˟

35 Holy Father quotes about Chastity and Purity


About Chastity

For where purity dwells, there iniquity ought not to enter the heart of a righteous man.
The Shepherd of Hermas

Chastity is the dignity of the body, the ornament of morality, the sacredness of the sexes, the bond of modesty, the source of purity, the peacefulness of home, the crown of concord.
Cyprian of Carthage






If a person is chaste to seem chaste to other people, then he is not. Virtue means nothing to him, but he want to ensure the others that it does.
St. Basil the Great





Chastity means to see dispassionately the things, which provoke unwise dreams and desires.
Evagrius Ponticus

If you like chastity, then you have to restrain your utero.
Evagrius Ponticus





You cannot live chastely, if there is no humility in your heart.
St. John Cassian






Abstinence is not enough to reach chastity, because there is no chastity without purity of spirit.
Abba Herimon

You can keep chastity not by abstinence, but in case you like it and the feeling of purity as well.
Abba Herimon

Pray hard to God so that He gifts you the spirit of perfect chastity. Then you will avoid the scheme of devil even in your night dreams.
St. Ephrem the Syrian

Chastity is not only abstinence from lechery and carnal pleasures, but freedom from other passions as well.
St. Ephrem the Syrian



Those are chaste, who preserve from lust not just the body, but each part of it. For example, when your eye and your tongue are chaste in their own ways and when spiritual thoughts of a person are not confused with other intentions.
St. Ephrem the Syrian

Chastity of a person depends not on his age, but on his frame of mind.
St. John Chrysostom

Chastity is wonderful. However, it becomes even greater when it is combined with physical beauty.
St. John Chrysostom

If one learns chastity, then his wife will be the most beautiful for him, he will look at her with great love and will live with her in peace and agreement.  And through peace and agreement he will get all the other goods.
St. John Chrysostom

There is nothing what adorns the youth more, than do chastity and marriage free of any lechery.
St. John Chrysostom

Icon of St.John Chrysostom

Those are pure, who wards physical love off with divine love and who put carnal fire with spiritual one.
St. John Climacus

Those people are chaste, who remain chaste even in their own dreams.
St. John Climacus

Chaste is he who has attained perfect indifference to body differences forever.
St. John Climacus

None of those who gained chastity should take credit for it, as it is impossible that any one defeats his own nature. But when nature is defeated then you can know the coming of Him, Who is above nature, because the least can be defeated by the biggest without any doubts.
St. John Climacus

Some people appreciate eunuchs because of their nature, as they are free from corporal temptation. But I appreciate those, who emasculates himself with his mind like with a knife.
St. John Climacus

When you show God the weakness of your soul and accept, that you are absolutely weak, then you will gain chastity without even realizing it.
St. John Climacus

Nothing makes demons happy more than filth of lust, and they like no passion more than one, which desecrates the body.
St. John Climacus

There is nothing damaging chastity more than a bent for insolence and free treatment, which rejects modesty.
St. John Climacus

About Purity


The corporal things avoiding shame and disgrace can serve as the way to the purity of soul.
St. Cyril of Alexandria




We should clean our hearts in the most sensitive way. What the old testament people wanted to reach by the purity of body, that we should keep in our hearts. Being a part of our conscience, God – our main Adviser – always watches that we do not do in our mind anything what we cannot do publicly, and what we shame to do, that should we not do in our dreams too.
St. John Cassian

The only possible way to make your heart pure and to be better lies through humility. You have to show you humility to your brothers and to God and be sure that without His help and His grace you won’t be perfect at all.
St. John Cassian

The harder a person tries to cope with passion of anger, the more pure becomes his heart.
Abba Herimon

What is the filthiness of soul? Filthy thoughts, lascivious glance, inability to forgive, lie and so on.
St. Ephrem the Syrian

What is the filth of body? Lechery, infidelity, and any other kind of concupiscence.
St. Ephrem the Syrian



A pure heart is a heart, which shows God clean memory free from images and impressions, and which is ready to accept God’s feelings making it light.
St. Marcus Eremita







Pure life can easily breach even the devil’s will.
St. John Chrysostom

You will reach the purity, when you begin to treat other people (in carnal sense) as if they were inanimate objects.
St. John Climacus

A sign of purity is to have fun with happy people ones and to cry with crying ones.
St. Ephrem the Syrian

The purity of spouses is their faithfulness to each other. The purity of virgins and widows married to Christ is their faithfulness to Him.
St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov

The purity of heart let us feel God. It shines and blooms in our souls not with the help of human’s learnings, but in case it is not affected by human’s rancor. 
St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov


Help support the ministry of St. Elisabeth Convent


CONVERSATION