Letter 13045: My beloved brother Eulogius, your letter reached me along with the reports of Boniface, my representative at your...

We render great thanks to almighty God, because in the mouth of the heart, by experience, the sweet savor of charity is made sweet, when that which is written is fulfilled: 'As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country' [Prov. 25:25]. For before this time the writings of Boniface, my deputy [responsalis], who resides in the royal city [Constantinople], vehemently troubled me, since they said that your most sweet and most agreeable Holiness had suffered a loss of bodily sight. By which writings I was struck with grave sorrow. But suddenly, by the prospering grace of our Creator and Redeemer, I received a letter from your Blessedness and, learning that you were sound from that bodily affliction which I had heard of, I rejoiced exceedingly, because as great a gladness of heart followed as great a bitterness of sadness had previously preceded. For we know that, by the help of almighty God, your life is the salvation of many. For sailors then navigate secure amid the waves, when a learned and skilled helmsman sits at the governance of the rudder. Moreover, in the joy of your safety this exultation also has been added for me, namely that I have learned both that the enemies of the Church have been diminished by your mouth and that the Lord's flocks have been multiplied. For day by day, through the plowshare of your tongue, the heavenly grains increase and are multiplied in the granaries on high, so that we rejoice that there is fulfilled in you that which is written: 'Where there are very many crops, there the strength of the oxen is manifest' [Prov. 14:4]. From which we plainly conclude that the more you bring back his fugitives to the service of almighty God, the greater merit you have with him; and the greater the merit you receive, the more you are able to obtain those things which you ask. I ask therefore that you pray more earnestly for me a sinner, because both the pain of the body and the bitterness of the heart and the immense devastation of mortality amid so many swords of the barbarians afflict me vehemently. Amid all these things I seek not a temporal but an eternal consolation, which I am not able to obtain through myself, but I am confident of obtaining it through the intercession of your Blessedness. But in the second year I received no writings of your Holiness, and I was altogether saddened. And indeed your blessing, which you sent without a letter, was given and was received. But because your tongue gladdens me more than the gifts, I believed that the things which were given were of lesser grace. Now I had our common son Epiphanius the deacon write back to Alexander and Isidore, deacons of your most holy church, so that it might be established that I had received those things which were sent. I wrote, moreover, that I had prepared large timbers for the making of masts and rudder-beams, but the small ship which had come was not able to carry these, and you wrote nothing back to me thereafter. Hence, if they are necessary, write to our common son Boniface our deacon, whom we now send to the royal city for the making of replies, so that he himself may write back to me, in order that they may be prepared, and, when your Blessedness shall have sent for them, they may be found ready. Besides, we have sent a little cross, in which has been inserted a blessing from the chains of your beloved saints Peter and Paul the apostles, which is to be set continually before your eyes, because many miracles have customarily been done through that same blessing. May almighty God breathe upon the heart of your Blessedness, so that you may take care to pray for me continually, and may he protect you and all your people with his right hand and, after the long courses of years, lead you to the heavenly kingdoms. The blessed-gifts [eulogiae] of Saint Mark sent by your most blessed Fraternity we have received with that charity with which they were dispatched, according to the inventory of them, and we render thanks to your affection, because from outward things we recognize what sort you are toward us inwardly.

