Letter 292

292. To Palladius

The holy God has fulfilled half of our desire, by arranging the meeting with our most decorous sister, your wife. And He is able to grant what remains as well, that, having seen your nobility also, we may render to God perfect thanks. For we are in great longing, especially now, when we have heard that you have been honoured with the great honour, the immortal garment, which, enwrapping our humanity, has done away with the death that is in the flesh, and the mortal has been swallowed up in the garment of incorruption.

Since, then, the Lord has made you His own through grace, and has estranged you from all sin, and has opened to you the kingdom of heaven, and has shown you the ways that lead to the blessedness there, we exhort you—a man so far surpassing the rest in good sense—to receive the grace with reflection, and to become a faithful guardian of the treasure, keeping with all care the watch over the royal deposit, so that, having preserved the seal inviolate, you may stand before the Lord shining in the splendour of the saints, having put no spot or wrinkle upon the pure garment of incorruption, but preserving holiness in all your members, as one who has put on Christ. For "as many of you," he says, "as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Let all your members, then, be holy, so that they may be fit to be covered by the holy and shining robe.