Letter 1057: We'd planned to linger in the countryside a while longer, but news of the homeland's troubles changed our plans.
We'd planned to linger in the countryside a while longer, but news of the homeland's troubles changed our plans. In a time of shared crisis, my own comfortable detachment would have looked dishonorable. Besides, my duties as pontiff demand that I be present for the observances of the appointed month. I can't in good conscience leave my fellow priests short-handed when so many of them are neglecting their obligations.
Once upon a time, administering the sacred rites was a simple delegation. Now, to be absent from the altars in Rome is practically a form of political campaigning [i.e., avoiding responsibility].
How long will Etruria keep you? We're starting to resent whatever it is that you prefer to your fellow citizens for so long. However pleasant the countryside may be, a man can't truly enjoy his leisure when he's worried about his absent friends. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
Vitalis had asked Jerome Is Scripture credible when it tells us that Solomon and Ahaz became fathers at the age of eleven? The difficulty had previously occurred to Jerome himself (Letter XXXVI. 10, whence perhaps Vitalis took it) and in this letter he suggests several ways in which it may be met.
Shortly afterward, I had promised to support the son of my friend Trygetius as a candidate for the praetorship...
What a treasure I had in my hands and never used!
My first concern is always to ask how your health stands.
Against theNovatians Say to the disciple of Novatian’s pride: why are you foolishly boasting as if [you were] clean?