wish, with ingenuous expense and superfluous outlay, to prepare fair coverlets and painted tapestries, and even feather-work and other things like these, for the lust of the eyes, not knowing that which the Lord cries out and says through John the evangelist: 'Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world, for all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the ambition of the age' (1 John 2:15-16). What does it profit a virgin to guard the integrity of the body, if she is unwilling to avoid the concupiscences of the eyes!
There are also some who wish to give even the greater part of their possessions to their kinsfolk—and perhaps to wealthy ones—rather than to the poor; and they do not consider that while they bestow their substance on those for luxury, they consume themselves with eternal beggary. But someone says: 'Then ought I to despise my kinsfolk?' Far be it that we should say you ought not to honor your kinsfolk. How can it be that we should preach that kinsfolk are not to be loved, we who say that enemies are to be loved? Love your kinsfolk as much as you can; and, if they are chaste and honorable, always render them honor, and leave them from your possessions some little gifts in memory of you.
But all that is greater and more useful, and profitable unto the end of the age, bestow upon the poor, so that your alms, through the refreshment of the poor, may pass over unto the kingdoms of heaven until the day of judgment. What you have given less to your kinsfolk, they will afterward be able to provide for themselves, they will be able to labor; but what you have prepared less for yourself by way of mercy, you will never be able to find in that age. Yet if there are any poor kinsfolk who cannot have food or clothing sufficiently, you will have a reward before God if you give them wherewith they may be sustained. For we are to come before the tribunal of the eternal Judge; and if we have done well, we shall happily hear: 'Come, ye blessed, receive the kingdom, for I was hungry and thirsty' (Matt.
25:34). And a little after: 'As long as you did it to one of these least ones'—doubtless to the poor—'you did it to me' (ibid. 40). He did not say: 'Come and receive the kingdom, because you heaped up your kinsfolk's riches with your own riches, because you left them wherewith they might revel in luxury in the world.' He did not say this at all; but that which He commemorates in the Gospel, which He had also foretold before through the Prophet: 'He has dispersed, he has given to the poor' (Ps. 111:9). Attend, I beg: 'He has dispersed,' He says, 'he has given to the poor.' For even that rich man of whom we read in the Gospel, who was clothed in purple and fine linen (Luke 16:19), left his rich brothers behind, but he afterward, burning in hell, sought a drop of refreshment and could not find it.
But you, holy souls worthy of God, do all things spiritually, and offer—nay, render—your substance to Him to whom you have consecrated your souls. It is fitting that He should receive earthly things from you, who prepares eternal things. Let Him receive earthly substance from you, who has bestowed on you the crown of virginity. But you are the more indebted to Him who has granted you to be able to follow the immaculate Lamb wherever He goes. The rest of the multitude of the faithful indeed follows Christ—not wherever He goes, but as far as they are able. For penitents and married persons can follow Christ by other ways of righteousness; but when He goes before in the beauty of virginity, they have no way to become virgins.
But you, holy daughters, follow Him by holding perseveringly to what you have ardently vowed. Again and again, holy souls dedicated to God, I ask, and with all humility I presume to give counsel for the preserving of the rewards of virginity, that you strive to repel with all your strength unfitting familiarity from yourselves and from your souls. Far, far be that plague and pestilence which disordered familiarity hurls. There is no security in such fellowship, which suffers collision as if from certain turbulent waves. In such familiarity no friendly concord dwells, which creates nothing but discordant enmities.
For to preserve the dignity of holy religion, solitude is a most holy witness rather than disordered familiarity. Attend, O holy soul, and understand diligently how many evils are born from disordered fellowship.
For if familiarity with anyone whatsoever begins to be frequent, it sows nothing but corruption, sprouts vices, lusts after desire, gives birth to disgrace, stirs up frenzy, extends fury, feeds wantonness, nourishes petulance, exalts falls, builds ruins, raises up cliffs, opens precipices, sails amid perils, spreads sail toward shipwrecks, rejoices in perdition, fosters destruction, earns confusion, treasures up reproach, aggravates accusations, inflames excuses, and gathers together in a heap, troop by troop, numerous snares of entrapment, and through countless disgraces devises manifold deaths unto the ruin of the lost. So many and so great are the evils of pernicious familiarity.
For if a holy soul is willing to guard her seclusion, and with all the soul's strength flees the evil of constant familiarity, that holy solitude is for her an unconquered defense of holiness, a strong assault upon infamy, the firmness of fortitude and the weakness of wanton lasciviousness, the safeguard of probity and the slaughter of wickedness, the victory of the soul and the plunder of the body, the liberty of glories and the captivity of crimes, the bride-attendant of holiness and the divorce of baseness, the token of sincerity and the abolition of scandals, the army of conscience and the utter emptying of luxury, the secure peace of virtues and the restless assault of wars, the summit of purity and the prison of lust, the harbor of honorableness and the shipwreck-prone harbor of infamy (thus. Cf. col.
1159, line 34), the mother of virginity and the enemy of uncleanness, the breastplate of modesty and the spoils of shamefulness, the wall of incorruption, the discernment that separates from the common crowd, the dignity of integrity and the renunciation of fornication, the crown of charity and the precipice of disgrace, the will of good works and the affliction of vices, the refreshment of chastity and the punishment of petulance, the acquisition of triumphs and the losses of crimes, the rest of salvation and the exile of perdition, the life of the spirit and the death of the flesh, the state of angelic quality and the funeral of human nature. All these evils will be bravely overcome, with God's help, and those good things which we have named will be happily acquired, if disordered familiarity is rejected by holy souls.
Attend, I beg you, holy souls, for among all the contests of which the Christian warfare is ever the companion, the battles of chastity alone are the harder, where the fight is daily and victory rare. Chastity has been allotted a grievous enemy, who is daily conquered and feared; daily, I say, he is conquered and does not cease to provoke. No one who fights with himself conquers securely. Perilous is the voyage where shipwreck is frequent, and one crosses amid the waves with peril, where many have been drowned—the waves of lust. For concupiscence, when it is conquered, is not ended. Hard are the battles of chastity, but greater are the rewards. The flame that blazes too much quickly comes to ashes; but the fire of sluggishness, when one gives in to it, is kindled rather than ended.
No one receives the palm of chastity securely; for whom the outcome is as hard, so glorious are the fruits. He appoints for himself a rewarding peril, who takes up war with nature. The public enemy feeds by night, the robber's ambushes range abroad in the shadows; but the desire of lust both provokes by night and does not spare by day, neither dreads the purple of kings nor shudders at the rags of the poor. That therefore you may happily receive, by God's recompense, the rewards of chastity and the crown of virginity, always exclude perilous familiarity from yourselves. Run faithfully, that you may happily arrive. And be mindful of me, when immaculate virginity shall have been crowned in you.
This letter will render me excusable before the tribunal of Christ, because with true charity and perfect humility I have suggested what it behooved me to say and you to hear. If anyone—which God forbid—shall have neglected to obey, it will be a testimony against him; but whoever shall have willingly received it will be turned to a joy not temporal but eternal. May you flourish in Christ, holy and venerable women.