Nilus of Ancyra→Adrian|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To Adrian the Monk.
Why, out of much and untimely anxiety, do you risk falling into unbelief, expecting that God will forsake you and that you will lack the necessities of life? For you do have, even now, certain people who help you and who take up the burden of your great weakness: the wholly illustrious Heron the Illustris [holder of the high rank of illustris], who reverences the monks from the very heart, and the nephew of the most holy bishop, himself also a lover of monks, and the most venerable deaconess of Christ, Theodule. Yet even if it should happen that these too die before you die, in every case God, seeing the meekness and quietness of your soul, and your freedom from busy affairs, and your lack of curiosity, and your good perseverance toward what is better, will from beyond all resource send you those who are bound to minister to your need. For God is able to raise up out of these stones those who will eagerly serve those who pursue the solitary life. For who indeed will not with much entreaty furnish not only the things of need, but even the things beyond need, to those who live piously and reverently and virtuously? For if barbarian men, the Babylonians, who took Jerusalem by the law of war, stood in awe of the virtue of Jeremiah and provided every bodily service most magnanimously, giving not only the things for nourishment but also vessels with which those who are entertained are accustomed to be served, how shall those of our own people not stand in awe of a virtuous life, men whose reasoning has by education been purified more than the barbarian's for the understanding of good things, and who are zealous for virtue? For even if they have not been able, for certain reasons, to become practitioners of it, yet they honor it and admire its true practitioners. Do not, then, be anxious about many things, but according to the exhortation of Peter and Paul be watchful, and be sober unto prayers, and cast all your care upon God. For "the Lord is near" [Philippians 4:5], and "Be anxious for nothing," he says, "but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God" [Philippians 4:6], and he himself will provide for you in all things. And again it is written elsewhere: "Look to the ancient generations. Who ever trusted in the Lord, and was disregarded by him?" [Sirach 2:10]. You have read it all; nevertheless let us remind you. Daniel in Babylon, cast into the den of lions and suffering no harm from them, sat there starving; but Habakkuk the prophet, commanded from God and carried by an angel from Judea to Babylon, conveyed the meal into the very den of the lion, and the most great Daniel said in thanksgiving, "For you remembered me, O God, and did not forsake those who seek you" [Bel and the Dragon 33-39]. Taking these things, then, and such as these, into your mind, flee for refuge in your thought to God, and to him alone, without ceasing.
Why, out of much and untimely anxiety, do you risk falling into unbelief, expecting that God will forsake you and that you will lack the necessities of life? For you do have, even now, certain people who help you and who take up the burden of your great weakness: the wholly illustrious Heron the Illustris [holder of the high rank of illustris], who reverences the monks from the very heart, and the nephew of the most holy bishop, himself also a lover of monks, and the most venerable deaconess of Christ, Theodule. Yet even if it should happen that these too die before you die, in every case God, seeing the meekness and quietness of your soul, and your freedom from busy affairs, and your lack of curiosity, and your good perseverance toward what is better, will from beyond all resource send you those who are bound to minister to your need. For God is able to raise up out of these stones those who will eagerly serve those who pursue the solitary life. For who indeed will not with much entreaty furnish not only the things of need, but even the things beyond need, to those who live piously and reverently and virtuously? For if barbarian men, the Babylonians, who took Jerusalem by the law of war, stood in awe of the virtue of Jeremiah and provided every bodily service most magnanimously, giving not only the things for nourishment but also vessels with which those who are entertained are accustomed to be served, how shall those of our own people not stand in awe of a virtuous life, men whose reasoning has by education been purified more than the barbarian's for the understanding of good things, and who are zealous for virtue? For even if they have not been able, for certain reasons, to become practitioners of it, yet they honor it and admire its true practitioners. Do not, then, be anxious about many things, but according to the exhortation of Peter and Paul be watchful, and be sober unto prayers, and cast all your care upon God. For "the Lord is near" [Philippians 4:5], and "Be anxious for nothing," he says, "but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God" [Philippians 4:6], and he himself will provide for you in all things. And again it is written elsewhere: "Look to the ancient generations. Who ever trusted in the Lord, and was disregarded by him?" [Sirach 2:10]. You have read it all; nevertheless let us remind you. Daniel in Babylon, cast into the den of lions and suffering no harm from them, sat there starving; but Habakkuk the prophet, commanded from God and carried by an angel from Judea to Babylon, conveyed the meal into the very den of the lion, and the most great Daniel said in thanksgiving, "For you remembered me, O God, and did not forsake those who seek you" [Bel and the Dragon 33-39]. Taking these things, then, and such as these, into your mind, flee for refuge in your thought to God, and to him alone, without ceasing.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.