but Anna, filled with the Holy Spirit, recognized that very Head of the Church. To Judith was given the destruction of Holofernes; to Anna was revealed the coming of the Savior. To the one God granted to drive away pestilence from the people; to the other He bestowed the recognition of the medicine of the human race. And because widowly continence follows sanctified virginity by a lower degree, therefore, after the Son of God was born of a virgin, He deigned to be proclaimed by the office of a widow's tongue. Yet it was not a widow given to pleasures who spoke of Him — one who, living, is dead — but she who did not depart from the temple, serving with fastings and supplications night and day. CHAPTER XVI. The praises of Proba, who was the sister of Galla. The nobility of Galla.
What is withdrawn from finery should be distributed to the poor. But concerning these fastings and supplications there is now no place for discoursing more widely. For we propose (if the Lord wills, and if we live) to write something about fasting and prayer to your sister, the holy virgin of Christ, Proba, whom the Lord has deigned at this time to give in the city of Rome as a chief exemplar of virginity and humility, as is contained in the promise I lately made in the letter which I recently addressed to her, whose holy conversation is above all to be imitated by you in all things:
who, though she was born of consuls both by father and forefathers, and reared amid royal delights, has such humility infused into her by the gift of heavenly grace, that out of love of subjection and the practice of serving, she no longer knows that she was once a mistress, since she aspires, by the delight of holy servitude, to have all as her masters. For she knows that from the Lord, to whom she has vowed the virginity both of heart and body, humility in the form of a servant was accepted for our deliverance: and on this account she delights to please the Bridegroom in the humility of this servitude, so that, assigned to the fellowship of the five wise virgins, she may reign with the Bridegroom in eternal brightness.
But with how great virtue she has despised the delights of the body, and how she makes her own hunger serve to satisfy the poor, and how she is covered with mean garments for no other reason than that she may both fulfill her purpose of humility and expend the constant care of holy piety upon clothing the poor — this you know more fully by seeing her yourself, than that you should wish to hear it from me, which I can less explain in words. Set her, therefore, before you as a mirror, and from the consideration of her, learn what is now in you, or what is still lacking, of holy pursuits and works; and although she excels by the outstanding gift of virginity, she ought to have you as a companion in the other virtues.
Learn, therefore, you too to attribute nothing to yourself from nobility of birth. And although by grandfather, father, father-in-law, and husband being formerly consuls you were once illustrious among the worldly, now know that you are made illustrious in that in which the virtue of humility grows in you. Learn of the Lord that He is meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your soul (Matt. 11:29). Cast off the nobility of the flesh, which is the kindling of pride, and pursue the nobility of the spirit with the perfect humility of the heart. Give heed to prayers, be instant in fastings, and whatever you withdraw from your finery, give to the hungry; and whatever you take from yourself, spend on the needy;
let your voluntary fasting relieve the hunger of those who fast, so that in the fruit of your mercy the fruitfulness of your fastings may appear. Let the meanness of your garments also profit you, and let the nakedness of the poor be clothed through you: for then you will usefully flee the harmful adornment of precious clothing, if you clothe the naked; so that you may show yourself truly a sharer with Christ's poor, not by the emptiness of words, nor by deceptive display, but by the testimony of holy working. CHAPTER XVII. Boasting in good works is to be avoided. Nor should you believe yourself superior to those whom you feed or clothe, nor, because you give and they receive, set your own merits before Christ's poor, as though you were therefore the better for having despised more.
