Step 15: On (the virtues of) incorruptible purity and chastity,
to which the corruptible attain by toil and sweat
It's not easy to remain celibate when those Devils are picking you off...
Step 15 is from The Ladder of Divine Ascent, written by
Saint John Climacus around 600 AD
and illustrated here on a 12th century icon from St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai.
Celibacy would appear to be about halfway up the 30 steps and only with "toil and sweat"
can the seeker escape the intense sexual desires and not fall off. Adam's sin, you see...