Migne Reading Room
PL 61 · cols. 417–418
Paulinus of Nola, Letters
Letters CXLIX–LI
pertineret, ut revelarentur multorum cordium cogitationes: aut ubi apparuit, quia ex eo quod animam ejus sive carnalis in ferro, sive spiritalis gladius in verbo Dei pertransivit, exinde multorum cordium cogitationes revelatae sint. Expone ergo hanc maxime de verbis Symeonis clausulam mihi, quia lucere non dubito sanctae animae tuae, quae de interioris oculi puritate meruit illuminationem Spiritus sancti, per quem scrutari et inspicere possit etiam alta Dei. Deus misereatur mei per orationes tuas, et illuminet vultum suum super me per lucernam verbi tui, sancte Domine, beatissime frater in Domino Christo unanime, magister meus in fide veritatis, et susceptor meus in visceribus caritatis.
it pertained that the thoughts of many hearts should be revealed (Luke 2:35): or where it has appeared that, from the fact that a sword, whether carnal in iron or spiritual in the word of God, pierced through her soul, the thoughts of many hearts were thereupon revealed. Expound to me, then, this closing clause above all of the words of Symeon, since I do not doubt that it shines clear to your holy soul, which from the purity of its inner eye has deserved the illumination of the Holy Spirit, through whom it may search and look into even the deep things of God. May God have mercy on me through your prayers, and make His face to shine upon me (Ps. 66:2) through the lamp of your word, holy lord, most blessed brother of one mind in the Lord Christ, my master in the faith of truth, and my upholder in the bowels of charity.
EPISTOLA CXLIX. (AL. LIX).
LETTER CXLIX (OTHERWISE LIX).
AUGUSTINI AD PAULINUM.
FROM AUGUSTINE TO PAULINUS.
EPISTOLA LI.
LETTER LI.
Sanctis et merito praedicandis, atque venerandis, et dilectissimis filiis EUCHERIO et GALLAE, PAULINUS episcopus.
To his holy and deservedly to be praised and revered and most beloved children EUCHERIUS and GALLA, PAULINUS the bishop.
1. Benedictus Dominus Deus noster, qui dat votum optanti, et semper nostra superat vota, votisque respondet: qui insperanti mihi tam opportunam quam exoptatam occasionem praebere dignatus est, per religiosos juvenes, filios meos, conservos vero communes in Domino, Gelasium, et Augendum, et Tigridium, quos de sancto atque castissimo congregationis suae numero, vir laudabilis, et praeclarus in Christo frater noster, et compresbyter meus Honoratus, ad humilitatem meam vestrae dilectionis exemplo refovendam, Domine inspirante, direxit. Sollicite enim pro caritate meritis vestris debita sciscitanti actum vel incolumitatem vestram (nam de actu pio atque coelesti dubius esse non poteram), id quod animam meam reficeret responderunt, quia vos, Deo propitio, incolumes reliquissent, venerandi propositi opera curantes, ac studia exercentes, in corde uno, quo terrestria reliquistis, coelum petentes.
1. Blessed be the Lord our God, who grants his wish to the one who desires, and always surpasses our wishes and answers them: who has deigned to afford me, though I did not hope for it, an occasion as timely as it was longed for, through the religious young men, my sons, but our common fellow servants in the Lord, Gelasius and Augendus and Tigridius, whom that praiseworthy man, our brother illustrious in Christ and my fellow presbyter Honoratus, has sent, at the Lord's inspiring, from the holy and most chaste number of his community, to cheer my lowliness by the example of your love. For when I asked anxiously, with the charity owed to your merits, about your doings or your well-being (for of your devout and heavenly doings I could have no doubt), they gave the answer that would refresh my soul: that they had left you, by God's favour, safe and well, attending to the works of your venerable way of life and practising its pursuits, seeking heaven with the one heart with which you have left earthly things.
