Letter 27

From: Avitus, bishop of Vienne To: Apollinaris, bishop Date: ~516 AD Context: A thank-you letter for gifts and ongoing devotion, with prayers for Apollinaris's continued role as an ornament of the Church. Bishop Avitus to Bishop Apollinaris. Bound and burdened alike by the graciousness of your concern, the magnificence of your gift, and the constancy of your devotion — with what fitting expression of thanks, let alone what eager service, can I respond? Unless, perhaps, the same grace that weighs me down also sustains me in my weakness. May almighty God continue to grant you as an ornament to the Church and as consolation and refreshment to us, so that — since you truly do not live for yourself alone — you may heap up your own merits through the comfort you bring to others.

Avitus episcopus Apollinari episcopo. Innexus pariter adgravatusque dignatione sollicitudinis, magnitudine muneris, con- suetudine pietatis, qua digna vel gratiarum actione, non dicam obsequii sedulitate re- spondeam? nisi forte multipliciter atque invalidus eadem in hoc sustenter gratia vestra, qua oneror. Concedat vos ornatui ecclesiae, consolationi ac refectioni nostrae omni- potens deus: ut, quia revera non solum vobis vivitis, per aliorum solacia vestra merita cumuletis. Fecerunt quidem peccata mea non qualemcumque necessitatem, qua in die susceptae vestrae festivitatulae laetitiae nostrae, corporalis vestrae pietatis prae- sentia fraudaremur. Sed reddidistis ac repraesentastis nobis vicissitudinem vestri ad- spectus in lumine, oris in sermone, actus in opere. Credo in dei nostri misericordia, quod non meo tantum tempore, sed etiam secuturo donum vestrae oblationis ecclesiola nostra venerabitur. Quod sicut ego, dum vivo, in testimonium inexhaustae largitatis servare desidero, ita mihi deus praestet, ut etiam ei, quem post me, cum deus iusserit, electio vestra decreverit, peculiariter auctoritas vestra commendet.