Sender
Peter of Blois
Receiver
Adelicia
Translated letter:
Letter 55: To the nun Adelitia
To Adelitia cherished and well-beloved in Christ, Master Peter of Blois, greeting in the Lord God our savior.
All who love you rejoice, but there is also joy among God’s angels because in your desires you hold the intention of a more holy life. For, as they say, you renounced, though in secret, this false world, and you prudently decided to abandon the world before you are abandoned by it. You are blessed, who, having rejected the sons of men, chose as spouse for yourself the Son of the Most High. He who desired your beauty is the king of kings and lord of lords; to his union the prophet invites you. Hear daughter, he says, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house [Psal. 44:11]. Your beauty is not in the body but in the mind: For all glory of the king’s daughter is within [Psal. 44:14]. You will be more pleasing to Christ, your groom, the more common you are in dress, the more abject in cultivation of your body, the more infrequent in speaking, the more downcast in face, the more modest in aspect, the more mature in gait. There is none holy as the Lord is [1 Reg 2:2], since he himself is the saint of saints, he who asks of you nothing but sanctity of chastity. For it is written: Grace upon grace is a holy and modest woman [Eccli. 26:19].
If only you would say to him who calls you daughter, according to the prophet, as is written: You are the father of my virginity [Jer. 3:4], and let him reply to you what is read in another place: You will call me father [ibid], and behind me you will not cease to follow: walking behind the groom’s virgin mother: for she who precedes is virgin of virgins. After her virgins will be brought to the king, her neighbors will be brought to you, and they will be brought into the temple of the king [Psal. 44:15]. The daughters of this world are the daughters of Babylon, who determine successors for themselves from impurity of flesh, conceive in sin, give birth in pain, nourish in fear, are always worried about the living, are inconsolably distressed for the dying. If you wish to give birth, you wish to perish; for birth in the manner of a snake burdens and breaks the mother’s limbs, and it is a wonder that the offspring is not torn and destroyed: coming forth into the valley of this weeping and wretchedness, it begins in lamentation, and continues its days in sorrows to the end of this brief and wretched life.
So the blessed Job reminds us, saying, Man born of a woman, living for brief time, is filled with many miseries [Job 14:1]. O how much more blessed is the condition of those men and women who have castrated themselves for the kingdom of heaven, for whom there is praise in the Gospel, for whom the love of Christ is sweeter than abundance of children! [Matth. 19]. Hear what Isaiah says about such ones: He says, let not the eunuch say behold I am a dry tree, because the Lord says this to eunuchs: I will give to them a place in my house, and in my walls, and a name better than sons and daughters [Isaiah 56: 3-5]. Both the word of the prophet and the gospel call those people eunuchs who for love of Christ have bound themselves to a vow of chastity. Once it was said: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth [Gen 1:28], and, Cursed is he who has not left his seed on the earth [Exod. 23]. For that reason the daughter of Jeptha, as one beholden to the curse of law, lamented the unchosen chastity of her posterity [Jud. 10]. Nonetheless, since the Lord of law came fulfilling the law, not dismissing it, since the voice of the turtle-dove is heard [Cant. 2:12], and the herald of chastity, Paul, advised on virginity, nuptials filled the earth, and chastity paradise. You have acted prudently because for love of Christ you rejected the false riches and treacherous wealth of this life. Moreover, that zealot and guardian of the chaste heart and body will preserve you holy, unstained, and a companion of angelic purity [I Cor 7]. You have begun excellently, but he who judges the ends of the earth considers not the beginning, but the end. Therefore run, so that you may seize it. For the glory of virgins is in golden fringes [Psal. 44], and the fragrance of blessing pours itself up to the garment’s edge. Let nothing wordly, I pray, reside in your heart, but offer yourself utterly, so that before the Lord you may be an acceptable sacrifice. Ananias and Saphira were given to destruction [Act. 5] because they wished to remove certain things from the offerings to the Lord. Renounce the world utterly and proceed to the cloister. Use the habit that you have received within the family and whose acceptance you cannot now conceal. The prayers of all predestine you already for the abbey and temporal riches add to eternal happiness. Therefore, complete more maturely what you have begun: for if you will have mocked Christ and made fruitless the first faith, you will share destiny with the daughters of Babylon and your infamy will not be eradicated for eternity.1
Original letter:
Dilectae et praedilectae in Christo Adelitiae, Magister P. Blesen., salutem in Domino Deo salutari nostro.
