Letter 34

From: Avitus, Bishop of Vienne To: Heraclius, a distinguished layman Date: ~505 AD Context: Avitus writes to a friend about the death of a mutual acquaintance — one of the more personal and moving letters in his collection. Avitus, bishop, to the most distinguished Heraclius. I would have written sooner if writing had been possible. The news of his death came at a time when grief and the press of other obligations competed in a way that neither was well served. You were closer to him than I was. I will not pretend otherwise. I met him perhaps a dozen times, always briefly, always in circumstances that made deep conversation difficult. And yet there was something in those conversations — a quality of attention he brought to ideas, a willingness to be surprised — that left the impression of a man who was more fully alive than most. What I find hardest about the deaths of good people — better than most, genuinely trying to live well — is the theological question they raise with such force. Not the abstract question of theodicy, but the immediate question: what did it mean, this specific life, this specific person? The faith says: it meant everything, because every person is seen by God and loved by God and the loss of this person is mourned by God. I believe this. On the days when believing it is easy, I am grateful. On the days when it is hard — when the absence is a fact and the consolation seems thin beside it — I hold to the belief by an act of will and trust that the will is itself a gift. Write to me when you are ready to think about other things. I hold you in my prayers. Avitus

Avitus episcopus viro illustrissimo Heraclio. Nisi dolendum amici casum animo concussus gemerem, multa profecto exaggera- rem, quod vos in lectulo mendacis podagrae metu, medici vegetos de arte consueta, plus quam poeticae pedibus innitentes montium scandendorum magis moveat cura, quam versuum. Maestus vero has et cum festinatione dictavi, evocatus videlicet ad sepulturam communis filii quondam Protadi: sic tamen vel in hoc ipso patri aliquid consolationis impendat. Vobis porro si cordi est, facta de nobis ex asse iac- tura, ab incursibus formidandis Rodano limitante muniri, tenete adhuc, dum redeo, et Ceratium nostrum de meo habentem aliqua, de vestro nonnulla, quia me scholasticum vobis adserit bellicosum sumens de matris sapientia, quod libenter barbaros fugit, de virtute paterna, quod litteris terga non praebuit. Heraclius Avito Viennensi episcopo. Indicastis quidem tantam doloris causam, quae epistularis officii responso clau- deretur, ut durissimo nuntio vulnus inflictum plus me lacrimis cogeret servire quam litteris. Tamen metuens silentii culpam vel suspiriis pauca meis, ut potui, verba furatus sum. Probant igitur tempora, cui rectius adscribatur nota formidinis, quem magis trepidum provisio claustris commissa designet. Ego urbis caveas dedignatus inter vicina discrimini constantiam pectoris planis exposui, ut tamdiu ad patentium locorum aequora pervenirem, ut virtutis audaciam libertate habitationis ostenderem. Vos autem rumore comperto ad saepta urbis tamquam ventorum famuli convolastis et quem pacis diebus iugiter rura tenuerant, nunc de murorum latebris non educunt. Enim vero quam vos ante civitas flagitabat. tam nunc intra moenia collocatum quaerit relicta possessio. DE DVBIIS NOMINIBVS P. 591, 3 K. Squalor generis masculini, ut Avitus: squalore vicino FLODOARDVS HISTORIARVM ECCLESIAE REMENSIS LIB. III CAP. 21. [Hincmarus Remensis archiepiscopus] Adoni Viennensi archiepiscopo scribit inter cetera pro epistola beati Aviti ad sanctum Remigium scripta, quam quidam Rotfridus monachus ei dixerat se apud eundem Adonem legisse. ALCIMI ECDICII AVITI VIENNENSIS EPISCOPI EX HOMILIARVM LIBRO QVAE RESTANT.