Letter 3010: The delicacies you sent are indeed magnificent and wonderfully generous — in their quantity, their timing, and their...

Bishop Avitus to Bishop Maximus. The delicacies which you sent are indeed great and exceedingly to be admired in their abundance, their timeliness, and their distinction; yet for all that they are not equal to your affection, your devotion, and your solicitude. By these gifts it is proved that it was not so much your gracious regard that was wanting to us as your presence. The festival has been fulfilled by the prosperity of your kindnesses; but as much as it gained in bodily provisions, by so much did it fall short of our accustomed banquet of spiritual things. May God grant me those spiritual feasts; and if in time to come he bestows the opportunity of travel, then, just as now he deigns to convey them to me through you, so may he then deign to set them forth in your company.

Avitus episcopus Maximo episcopo. Magnae quidem et nimis admirandae sunt deliciae, quas misistis, copia, tempore, dignitate; sed tamen affectui, pietati, sollicitudini non aequantnr. Per quae probatur non tam dignatio vestra nobis quam praesentia defuisse. Expleta est suffragiorum vestrorum prosperitate festivitas: cui quantum accessit corporalium, tantum a consue- tudine spiritalium defuit epularum. Quas mihi deus, si in futuro tribuit commeatum, sicut nunc per vos transmittere, ita tunc vobiscum exhibere dignetur.