Not one pas­sion is con­quered with­out a great strug­gle. The Holy Fathers have referred to adul­ter­ous pas­sion as death. When the adul­terer is saved from an adul­ter­ous pas­sion it is as though he res­ur­rected from the dead. For those who live in the world the pas­sion of adul­tery is inflamed prin­ci­pally by see­ing and for those who live a life of asceti­cism in the wilder­ness that pas­sion is inflamed by thoughts and by imag­i­na­tion.

Amma Sarah, a great female ascetic, was tor­tured by the insane pas­sion of adul­tery for thirty years. She always defeated it by prayer and drove it away from her. At one time, the foul insan­ity of adul­tery came to her in bod­ily form and said to her: “Sarah, you have defeated me!” Sarah humbly answered: “I have not defeated you but the Lord Christ has defeated you.” From that time on, the thought of adul­tery left her forever.

When Saint Pimen was asked how can a man strug­gle against the adul­ter­ous insan­ity, he replied: “If man sur­presses his stom­ach and tongue then he will be able to rule over himself.”

St. Anthony said that there exists three kinds of move­ments in the body: “First, the nat­ural move­ment, sec­ond, unre­strained in food, and third, from the demons.”

Again, oth­ers have said that the vice of adul­tery is strength­ened by anger and pride. How­ever, all agree that along with man’s sobri­ety and effort the help of God is nec­es­sary in order that this repul­sive pas­sion be uprooted com­pletely. And that it is pos­si­ble for man to pre­serve him­self in purity, wit­ness, among many oth­ers, St. Moses of Urgin, who lived fifty years in the world and ten years in the monastery, alto­gether a total of sixty years in com­pletely vir­ginal purity.

– Bishop Niko­lai Velimirovich