Letter 2052: In just a few days, the devotion of your holiness so captivated me that even though I hold you in my heart by God's...

Bishop Ruricius to his own Stephanus, greeting. Within a very few days the devotion of your holiness has so drawn me to its own cultivation that, although by God's favor I hold you within my heart and behold you with the eyes of my mind, nevertheless, with affection ever urging me on, I keep searching for you; for indeed, just as everything that is sweet seems brief, so everything that is of the flesh is incapable of being satisfied. And I give thanks to almighty God for so admirable a gift of his, which he has deigned to bestow upon his own people so universally [...] by an ineffable dispensation, so that those who are separated in body might be joined in spirit, and that there might be nothing so distant and so difficult that it would not meet the gaze of our minds, but that, loving one another through the perception of the heart, they might behold one another in the contemplation of charity there, where charity itself abides. Whence it comes about that your devotion, which in my inmost being is increased, being renewed daily by constant remembrance, promises me a reciprocation of your love, and my own spirit stands as my guarantor of your spirit, since it dares to presume for itself as much of your affection as it longs to expend upon you. And so I bid abundant greeting to your blessedness, and I ask that you supplicate our common Lord without ceasing, that according to the riches of his goodness and power, to whom we confess all things are possible, even if in this world, because of the troubles and storms of this life and the distances of the regions, we cannot see one another more often, he may at least make us come together in that city which is built as a city; to which the mercy of the Lord will be able to bring us, and your merits.

LII. RURICIUS EPISCOPUS STEPHANO SUO SALUTEM. Ita me paucissimis diebus ad cultum suum pietas uestrae sanctitatis inlexit, ut, cum uos deo propitio corde detineam et oculis mentis intuear, tamen semper affectu instigante perquiram, quia scilicet breue uidetur omne, quod dulce est, ita inexplebile est omne, quod carne est. et omnipotenti deo gratias super tam admirabili dono eius, quod ita generaliter semis 4 apicebus S mearum v 5 prodente coni. Luetjoharm 7 facientes ac Sindillam scripsi, faciente facis indilae S, faciente facinore Sindillae Mommsem*Sy faciente paci Sindillae v 8 ppessus S per add. v, om. S puereitate S 10 caeterum S 11 alii om. v sibi add. Luetjoharm, om. S ex] et v 12 quandii S contemplationi S 14 reciperint S per addidi, om. S ipsis iam referentibus v Kr., ipso i. referente Mommseum 16 indicare v uestrum iuste scripsi, uerum iustae S 17 qua meum iniustae S scribtis S 18 nris S, om. v 20 stefano 8 22 deteneam S 24 scilicet] uidetur sicut scribendum, ut add. Mommsenw 25 earum coni. v et-p.434,6 consistit] cf. ep. II10 26 eius] refero exep. II10 add. Kr . XXI. Fantt. 28 suis tribuere ineffabili dispensatione dignatus est, ut ii, qui disparantur corpore, animis iungerentur, neque esset aliquid tam longinquum (tamque) difficile, quod mentium obtutibus (non) obuiarit, sed per cordis intuitum ibi se inuicem diligentes caritatis contemplatione conspicerent, ubi caritas ipsa consistit, quo fit, ut deuinctio uestra, quae in uisceribus meis iugi recordatione, dum cotidie renouatur, augetur, amoris uestri mihi uicissitudinem repromittat et animus meus mihi animorum uestrorum fideiussor adsistat, dum tantum sibi audet de uestra dilectione praesumere, quantum uobis concupiscit inpendere. salutem itaque beatitudini uestrae plurimam dico et rogo incessanter communi domino supplicetis, ut secundum diuitias bonitatis suae atque uirtutis, cui omnia possibilia confitemur, etsi in hoc saeculo nos propter uitae istius turbedines ac procellas et regionum interualla saepius uidere non possumus, uel ad illam urbem, quae aedificatur ut ciuitas, faciat conuenire, ad quam nos misericordia domini poterit perferre, uos merita.\'