Letter 7016: You do a thing, my singular patron in Christ, that is in keeping with both your love and your way of life: you...

Sidonius ApollinarisChariobaudus|c. 467 AD|Sidonius Apollinaris
monasticismslavery captivity

Sidonius to the Abbot Chariobaudus.

You do a thing, my singular patron in Christ, that is in keeping with both your love and your way of life: you soften the cares of a friend in exile with letters of consolation. If only you would always remember me in this way — so that the anxieties that chain themselves together in relentless succession might be lightened by your encouragement and cut short by your intercession!

For the rest, I expect your freedmen, having completed the business you assigned them, are on their way back. They handled their task so competently that they needed no assistance. Through them I have sent a night-cowl for you to wear kindly over limbs worn out by fasting, while praying and sleeping — though I admit a woolen garment is not ideally timed when winter is over and the summer season is drawing near. Farewell.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

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