Letter 5014: Are you enjoying the hot springs at Baiae right now — the sulfur water belching out of rough pumice caverns, the...

To Aper. Are you enjoying the hot springs at Baiae right now — the sulfur water belching out of rough pumice caverns, the healing pools for the consumptive and the liver-sick? Or are you perhaps up in the mountains, moving between hilltop fortresses and struggling to choose a refuge from among so many strongholds? Whatever you are doing, whether at leisure or at work, I expect the Rogation ceremonies [annual three days of public prayer and fasting before Ascension Day] will draw you back to the city. It was Bishop Mamertus [of Vienne, c. 420-477] who first established this observance for us — a most reverent example, a most useful experiment. Before him, I must say with all respect, our public prayers were vague, lukewarm, poorly attended, and — to put it bluntly — drowsy. They were constantly interrupted by the lunchtime crowd and mostly devoted to praying for rain or fair weather. The potter and the gardener had no business showing up together to pray for opposite things. But in the Rogations that this great bishop both introduced and bestowed on us, there is fasting, there is prayer, there is psalm-singing, there is weeping. I invite you to this festival of bowed necks and sighing citizens — and if I know your spiritual character at all, you will come all the faster knowing you are being called not to a banquet but to tears. Farewell.

EPISTULA XIV Sidonius Apro suo salutem. 1. Calentes nunc te Baiae et scabris cavernatim ructata pumicibus aqua sulpuris atque iecorosis ac phthisiscentibus languidis medicabilis piscina delectat? an fortasse montana sedes circum castella et in eligenda sede perfugii quandam pateris ex munitionum frequentia difficultatem? quicquid illud est, quod vel otio vel negotio vacas, in urbem tamen, nisi fallimur, rogationum contemplatione revocabere. 2. quarum nobis sollemnitatem primus Mamertus pater et pontifex, reverendissimo exemplo, utilissimo experimento invenit instituit invexit. erant quidem prius, quod salva fidei pace sit dictum, vagae tepentes infrequentesque utque sic dixerim oscitabundae supplicationes, quae saepe interpellantum prandiorum obicibus hebetabantur, maxime aut imbres aut serenitatem deprecaturae; ad quas, ut nil amplius dicam, figulo pariter atque hortuloni non oportuit convenire. 3. in his autem, quas suprafatus summus sacerdos nobis et protulit pariter et contulit, ieiunatur oratur, psallitur fletur. ad haec te festa cervicum humiliatarum et sternacium civium suspiriosa contubernia peto; et, si spiritalem animum tuum bene metior, modo citius venies, quando non ad epulas sed ad lacrimas evocaris. vale.