OUTDOOR STUDIES 
I 
SAINTS, AND THEIR BODIES 
EVER since the time of that dyspeptic heathen, 
Plotinus, the saints have been “ashamed of 
their bodies.” What is worse, they have usually 
had reason for the shame. Of the four famous 
Latin fathers, Jerome describes his own limbs 
as misshapen, his skin as squalid, his bones as 
scarcely holding together; while Gregory the 
Great speaks in his Epistles of his own large 
size, as contrasted with his weakness and infirm- 
ities. Three of the four Greek fathers — 
Chrysostom, Basil, and Gregory Nazianzen — 
ruined their health early, and were invalids for 
the remainder of their days. Three only of the 
whole eight were able-bodied men, — Ambrose, 
Augustine, and Athanasius ; and the permanent 
influence of these three has been far greater, 
for good or for evil, than that of all the others 
put together. 
Robust military saints there have doubtless 
