Letter 24: Paulinus and Therasia ask Alypius for his story, prayers, letters, and continued communion.

To Alypius, deservedly honorable and most blessed father: Paulinus and Therasia, sinners. This is true charity, this is perfect love, which you have shown that you possess toward our lowliness, truly holy lord, deservedly blessed and longed for. Through our man Julian, returning from Carthage, we received your letter. It brought us so much light from Your Holiness that we seemed not to discover your love for the first time, but to recognize it again. This love has flowed from the one who predestined us for himself from the beginning of the world, in whom we were made before we were born, because he made us and not we ourselves, he who made what was still to come. By his foreknowledge and work we were formed into a likeness of wills and a unity of faith, or rather into the faith of unity, and by love we were joined in knowledge before bodily sight, so that through the Spirit's revelation we knew one another before we had seen one another in person. So we rejoice and glory in the Lord, who, one and the same everywhere on earth, works his love in his own people through the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on all flesh, gladdening his city with the river's rush. In that city he has placed you deservedly among the leading citizens, with the princes of his people, on an apostolic seat. He has willed that we too, whom he raised when we were struck down and lifted needy people from the earth, should be counted in your lot. But we rejoice still more in this gift of the Lord: that he has settled us in the dwelling of your heart and has introduced us so deeply into your affections that, moved by these acts and gifts of yours, we may claim a special confidence in your love and are not permitted to love you timidly or lightly. We received the chief token of your affection and care: the work of our brother Augustine, a holy and complete man in the Lord Christ, written in five books. We admire and revere it so much that we believe its words were dictated by God. Trusting, then, in the unity between us, worthy of reverence, we have dared write to him as well, assuming that through you we may be excused to him for our ignorance and commended to his love. We are sure you will care with the same affection for all the holy people whose absence you have made easier for us by your kindness, so that through Your Holiness our greetings may pass mutually to those who are your companions in the clergy and to those in the monasteries who emulate your faith and virtue. For although you work among the people and over the people, keeping watch as a vigilant shepherd over the Lord's flock, still by renouncing the world and rejecting flesh and blood you have made a desert for yourself: hidden from many, called among the few. As for the book you asked for, I have provided, as a sort of return gift, though everything I send is unequal to you, the history of all times by the venerable bishop Eusebius of Caesarea. My obedience was delayed because, as you had advised, since I did not have the codex myself, I found it at Rome with our truly most holy father Domnio, who without doubt obeyed me more readily in this service because I told him it was to be sent to you. Since you also kindly indicated your whereabouts, as you had instructed, we wrote to your venerable partner in the crown, our father Aurelius, asking him, if you were now staying at Hippo Regius, to send our letter and the parchment copied at Carthage on to you. We also asked those holy men whom we came to know from your words as witnesses of their love, Comes and Evodius, to arrange to write themselves, so that the codex might not remain away from father Domnio too long, nor, after being sent to you, remain there when it should be returned. I ask this especially from you, because you filled me, undeserving and unexpecting, with such great love for you: in return for this history of times, tell me the whole history of Your Holiness. Explain your family, your home, how you were so greatly called by the Lord, by what beginnings you were set apart from your mother's womb, how you passed over, renouncing flesh and blood, to the mother made glad by the children of God, and how you were transferred into the royal and priestly race. You said that you had already learned my humble name at Milan when you were being initiated there; I confess I am eager to learn more about that. I want to know you from every side, so that I may rejoice all the more if our father Ambrose either invited you to the faith or consecrated you to the priesthood, and so appears to have been the author of us both. For although I was baptized by Delphinus at Bordeaux and ordained by Lampius at Barcelona in Spain, under the sudden compulsion of an inflamed people, I have always been nourished by Ambrose's love for the faith, and even now I am cherished in the priestly order by him. He even wanted to claim me for his own clergy, so that although I live in different places, I may be counted as his presbyter. If there is anything you do not know about me, know this: I am an ancient sinner, only lately drawn out of darkness and the shadow of death, only lately breathing the air of life, only lately having put my hand to the plow and taken up the Lord's cross. May your prayers help us carry it to the end. This reward will be added to your merits if by your intercession you lighten our burdens. For a holy person who helps one who labors, since we do not dare call him brother, will be exalted like a great city. You are a city built on a mountain, or a lamp set on a lampstand, shining with sevenfold brightness; we hide under the bushel of our sins. Visit us with your letters and bring us into the light in which you yourself live, conspicuous on golden lampstands. Your words will be a light for our paths, and the oil of your lamp will anoint our head. Faith will be kindled when from the breath of your mouth we receive food for the mind and light for the soul. Peace and God's grace be with you, and may the crown of righteousness remain for you on that day, deservedly beloved, venerable, and longed-for father. We ask with deep affection and dutiful greeting for the blessed companions and imitators of Your Holiness, our brothers in the Lord if they deign to be ours, serving the Lord in catholic faith in the churches and monasteries at Carthage, Thagaste, Hippo Regius, throughout your parishes, and in all the places known to you across Africa. If you receive the parchment of holy Domnio, please have it copied and returned to us. I also ask you to write which hymn of mine you have come to know. We have sent one loaf as a sign of the unity of Your Holiness, in which the solidity of the Trinity is also contained. By deigning to receive it, you will make this loaf a blessing.

