Letter 3019: Ad Agricolam episcopum
19
To Bishop Agricola
Prelate, summit of honor, peak of lineage and of faith,
mighty tiller of the field, rich shepherd of the flock,
since my soil deserved to be plowed by my father's hand,
let it, now cultivated, be rendered back by his son's plowshare.
For my father, memorable to the world for his sweet affection,
cherished the two of us, together with you, in one love;
a parent in heart, a nurse in feeding, a good master in speech,
he loved, he tended, he guided, he gave honorable things.
With pious zeal he sowed the furrowed new-broken ground:
the seed that my father poured out, nourish it for me.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
XIX
Ad Agricolam episcopum
Praesul, honoris apex, generis fideique cacumen,
cultor agri pollens, pastor opime gregis,
cum mea terra manu meruit genitoris arari,
reddatur nati vomere culta sui.
nam pater, affectu dulci memorabilis orbi,
me vobiscum uno fovit amore duos;
corde parens, pastu nutrix, bonus ore magister
dilexit coluit rexit, honesta dedit.
ille pio studio sulcata novalia sevit:
quod pater effudit hoc mihi semen ale.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern venantius fortunatus retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://data.mgh.de/openmgh/bsb00000790.zip
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