Letter 402

To Alexander the Archimandrite [head of a monastery]. Illuminating the lightless night of human life with the rays of your countless deeds of valor, how is it that, though not numbered among the ranks of the heavenly angels, you yet contend with them, with those incorruptible powers, while wearing about you this body that is corruptible and worthless and perishable, this tent [the mortal body, cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1-4]?

Τὴν ἀφεγγῆ νύκτα τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου βίου, ταῖς τῶν μυρίων ἀνδραγαθημάτων σου ἀκτῖσι καταυγάζων, πῶς τὴν τῶν ἐπουρανίων ἀγγέλων καταλόγοις μὴ συναριθμηθείς, ἁμιλλώμενος; ταῖς ἀφθάρτοις ἐκεῖ- νας δυνάμεσι, τὸ φθαρτὸν τοῦτο, καὶ εὐτελὲς, καὶ ἐφθαρτὸν περικείμενος σχῆνος;