Letter 8011: The kind voice of Gregory the physician came to the sick man

From: Venantius Fortunatus, poet, in Poitiers To: Gregory of Tours, Bishop of Tours Date: ~582 AD Context: A verse letter thanking Gregory for sending kind words when Fortunatus was ill, and celebrating his recovery. The kind voice of Gregory the physician came to the sick man from the city of Tours, while I lay on my bed in the country, quickly recited to me by a priest, bringing the greeting of a dear friend at an anxious moment. There is no medicine quite like a message from a friend when one is sick and uncertain. I lay there calculating my symptoms and wondering whether the fever would break or not, and then your letter arrived and something in me relaxed. I do not know the mechanism by which friendship heals. I only know that it does. By the time I finished reading your words I was convinced I would recover — and as it turned out, I was right. Consider yourself partly responsible for my continued presence on earth. A poet's gratitude for such a thing is necessarily expressed in verse, which I hope you will accept as the genuine thing it is, even if the quality of the verse does not fully justify the sentiment. I am well. I owe you thanks. And I owe you a visit as soon as the roads permit.

XI Ad Gregorium episcopum pro infirmitate sua Venit ad aegrotum medici vox alma Gregori urbe ex Toronica, dum cubo rure toro, concite presbytero recitante Leone sereno, irem ut Martini sunt ubi festa pii. tum, fateor, morbi grave debilitate laborans febre calens summa iam rigor imus eram. hinc fragili nimium forti languore redacto ilia lassa levans halitus aeger erat. ibat anhelanti vapor aridus ora perurens, ibat ab arcanis flatilis aura coquens. fervor eram totus, tristis rogus, igne caminus, febris et in fibris stabat operta patens, donec Christus opem sudore undante refudit, fervidus et gelidas ignis abegit aquas. redditus ergo isti, pater alme, saluto saluti: auxilium exili sis, rogo, pastor ovi.