Letter 11025: Ad easdem de itinere suo

To Agnes and Radegund — About His Journey The moments of human life are rolled around in countless accidents, and our shifting life goes its way on an unsteady foot. The very mind, wavering anxiously over future things, does not know what the coming light will bring. For when I had departed from you, Eomundus — who loves me — received me with the goodness he always shows. Then hurrying away quickly, I was carried to the court of Cariacus; from there I was conveyed to the place of Tincillac. From here the holy bishop Domitian [Domitian, bishop of Angers or possibly Verdun] seized me and carried me to the feast of holy Albin [Saint Albinus, bishop of Angers, whose feast was March 1] — and from there I was brought back, running, along the same road. Then across the plain, from the direction of the setting sun, I was hurried by that holy man to the monastery of Reomaus [the monastery of Moutier-Saint-Jean in Burgundy] — and from Reomaus, returning by the same road, here I am with you. So it was: a journey of churches, monasteries, episcopal seats, and holy feast days, each stage proposed by some friend or bishop who could not bear to let Fortunatus pass without pulling him in for another celebration. A man travels from place to place in Gaul, and the same story happens everywhere: there is always a holy man at the next stop who insists that you must stay for this feast, see this relic, meet this abbot. The roads of Gaul are lined with sanctity, and it is very hard to hurry. I am glad to be back with you. The road taught me, as it always does, that there is no place in Gaul quite like Poitiers, and no company quite like yours.

XXV Ad easdem de itinere suo Casibus innumeris hominum momenta rotantur instabilique gradu pendula vita meat. ipsa futurarum titubans mens anxia rerum Ventura ignorat quid sibi lux pariat. nam me digressum a vobis Eomundus amator illa suscepit qua bonitate solet. hinc citus excurrens Cariacae devehor aulae; Tincillacensi perferor inde loco. hinc sacer antistes rapuit me Domitianus, ad sancti Albini gaudia festa trahens. inde relaxatus, per plura pericula fessum puppe sub exigua fluctus et imber agit, quo gravis incumbens Aquilo subverterat amnem et male curvatos extulit unda sinus; nec sua commotos capiebant litora fluctus: invadunt terras aequora fusa novas. pascua rura nemus segetes vibuma salictum viribus iratis una rapina tenet. huc mihi commisso per confraga murmura ponti flatibus horrificis laxa fremebat hiems surgebatque cadens per aquosa cacumina puppis, ascendens liquidas monte vagante vias; quo rate suspensa modo nubila nauta tenebat, gurgite subducto rursus ad arva redit. fluctibus infestis pelagi spumante procella assidue rapidas prora bibebat aquas; aequora lambebant inimica pace carinam, tristius amplexu nos nocitura suo. sed mora nulla vetat varias memorare querellas: post referenda simul murmura corde tego. hoc mihi praecipue divina potentia praestet, ut cito felices vos revidere queam.