Letter 1

From: Salvian of Marseille, priest and writer To: The monks of Lerins Date: ~450 AD Context: Salvian [c. 400-470+, ascetic, priest of Marseille, author of On the Governance of God and other works] writes to the famous monastery of Lerins [on an island off the southern coast of Gaul, one of the greatest centers of monasticism in the Latin West] on the nature of the monastic life. Salvian, servant of God and of the brethren, to the holy monks of Lerins, greetings. The monastery of Lerins has shaped the Christian life of Gaul more than any single institution in our time, and I write partly out of genuine reverence and partly because I have a question I want to think through with men who know the monastic life from the inside. The question is this: what is the monastic life for? Not in the abstract theological sense — I know the answer to that question — but in the practical sense of what it does for the people who live it and what it does for the church and world that surround it. My sense, watching from the outside, is that the monastery at its best is a community where human beings live in a way that makes visible what all human life is ultimately for: the love of God and the love of neighbor, practiced without distraction, with all the supports of structured prayer and common life and the wisdom of accumulated tradition. The monk who lives this life well is not withdrawing from the world; he is showing the world what its own life is about. The question I raise is whether Lerins is doing this — not as a judgment but as a genuine inquiry. What do you think the monastery is accomplishing in this generation? Salvian, your servant