Letter 3024: While the perpetual cause of love always supplies reason enough to pay my respects to your greatness, and while I...

From: Avitus, bishop of Vienne To: Helladius, vir illustris Date: ~515 AD Context: A feast-day greeting expressing the perpetual obligation of friendship and devotion. Bishop Avitus to the illustrious Helladius. While the perpetual cause of love always supplies reason enough to pay my respects to your greatness, and while I rightly owe a special observance of devotion to your earnest affection, the occasion of this feast day has now given me the welcome obligation to present myself to your affection through this letter — I who would have preferred to come in person. And so, offering the reverence that is your due, I ask how joyfully you have celebrated the feast. I pray to the inexhaustible generosity of our Redeemer that he may advance you under his hundredfold protection and continue to adorn our community, as he has done until now, by rewarding you with every blessing.

Avitus episcopus viro illustri Helladio. Cum ad officium vestrae magnitudini deferendum perpetua semper causa suppetat caritatis et specialem devotionis observantiam iure debeam obnixae impensius pietati: nunc tamen desideratam mihi necessitatem ratio festivitatis indixit, ut affectui vestro litterarum praesentarer officio, qui cuperem et occursu. Idcirco reverentia suspectans debita, quam et ex voto festam celebraveritis, inquiro redemptoris nostri inexhaustam deprecans largitatem, ut centenaria sua protectione vos provehat et ad ornatum nostrum, sicut hactenus fecit, bonis omnibus remuneratos attollat.