EPISTOLA 24 Scripta ante hiemem a. 394. Paulinus Nolanus Alypio episcopo multa praefatus de caritate Dei atque fidelium rescribit se accepisse libros Augustini contra Manichaeos Eusebique Caesariensis Historiam ecclesiasticam (n. 2-3). Cupit edoceri de genere et vita Alypii quaeque ratio ei cum Ambrosio, Mediolanensi episcopo, fuerit, ipse vicissim de se nonnulla aperiens (n. 4): ex eo demum preces epistolarumque commercium petit mittitque panem ad mutuam communionem significandam (n. 5-6). Domino merito honorabili et beatissimo patri Alypio Paulinus et Therasia peccatores Trinitatis caritas erga nos et Christifidelium inter se. 1. Haec est vera caritas, haec perfecta dilectio, quam tibi circa humilitatem nostram inesse docuisti, domine vere sancte, et merito beatissime ac desiderabilis. Accepimus enim per hominem nostrum Iulianum de Carthagine revertentem, litteras tantam nobis Sanctitatis tuae lucem afferentes, ut nobis caritatem tuam non agnoscere, sed recognoscere videremur. Quia videlicet ex illo, qui nos ab origine mundi praedestinavit sibi 1, caritas ista manavit, in quo facti sumus antequam nati, quia ipse fecit nos, et non ipsi nos 2, qui fecit quae futura sunt. Huius igitur praescientia et opere formati in similitudinem voluntatum et unitatem fidei vel unitatis fidem praeveniente notitiam caritate connexi sumus, ut nos invicem ante corporales conspectus revelante spiritu nosceremus. Gratulamur itaque et gloriamur in Domino, qui unus atque idem ubique terrarum operatur in suis dilectionem suam Spiritu Sancto, quem super omnem carnem effudit 3, fluminis impetu laetificans civitatem suam 4. In cuius te civibus principalem cum principibus populi sui 5, sede apostolica merito collocavit: nosque etiam, quos erexit elisos, et de terra inopes suscitavit, in vestra voluit sorte numerari. Sed magis gratulamur in eo Domini munere, quo nos in pectoris tui habitatione constituit; quoque ita visceribus tuis insinuare dignatus est, ut peculiarem nobis caritatis tuae fiduciam vindicemus, his officiis atque muneribus provocati, ut nos diffidenter aut leviter te amare non liceat. Gratias agit de acceptis Augustini scriptis contra Manichaeos. 2. Accepimus enim insigne praecipuum dilectionis et sollicitudinis tuae, opus sancti et perfecti in Domino Christo viri, fratris nostri Augustini libris quinque confectum, quod ita miramur atque suspicimus, ut dictata divinitus verba credamus. Itaque fiducia suspiciendae nobis unanimitatis tuae, et ad ipsum scribere ausi sumus, dum nos illi per te, et de imperitia excusandos, et ad caritatem commendandos praesumimus; sicut et omnibus sanctis, quorum nos et absentium officiis sospitare dignatus es, pari procul dubio curaturus affectu, ut per Sanctitatem tuam, nostris invicem salutentur obsequiis, et in clero Sanctitatis tuae comites, et in monasteriis fidei ac virtutis tuae aemulatores. Nam etsi in populis ac super populum agas, oves pascuae Domini regens sollicitis vigil pastor excubiis 6: tamen abdicatione saeculi, et repulsa carnis ac sanguinis, desertum tibi ipse fecisti, secretus a multis, vocatus in paucis. Eusebi Caesariensis Historia ecclesiastica. 