On Contempt for the World Or De Contemptu Mundi

St Eucherius of Lyons is one of the great neglected spiritual writers of Western Orthodoxy. His ascetic mysticism is very much in the Eastern tradition; if there were a “Latin Philokalia”, St Eucherius would doubtless have a place in it. At the same time, his proverbs and apothegms, some of which may be found near the end of the present work, speak directly to people living in the world as much as to monks.