For in vain do you despise your possessions, if you hold in your heart the riches of harmful boasting: for not only do they sin who, for the riches they have, bear some boasting in the heart; nay, they offend more grievously who wish to have a boasting of the heart from riches despised, or who therefore wish to prefer themselves to the poor, because they seem to bestow more upon the poor. But the order with God is not the same, who attends not to the quantity of the possession despised, but to the quality of the will. Zacchaeus is said to have expended more riches upon the poor for Christ, than Peter the apostle, for whom he left the meanest instruments of the fisherman's craft;
and yet by Christ, not the rich Zacchaeus is preferred to the poor Peter, but the poor Peter is preferred to the rich Zacchaeus, so that for Christ's rich there might arise no boasting from riches despised. CHAPTER XVIII. One must not lay up treasure on earth, but in heaven. But far be it that you should lay up any treasure for yourself on earth, on which you are not going to leave children of your flesh; since even those who have children of the flesh do not, without sin, delight to lay up treasure for themselves in the world. For our Savior deigns to admonish all the faithful with one saying: 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth destroy, and where thieves break through and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroys, and where thieves do not break through nor steal' (Matt. 6:19-20). Much to be feared is that rebuke of the Lord, which the foolish rich man, about to die on the spot, heard: 'Fool, this night they require your soul from you: and the things you have prepared, whose shall they be?' (Luke 12:20). Send, therefore, all your riches ahead to Christ; lay up for yourself in heaven a treasure that you cannot lose, and that you may be able to possess forever. CHAPTER XIX. The praise of men is to be shunned, so that God may be praised in us. But in all good works, beware lest you be blown about by the desire of human praise.
You ought indeed to be praised in good works, but in that which you work, you ought not to expect the praises of men. Let human tongue indeed praise you, but do you desire praise from God alone. And thus it will come to pass that, while you do not seek praise from men, God may be praised in your works. Remember how the Lord forbids us to do our righteousness for the sake of human praise, saying: 'Take heed that you do not your righteousness before men, to be seen by them; otherwise you shall have no reward with your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 6:1). Yet He again says: 'Let your light shine before men, that seeing your good works they may glorify your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 5:16).
When, therefore, He says that we should take heed not to do our righteousness before men to be seen by them, and again commands that our light should shine before men, has He commanded anything contradictory? Far from it; but He so commands good works to be done that we should wish not ourselves, but God, to be praised in our working. For the Apostle too, in his works, shunned human glory, but sought divine glory. On account of which he says, writing to the Thessalonians: 'For neither at any time were we in flattering speech, as you know; nor in the pretext of avarice, God is witness; nor seeking glory from men, neither from you, nor from others' (1 Thess. 2:5-6).
And yet the same, in the report of his conversion, thus with exultation recalls that God was glorified by the churches: 'I was once unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but they had only heard that he who once persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once ravaged; and they glorified God in me' (Gal. 1:22-24). Accordingly, let the hand indeed not cease from good work, nor yet let the soul so work that the reward of good work be made void by the aim of human praise. For the Apostle, as he himself testifies, wishes that we be sincere and without offense unto the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness, through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God (Phil. 1:10-11). CHAPTER XX.
A good work is to be attributed not to one's own virtue, but to the grace of God. In the zeal, therefore, for good works and the contempt of human praise, beware lest you wish to assign the good that you do not to the grace of God, but to your own virtue; nay, firmly hold that no capacity for good will or work can be in you, unless you have received it as a free gift of divine mercy. Know, therefore, that God works in you both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will. Accordingly, work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12-13). Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, that He may exalt you (1 Pet. 5:6). From Him ask the beginning of good will, from Him seek the effect of good working, from Him beg the gift of perseverance;
nor should you ever think that, His help ceasing, you can will or do any good thing. Beg Him to turn away your eyes, lest they behold vanity (Ps. 119:37); ask Him to show you the way in which you should walk; entreat Him to direct your steps according to His word, and let no iniquity have dominion over you; pray Him to direct the works of your hands upon you. Act therefore manfully, and let your heart be strengthened (Ps. 27:14). Cast your thought upon God, and He Himself will nourish you (Ps. 55:22). CHAPTER XXI. Nor is one to despair of God's help. Delight is to be sought in the Holy Scriptures.
Now, because I have said that you ought to attribute nothing as your own to your own virtue, you must not on that account distrust in any way the divine power and mercy. For God is faithful in His words, and holy in all His works (Psalm 144:13); He will neither deny you His help in this present age, nor withhold your reward in that which is to come. He who showed you the right way is Himself your guide to the fatherland. Hope, therefore, in the Lord, and do good (Psalm 36:3); and do not think that you can fail, if He deigns to keep you. For it is written: Who has hoped in the Lord and been confounded? or who has continued in His commandments and been forsaken? or who has called upon Him and been despised by Him? (Ecclesiasticus 2:11-12).
