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 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.

EPISTULA XVI Sidonius Chariobaudo abbati salutem. 1. Facis, unice in Christo patrone, rem tui pariter et amoris et moris, quod peregrini curas amici litteris mitigas consolatoriis. atque utinam mei semper sic recorderis, ut sollicitudines ipsas angore succiduo concatenatas, qui exhortator attenuas, intercessor incidas! 2. de cetero, libertos tuos causis quas iniunxeras expeditis reverti puto, quos ita strenue constat rem peregisse, ut nec eguerint adiuvari. per quos nocturnalem cucullum, quo membra confecta ieiuniis inter orandum cubandumque dignanter tegare, transmisi, quamquam non opportune species villosa mittatur hieme finita iamque temporibus aestatis appropinquantibus. vale.