Magnas omnipotenti Deo gratias reddimus, quia in ore cordis experimento dulcis fit sapor* caritatis, cum impletur quod scriptum est: ^Sicut aqua frigida sitienti, sic Prov. as, 25. 95 nuntius bonus de terra longinqua'. Ante hoc enim temporis Bonifatii^*® responsalis mei, qui in urbe regia demoratur^ vehementer me scripta turbaverunt, quae^ dicebant duloissimam mihi atque suavissimam sanctitatem vestram defectum corporei* luminis pertulisse^ Ex quibus scriptis gravi maerore percussus sum. Sed subito creatoris ac redemptoris nostri gratia prosperante beatitudinis vestiiie suscepi epistolam et sanos^ 80 de ea corporis molestia quam^ audieram agnoscens exultavi vehementer, quia tanta laetitia cordis secuta est, quanta prius tristitiae amaritudo praecesserat. Scimus enim^, 4) hereseoB q1. ordinatio Bl. *) res {pro si) q1; re {pro m) Bl. ^) si Ql. ^) ut de q*1. ▼) absoUtione q1. ite qS; quQ BI.qI.q*. «) Ua q3; om. hoe verb. RI.qLq*. J) sit BI.qI; inTeDiantur q3. >) primam in ecclesiam q*1; prima ecdeBiam q3. Ua q.q*2.3; exortari Bl; 35 exhortari q*1 — de hic add, q3, a q*2.3. ^) ita Bl; ordinis Q*; ordines q1; plurimum (om. ordinum) q3. XIII, 45 tinUum om. Q*1.4 — item cui supra B*l — Alexandriae R2.q1. ») favor ^5. ^) Bone- 40 facii q3. c) xtaBl; cartularii add. q.q*. ^) quaeque ^*. •) corporeis BI.qI. ') pertuliBBet Bl. 2) (Jf. ep. VII, 37. VUI, 29. XIII, 46. De Etdogio cf. ep. V, 41 n. 1) Ex hoc hco effici potest BonifaHum, qwi indict. IX ComtantinopdUm Jegatus misBus ett (p. 287 n. 2 no, 4) et Bonifatnm ad Fhocam missum (ih. no. 2) unam 45 perBonam fuMse, GREGORn 1. REGISTRI quia in'' omnipotentis* Dei adiutorio multorum salus est vita vestra. Nam tunc"* intcr fluctus nautae securi navigant, quando gubernator doctus atque artifex ad clavi" regimen sedet. In salutis autem^ vestrae gaudio haec quoque mihi est exultatio addita^, quia et inminutos^ ore vestro hostes ecclesiae et multiplicatos greges dominicos agnovi'. Crescunt enim cotidie per linguae vestrae vomerem* grana caelestia atque in supemis horreis multiplicantur , ita ut in vobis^ impletum esse gaudeamus quod scriptum est: 4. 'Ubi plurimae" segetes, ibi manifesta fortitudo boum'^. Unde aperte^ colligimus, quia quanto plus ad servitium Dei omnipotentis fugitivos eius reducitis, tanto apud^ eum meritum maius habetis; et quanto* meritum^ maius* accipitis, tanto potestis* amplius impetrare*» quae petitis. Rogo ergo, ut pro me peccatore® enixius oretis, quia et dolor corporis et amaritudo cordis et inmensa vastitas mortalitatis inter tot barbarorum gladios me*^ vehementer afifligit*. Inter quae omnia non temporalem, sed aeternam consolationem requiro, quam per me impetrare non valeo, sed intercessione vestrao beatitudinis hanc® me optinere confido. Secundo^ vero anno nulla sanctitatis vestrae scripta suscopi atque omnino con- tristatus sum. Et quidem» vestra benedictio, quam sine epistola transmisistis, data atquo suscepta est. Sed quia me plus lingua vestra quam data laetificet^, minoris gratiae esse credidi quae dabantur*. Communem autem filium Epiphanium diaconem^* Alexandro atque Isidoro** sanctissimae vestrae ecclesiae diaconibus feci" rescriberc, ut constaret, quia ea° quae transmissa sunt suscepissem. Scripsi vero, quia grandia^ ad arbores ac timonesP faciendos ligna paraveram, sed navis^ parva quae venerat haec' portare non potuit»®, et nihil mihi exinde* rescripsistis. Unde si sunt necessaria, communi filio Bonifatio diacono nostro**, quem nunc ad urbem regiam pro faciendis responsis transmittimus^'', scribite^, ut mihi ipse rescribat, quatenus praeparentur et*, cum beatitudo vestra transmiserit^, parata valeant inveniri Praeterea* transmisimus crucem parvulam, in qua de catenis amatorum vestrorum sanctorum Petri et Pauli apostolorum inserta benedictio^, quae oculis vestris adsidue^ superponatur, quia multa per eandem benedictionem miracula fieri consueverunt Omnipotens Deus cordi vestrae beatitudinis adspiret, ut pro me orare adsidue curetis, et vos vestrosque^ omnes sua dextera protegat atque post longa annorum curricula® ad caelestia regna perducat. in om. q*.q3, oipotenti Bl. m) tua BL iiavig q3. autem om. Hl. ") plurimi B. "^) ut de perte q*1; unde per te q3. "^) a puro q 1, *) quantum B!,q*.q3. peccatorem (om. me) q1. gladiis meis Rl. ®) ac ^i. ^ secuto q3. 9) quidam q*1. ita Rl.Ql; laetificat cet. ^) debantur q1. ^) communi a. filio Epiphanio (Epif. q*1) diacono Q*.q3 — Epifanium i?2. 1) Ysidoro Rl; Esydoro q*2.3; Esidoro q3. ™) fecici q1. »») mea R. in valeant) invenire Rl. ») preter Rl. ^) est add. Q*2.3. c) cottidiQ q3, ^) nfosqae Rl, ^) circula q3. 2) Cf. ep. VII, 37. VUI, 29. 3) Cf. reg. XIII, 2. 4) De Epipfuinio cf. ep. V, 35 n. 2. 5) Idem comtnemoreUiir in ep. VI, 5S (n. 4). 6) Cf ep. X, 21 n. 8. 7) Cf. supra n. 1 et ep. XIII, 41 n. 2 — Et ex hoc loco et ex aliis huius episttUae elucet, quantae proficiscendi dtfficuUatea tunc temporvs cxstitervtht. 8) Cf. ep. I, 25 n. 5. Eulogias' vero sancti Marci a bcatissima fraternitate vestra transmissas cum ea« caritate qua sunt directae secundum notitiam earum^ suscepimus et gratias afFectui vestro referimus^, quia ex exterioribus'', quales^ erga nos interius sitis", agnoscimus*.