Do not, therefore, cast away your confidence, which has great recompense (Hebrews 10:35). Be steadfast and immovable, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord; always seek the better things, and stretch your soul toward the increase of virtue. Never cease from the divine oracles, and yield all the delight of your heart to the Holy Scriptures. Do not be held fast by the bonds of worldly delight (or love), and you shall prosperously triumph over the devil. 38. And that this present letter may be brought to a close for you with the testimony and admonition of Holy Scripture, to all that has been said above I add this too: In meekness perfect your works, and you shall be loved above the glory of all men.
The greater you are, humble yourself in all things, and you shall find grace before God (Ecclesiasticus 3:19-20). May the Lord direct you in the way of His virtue, and bring you to the promises of the heavenly kingdom, O illustrious lady and daughter. Amen. LETTER III. TO PROBA. On Virginity and Humility. CHAPTER ONE. Congratulation on her adoption of the spiritual life. The servitude of Christ is good, the liberty of sin is harmful. On your spiritual desire and resolve, holy handmaid of God, Proba, how greatly I congratulate and rejoice with you I would gladly express fittingly in words, if speech could equal my thought in like measure.
For it must not be reckoned a sign of small purpose that, although it is evident that you—being endowed with spiritual virtues by Him from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift (James 1:17) working in you—yet judge yourself, as though destitute of them, to need admonition concerning the virtues. This zeal, therefore, with which you—while our holy brother, Tutus namely, the servant of God, presses upon me with frequent writings—vehemently urge me to set before you a discourse containing something on virginity and humility, I greatly praise in God, in whom your soul is to be praised; yet as much as I ought to praise it, I am not able to praise;
and as much as I perceive myself unequal to praising this desire worthily, so much the more do I fear to offend in you the God within you, whether by a harsh refusal or by a long delay. For indeed Christ is offended, whenever the service due is denied to His members; since He willed of old to free those who were evilly free from the servitude of sin for no other reason than to teach us in turn to serve one another in free charity: those whom He found oppressed by the yoke of servile and most wicked liberty, He raised up by the gift of a generous and most excellent servitude. Of that harmful liberty, in fact—in which it is more pleasing to serve sin than God—we hold the gladness (perhaps: knowledge) made known to us by the apostolic word; for he says:
For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from justice. And adding, he says: What fruit therefore had you then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of them is death (Romans 6:20-21). That servitude, too, which we received when set free—that we might serve freely our Deliverer God—we find in the following words of the same teaching, when he says: But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting (ibid. 22). Behold to what end this holy servitude leads and brings, in which is the gift of true liberty:
namely, to life everlasting, in which one lives always and reigns always, in which nevertheless no man shall live except him who is mortified to this world; in which no one shall reign except him who humbly perseveres in God. For that life is promised to this mortification, and that exaltation is kept for this humility; to that very humility, which you follow effectually and eagerly, and in which, by God's keeping, you keep holy virginity, you compel me too devoutly and gladly to serve. CHAPTER 2. The members of Christ ought to serve one another through charity. 1. And I indeed, holy daughter, insofar as the charity of God, which is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us (Romans
5:5), stirs me to serve the members of Christ as delightfully as freely, I wish to fulfil fittingly what you have enjoined; knowing that he truly serves Christ who, through that charity, serves the members of Christ—the same charity through which Christ Himself first served for him, that he might become a member of that same Christ. For which reason the Apostle, that we may attain to eternal liberty, commands a free servitude to be shown in turn among the members of Christ, saying: For you have been called unto liberty, brethren: only do not make your liberty an occasion for the flesh, but by charity serve one another (Galatians 5:13). 3.
The more, therefore, I am compelled to render what you ask by the precept of this service, so much the more am I deterred by consideration of my own strength. For such is the bond of both virtues—concerning which I must, insofar as God has granted, discourse somewhat—that in the present life it is itself the perfection and summit of all virtues: since neither in the body is there anything better than integrity, nor in the soul is there anything more sublime than faithful humility. Yet I have confidence in the divine assistance, in that I am aided by your prayers.
