De Vita

Methodius of Olympus (260–311)

De vita et actibus rationi consentaneis (On Life and Rational Action)

Text translated into English from Old Slavonic by Ralph Cleminson, commissioned and edited by Roger Pearse, who then released it into the public domain. [Additional Sources: archive.org ]

The Second Homily, by the same. On Life and Rational Action.

[I. 1.] Many persons are surprised at the changes in life, or how they pass from abundance of sustenance to worse things. For such people, because of love for the things they have lost, and because of the diminishing of those things which are needful, not having learnt to humble themselves to worse things, often rail unreasonably even at Providence. [2.] But I say, since we are men, and have dominion over those things which were created for us, let us not show ourselves to be worse than those things that were created for us: neither being exalted with a multitude of riches, nor, on the contrary, being impatient with the little that we have now. For it is foolish to become enslaved to those things over which we have received dominion. [3.] For the sake of abstinence even those who are rich often regard their abundance as very little, while the poor regard these things as…

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• More works by Methodius of Olympus

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