PREFACE.

of the vocation, the gravity of the fall, the efficacy of the penance that repairs everything, trust in God, the danger of resisting grace, and many excellent practical tips. The fifth epistle is addressed to another religious, named John Sahdona, on the subject of the Book of Perfection and on the contemplative life.

We are left with only one page of his advice or maxims of wisdom, 601–602; the rest is lost. These works of xSahdona are unpublished; they appear for the first time. The Abbé Goussen, in his brochure, had the chapter on Virginity, the second epistle, and the page of wisdom maxims lithographed. We ourselves published the second chapter of the first part on faith last year, along with two other extracts, the whole forming about forty-five pages out of the 602 that comprise the works we are publishing today.

We thought it appropriate to add here a letter and several metric homilies by Mar Jacques, a monophysite bishop of Sarug, who lived at the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th century; most of these homilies were composed in honor of Our Lord and the Holy Virgin.

We copied the epistle of Mar Jacques to the religious of Arzon of the Persians in manuscript add. 14587, f. 9b of the British Museum in London. It is a dogmatic letter