For this reason God inspires the fervour of holy desire in His sons and daughters, that when they demand a spiritual debt from their fellow-servants, they themselves also may not cease to pray to the Lord for them, and thus by the office of mutual charity they so exact the debt owed to themselves that they render to their debtors what they exact. For there is none of the faithful who so demands that charity be rendered to himself as not himself to owe it to his own debtor. Although this charity, in diverse gifts, according to the grace that is given to us, may seem to be rendered by differing effect, yet in the aid of mutual prayer it makes all sharers of one debt, in which it makes each one a debtor to all.
See how he who professes himself a debtor to the wise and to the unwise renders to all the debt of prayer, and exacts it from all. To the Romans he says, rendering this debt: For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers (Romans 1:9). But of this debt, of which he is a devout renderer, see how eager an exactor he is; again he says: I beseech you therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the charity of the Spirit, that you help me in your prayers for me to the Lord (Romans 15:30). CHAPTER 3. Our sufficiency is from God. To will and to accomplish is from God. 5. In this debt which you exact
from us and render to us, I do not doubt that I am helped, so that God, who works in His own both to will and to accomplish according to good will, may Himself grant what I may worthily think, worthily say. For in good thoughts we are not sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God (2 Corinthians 3:5). And for this reason we do not fall through want, because by a gratuitous gift our sufficiency is from Him in whom there is no want; who, as He needs not our goods, so always abounds that He may give, nor by giving becomes needy, He who gives this out of that whereof He is always full; nor is there anything that could be offered (or brought) to Him by us
as an acceptable gift of thought, word, or work, which He has not Himself bestowed by gratuitous kindness. And therefore God's holy bestowal is always gratuitous, because no exacting of human merits ever precedes it: for even if there be any good merit of any man, it is nonetheless from Him from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift (James 1:17); which man cannot have unless it has been given by Him, nor have perseveringly unless it has been preserved by Him as keeper. From Him, therefore, I beg to be granted the ability to render this debt, from whom I received the will to render it. For I would not wish to render it in any degree, unless He, being merciful, granted that I should will.
If therefore in this work I say anything that pleases and suffices, or, if it does not suffice, at least pleases your holy desire, let it not be attributed to my want, but to the divine sufficiency. But if perchance I say anything in such a way that it can neither suffice for your holy desire nor please it, this belongs not to the divine sufficiency, but to my want. Accordingly, let Christian charity exhibit on both sides the parts of its work, so that it may both humbly acknowledge the sufficiency of God, and patiently pardon the servile want. CHAPTER 4. The Son of the Virgin is the author and spouse of virginity. Virgo is as it were virago. 6. He made you a sacred virgin by His gratuitous gift, who made all things whatsoever He willed (Psalm
113:11), by whom therefore grace is given without any preceding merits, that thanksgiving may always be rendered to Him with pure humility of heart. Now this is the only-begotten Son of God, also the only-begotten Son of the Virgin, the one spouse of all sacred virgins, the fruit, ornament, and gift of holy virginity; whom holy virginity bore corporeally; to whom holy virginity is wedded spiritually; by whom holy virginity is made fruitful, that it may remain untouched; by whom it is adorned, that it may remain beautiful; by whom it is crowned, that it may reign gloriously forever. 7. Wherefore keep the good deposit (1 Timothy
6:20), and weigh the merit of so great a good—which God gave that you might have it, and Himself made possible that you might vow it to God—from the very meaning of its name: for God willed the good of virginity to be so great that He deigned to name it not from anything else, but from the word for virtue (virtus). If therefore anyone wishes carefully to consider the word 'virgo' (virgin), he will find it derived from the name of virtue: for she is called virgo, as it were virago; and Holy Scripture says that a virago is so called for no other reason than because she was taken from a man (vir). This the accurate translation of holy Jerome teaches, according to the Hebrew idiom of the Book of Genesis, in which it is thus written: The Lord God therefore sent a deep sleep upon Adam:
and when he had fallen asleep, He took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it, and the Lord God built the rib which He had taken from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam; and Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Virago (Woman-from-man), because she was taken from man (Genesis 2:21-22). CHAPTER 5. Virago is named from vir (man), man from virtue. The Church is called both virgin and man by the Apostle. From Christ the Christian Church, as the virgin from man, is named. The holy Church is called mother, virgin, and spouse. 8. Since therefore the name of virago descended from the name of man, who can doubt that man is named from virtue? And because, as Paul teaches, all those things were done in a figure of us (1 Corinthians