3. Sane vicario aliquatenus munere, licet omnia tibi impara ut iusseras, providi illam Eusebii venerabilis episcopi Constantinopolitani de cunctis temporibus historiam. Sed in hoc fuit obtemperandi mora, quod instructu tuo, quia ipse non haberem hunc codicem, Romae reperi apud parentem nostrum vere sanctissimum Domnionem, qui procul dubio promptius mihi paruit in hoc beneficio, quod tibi deferendum indicavi. Verumtamen quia et loca tua mihi significare dignatus es, ut ipse monuisti, ad venerabilem socium coronae tuae, patrem nostrum Aurelium ita scripsimus, ut si nunc Hipponae-regio degeres, illo tibi litteras nostras, et transcriptam Carthagine membranam mittere dignaretur. Quod et sanctos viros, quos indice caritatis ipsorum, tuo sermone cognovimus, Comitem et Evodium rogavimus, ut scribere ipsi curarent, ne vel parenti Domnioni diutius codex suus deforet, et tibi transmissus sine necessitate redhibendi maneret. Quae Alypio causae intercesserint cum Ambrosio, Mediolanensi episcopo. 4. Specialiter autem hoc a te peto, quoniam me immerentem et inopinantem magno tui amore complesti, ut pro hac historia temporum, referas mihi omnem tuae Sanctitatis historiam: ut quod genus, unde sis domo 7 tanto vocatus a Domino, quibus exordiis segregatus ab utero matris tuae, ad matrem filiorum Dei prole laetantem, abiurata carnis et sanguinis stirpe, transieris, et in genus regate et sacerdotale 8, sis translatus, edisseras. Quod enim indicasti, iam de humilitatis nostrae nomine apud Mediolanum te didicisse, cum illic initiareris, fateor curiosius me velle condiscere, ut omni parte te noverim, quo magis gratuler, si a suscipiendo mihi patre nostro Ambrosio, vel ad fidem invitatus es, vel ad sacerdotium consecratus, ut eumdem ambo videamur habere auctorem. Nam ego etsi a Delphino Burdegalae baptizatus, a Lampio apud Barcilonem in Hispania, per vim inflammatae subito plebis, sacratus sim; tamen Ambrosii semper et dilectione ad fidem innutritus sum, et nunc in sacerdotii ordine confoveor. Denique suo me clero vindicare voluit, ut etsi diversis locis degam, ipsius presbyter censear. Preces atque epistolarum commercium petit. 5. Sed de me quid ignores, scias antiquissimum peccatorem, non ita olim de tenebris et umbra mortis eductum 9,spiritum aurae vitatis hausisse, nec ita olim posuisse in aratro manum 10, et crucem Domini sustulisse; quam ut in finem perferre valeamus, orationibus tuis adiuvemur. Accumulabitur haec meritis tuis merces, si interventu tuo onera nostra relevaveris. Sanctus enim laborantem adiuvans (quia fratrem non audemus dicere) exaltabitur sicut civitas magna 11. Et tu quidem super montem civitas aedificata es, vel accensa super candelabrum lucerna 12 in septiformi claritate colluces; nos sub modio peccatorum delitescimus: visita litteris tuis, et profer in lucem in qua ipse versaris, super aurea candelabra conspicuus. Eloquia tua lumen semitis nostris erunt 13, et oleo lucernae tuae impinguabitur caput nostrum 14. Et accendetur fides, cum de spiritu oris tui cibum mentis et lumen animae sumpserimus. Panis, communionis signum, dono missus. 6. Pax et gratia Dei tecum, et corona iustitiae tibi maneat in die illo, domine pater, merito dilectissime et venerabilis et exoptatissime. Benedictos Sanctitatis tuae comites et aemulatores, in Domino fratres, si dignantur, nostros, tam in ecclesiis quam in monasteriis Carthagini, Thagastae, Hippone-regio, et totis parochiis tuis atque omnibus cognitis tibi per Africam locis, Domino catholice servientes multo affectu et obsequio salutari rogamus. Si ipsam membranam sancti Domnionis acceperis, transcriptam nobis remittere dignaberis. Et hoc rogo scribas mihi quem hymnum meum cognoveris. Panem unum Sanctitatituae unitatis gratia misimus, in quo etiam Trinitatis soliditas continetur. Hunc panem eulogiam esse tu facies dignatione sumendi.