Golden Epistles of the Ancient Christians

...other books by the same author. I mention this for the following reason: so that no one might assume that all other writings of Athanasius Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296–373 AD), the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism are considered unedifying original: "unerbaulich"; lacking in spiritual or moral benefit or are being published without proper distinction.

XXXI. to XXXIV.

Ambrose Saint Ambrose (c. 339–397 AD), the Bishop of Milan and a primary Doctor of the Church did indeed leave behind many extensive letters; among them, however, the eleventh is particularly beautiful to read. It serves as a powerful incentive to choose Jesus alone as the greatest treasure and to despise all earthly things by comparison. To this, several other letters have been added which demonstrate the spiritual earnestness of certain Christians from those times. They are all found in the third volume of his Works original: "Operum"; referring to the standard Latin edition of his collected writings, and there is nothing further to note about them other than to recommend them to the reader for their own spiritual benefit.

XXXV. to LXXIV.

Isidore of Pelusium An ascetic monk from Egypt (died c. 449 AD) known for his vast correspondence offering guidance on Scripture and morality is well-known from the fifth century for having left behind nothing but letters. These exist in five complete books—or at least, that is the number that remains today. While Nicephorus Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos, a 14th-century Byzantine historian mentions ten thousand of them, we only have 2,013 remaining, according to the editions by Billius, Rittershusius, and Schottus Jacques de Billy, Konrad Rittershuis, and Andreas Schott were prominent 16th and 17th-century scholars and editors of patristic Greek texts, as they were printed together in Paris. From that collection, the most edifying have been selected here; although many were passed over for the sake of brevity. They are short and free of superfluous words, making them all the more pleasant to read and fruitful to remember. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the short writings of Saint Nilus Nilus the Elder (died c. 430 AD), a monk and author of ascetic treatises—which appear above in the "Selected Epistles"—are far more spiritual original: "geistreicher"; suggests a deeper level of divine inspiration or insight and flow from a deeper insight and experience, as any practiced reader can observe for themselves. Meanwhile...