10:6), assuredly in that virgin who was being made from the man's rib, the Church was already then prefigured as future—the Church which is truly taken from the Man, and joined to Him from whom she was taken, and thence has in truth virtue whence she has the true name of virago. For which reason Paul does not hesitate to call this virago, that is, the virgin who was taken from the man, not only by the name of virgin but also by the name of man; for he says to the faithful: For I have espoused you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). For Christ is the Man from whom this virgin was taken. Again to these same faithful the same apostle says:
Until we all meet in the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). Through holy David also, an exhortation of this spiritual kind is proclaimed in common to men rather than to women: Act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, all you that hope in the Lord (Psalm 30:25). 9. Typologically, therefore, the word 'virgin' is derived from man, just as the name 'Christian' is derived from Christ: for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, from whom is the Church, which, remaining a virgin in faith and charity, possesses both wisdom and virtue;
and therefore she is neither deceived by seduction nor overcome by violence, because she is supported by the integrity of inner virginity. To this virgin Isaiah says: For the Lord has been well pleased in you, and your land shall be inhabited. For the young man shall dwell with the virgin, and your sons shall dwell in you (Isaiah 62:4-5). And that he might show the young man to be none other than the spouse, and the virgin none other than the bride—the spouse and bride being Christ and the Church—he added, following on: And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride; and your God shall rejoice over you. This virgin is the mother to whom it is said: Your sons shall dwell in you; and this mother is the virgin of whom it is said: For the young man shall dwell with the virgin. This virgin is the bride of whom it is said:
And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride. This Church, therefore, one and true and catholic, is the bride, because she cleaves to Christ; is the mother, because she is made fruitful by Christ; is the virgin, because she perseveres uncorrupted in Christ. Of this bride neither is virginity corrupted by fruitfulness, nor is fruitfulness impeded by virginity. For such is the wedlock of this Man and Virgin, that this Virgin is made fruitful by this Man precisely because in this wedlock there can never be any corruption, and so great an integrity of virginity perseveres in this Mother, that unless she were always a virgin, she could not be a mother. The new name of this Mother and Virgin Isaiah thus foretells: And you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord has named (ibid. 2).
Therefore, because Christ is virtue, just as the Church took the word 'virgin' from virtue, so from Christ she received the name 'Christian.' CHAPTER 6. The grace of the gift is greater in virgins than in others. To eunuchs a better place in the wall is promised. 10. She, though she has among her diverse members gifts differing according to the grace that is given to her, has nevertheless received a greater grace of gift in those members in which she is so called a virgin spiritually that she also enjoys the integrity of bodily virginity. For in the other faithful members, which believe rightly in God according to the rule of the catholic faith, and keep conjugal or widowed chastity;
which, that is, are neither besprinkled with the pollution of actual fornication, and remain free from all defilement of unfaithfulness, the Church enjoys only spiritual virginity; but in those members, in which she so keeps right faith that she also preserves the flesh untouched from all intercourse, the fuller virginity she has, the more fully and perfectly she possesses the name of that same virginity: for in the former she has nothing less toward life; but in the latter she acquires something further toward glory, because, as Paul says: One is the glory of the sun, and another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead.
Finally, under the name of eunuchs (whom the Saviour also in the Gospel affirms to have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven) the Lord promises through Isaiah a better place in His house and in His wall to virgins. For thus it is written: Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: Whosoever shall keep My precepts, and shall choose the things that I will, and shall embrace My covenant, I will give to them in My house and within My walls a place named better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, which shall not fail (Isaiah 56:4-5). In the Apocalypse also of blessed John, they are the ones who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes (Revelation 14:4), who have remained virgins. CHAPTER 7.