Gaudent omnes qui te diligunt, sed et gaudium est angelis Dei, quia in desideriis habes sanctioris vitae propositum. Nam, sicut dicitur, renuntiasti, occulte tamen, fallaci huic saeculo, mundunique relinquere decrevisti prudenter, antequam relinquaris ab eo. Beata es, quae spretis filiis hominum, Filium Altissimi tibi elegisti in sponsum. Rex regum, et Dominus dominantium, ipse est, qui concupivit decorem tuum, ad cujus copulam Propheta te invitat. Audi, inquit, filia et vide, et inclina aurem tuam, et oblivsicere populum tuum, et domum patris tui. Decor tuus, non in corpore est, sed in mente : Omnis enim gloria filiae regit ab intus. Tanto eris acceptior sponso tuo Christo, quanto fueris in veste vilior, in cultu corporis tui abjectior, in sermone rarior, in vultu dejectior, in aspectu verecundior, in incessu maturior. Non est sanctus, ut est Dominus quoniam ipse est Sanctus sanctorum, qui a te nihil aliud postulat, nisi pudicitiae sanctitatem. Scripium est enim : Gratia super gratiam mulier tancta et pudorata
Utinam ei, qui te per prophetam filiam vocat, dicas, sicut scriptum est : Pater virginitatis meae tu es, et ipse tibi illud respondeat, quod alibi legitur : Patrem vocabis me et post me ingredi non cessabis : ingrediens post virginem matrem sponsi: ipsa est enim virgo virginum, quae praecedit. Adducentur regi virgines post eam, proximae ejus afferentur tibi, et adducentur in templum regis. Filiae hujus saeculi filiae Babylonis, quae de carnis immunditia sibi destinant successores, in peccato concipiunt, in dolore pariunt, in timore nutriunt, de viventibus semper sollicitae sunt, de morientibus inconsolabiliter affliguntur. Si vis parere, vis perire; partus enim in modum viperae maternos artus onerat et disrumpit, mirumque est quod fetus ille non laceratur et rumpitur: prodiens autem in vallem plorationis et miseriae hujus, a ploratione incipit, et usque in finem hujus brevis et miserae vitae continuat in doloribus dies suos.
Sicut beatus Job commemorat dicens: Homo natus de muliere, brevi vivens tempore, repletur multis miseriis. 0 quanto beatior est eorum earumve conditio, qui se castraverunt propter regnum coelorum, quorum laus est in Evangelio, quibus dulcior est amor Christi quam numerositas filiorum! Audi quid dicat de talibus Isaias: Non dicat, inquit, eunuchus: Ecce ego lignum aridum, quia haec dicit Dominus eunuchis : Dabo eis in domo mea, et in muris meis locum et nomen melius a filiis et filiabus. Eos vocat eunuchos tam propheticus, quam evangelicus sermo, qui se pro amore Christi voto castimoniae astrinxerunt. Olim dictum est: Crescite et multiplicamini, et replete terram. Et : Maledictus, qui non reliquerit semen super terram Ideo filia Jephte tanquam maledicto legis obnoxia, exsortem posteritatis suae pudicitiam deplorabat. Verumtamen ex quo venit Dominus legis legem adimplens, non solvens, ex quo vox turturis audita est, et praeco pudicitiae Paulus consilium de virginitate dedit, impleverunt nuptiae terram, et pudicitia paradisum. Prudenter egisti, quia pro amore Christi divitias hujus vitae fallaces, et opes proditorias dimisisti. Ipse autem zelator et custos casti cordis et corporis te sanctam, impollutam, et angelicae puritatis sociam conservabit. Optime incoepisti : verumtamen non principium, sed finem attendit, qui judicat fines terrae. Sic igitur curre, ut comprehendas. Gloria enim virgiuum est in fimbriis aureis et se usque in oram vestimenti unguentum benedictionis infundit. Nihil, quaeso, saeculare in corde tuo resideat, sed te totam offeras, ut sis coram Domino placabile holocaustum. Ananias et Saphira in interitum dati sunt, quia quaedam de oblatis Domino recidere voluerunt. Renuntia omnino saeculo, et ingredere claustrum. Utere habitu, quem familiariter suscepisti, et cujus susceptionem jam dissimulare non potes. Vota omnium jam tibi praedestinant abbatiam, el aeternae felicitati divitiae temporales accrescunt. Maturius igitur perfice quod coepisti : nam si Christo illuseris, et irritam feceris primam fidem, cum filiabus Babylonis habitura es sortem, et infamia tua non delebitur in aeternum.
Historical context:
Peter had written to Adelicia's uncle criticizing him for trying to force her into a cloister, and supporting her choice of life in the world, of marriage and motherhood. But when she did enter a monastery, he wrote to tell her how much better a life it was.
Scholarly notes:
1 Ashleigh Imus provided this translation.
Printed source:
PL 207, c.166-68, ep.55.
Date:
late 12th to early 13th?