2. Memineram enim quia filii mei, quos ante annum ad humilitatem meam mei gratia visitandam miseratis, locum habitationis vestrae, simul et domni venerabilis Honorati nobis innotuerunt: dicentes scilicet quia in proximis, brevi interjecta maris rupe, etiam cognominibus Lero et Lerino insulis degeretis. Unde, cum se isti filii nostri ex ea quae Lerinum dicitur, venisse dixissent, recognovi et facile recordatus sum propinqui nominis insulam, in qua sanctitatem vestram ab istius mundi strepitu profugam manere jam noveram. Quamobrem sciens dilectioni
2. For I remembered that my sons, whom a year ago you had sent for my sake to visit my lowliness, had made known to us the place of your dwelling, and at the same time that of the venerable lord Honoratus: saying, that is, that you were living on neighbouring islands, with a short stretch of sea-rock between them, and of kindred names too, Lero and Lerinum. Hence, when these sons of ours said they had come from the one called Lerinum, I recognized and readily recalled the island of the neighbouring name, on which I already knew that your Holiness dwelt, a fugitive from the din of this world. Wherefore, knowing that to the love
Editors' notes and page, col. 417
Scripture references
(printed under page 212)
(a) ‹anchor: not visible› · call in col 417
Luc. II, 35.
Luke 2:35.
(printed under page 212)
(b) ‹anchor: not visible› · call in col 417
Psal. LXVI, 2.
Psalm 66:2.
(printed under page 212)
(c) ‹anchor: not visible› · call in col 417/418
I Cor. IV, 20.
1 Corinthians 4:20.
(printed under page 212)
(a) ‹anchor: not visible› · call in col 417
Ita edit. Bened. cum mss. codicibus 2 Big. et 1 Germ. Ed. Rosv., tuum.
So the Benedictine edition with two Bigot manuscripts and one Germain manuscript. Rosweyde's edition: "tuum".
(printed under page 212)
(b) ‹anchor: not visible› · call in col 417/418
Manuscripti plures, inter quos duo Big., addunt Christi.
Several manuscripts, among them the two Bigot manuscripts, add "Christi".
(printed under page 212)
(c) ‹anchor: dilectionis exemplo› · call in col 417
Ms. Vien., requirendam.
The Vienne manuscript: "requirendam".
(printed under page 212)
Editors' prose
Augustinus respondet ad quaestiones ex Psalmis, ex Apostolo et ex Evangelio propositas a Paulino superius in epistola L.
Augustine replies to the questions from the Psalms, from the Apostle and from the Gospel put by Paulinus above in Letter 50.
(Vide hanc epistolam inter Augustinianas nostrae Patrologiae tomo XXXIII, col. 630.)
(See this letter among the Augustinian letters in volume XXXIII of our Patrologia, col. 630.)
Eucherio et Gallae in insula Lero degentibus scribit in testimonium animi et amoris, et eos multis laudibus extollit. Ab eo exposcit litteras in mutuae amicitiae signum.
He writes to Eucherius and Galla, living on the island of Lero, in witness of his feeling and love, and extols them with much praise. He asks him for a letter as a token of mutual friendship.
<!-- note: Paragraph 1 is the argumentum of Ep. CXLIX (Augustine's, al. LIX); paragraph 2 is the editors' cross-reference printed in its place; paragraph 3 is the argumentum of Ep. LI. UNSURE 'epistola L.': the scan looks like 'epistola 1.', but the reference is to Ep. L, so it is set as L. 'Ab eo' as printed (singular, though the letter is addressed to two); translated literally as 'him'. -->
Page
- running head: 417 EPISTOLA LI.
- marginal letters: A ‹pertineret, ut revelarentur›; B ‹Augustinus respondet ad quaestiones (editors' summary of Ep. CXLIX)›; C ‹ligiosos juvenes, filios meos›; D ‹num ad humilitatem meam mei gratia›
- old-edition numerals: 313 before ‹Eucherio et Gallae in insula Lero› (start of the argumentum of Ep. LI)
vestrae gratum fore officium litterarum mearum, quia et a me vobis in perennem gratiam debitum est, libens amplexus sum hanc opportunitatem spiritalium filiorum, ut ad benedictam in Christo Domino unanimitatem vestram, epistolae meae portitores essent: quod ut filii vel ministri obedientiae, sicut a Deo, vel secundum Deum docti sunt, promptissime receperunt. Suscipite ergo in his exiguis sermonibus parvitatis meae, non exiguae caritatis, insignia: et quasi quaedam pignora animae vestrae, et testimonia animi et amoris in vos mei, haec mea scripta retinete.
of you the service of my letter would be welcome, since it is also owed by me to you in perpetual thanks, I gladly embraced this opportunity offered by my spiritual sons, that they should be the bearers of my letter to your Unanimity, blessed in Christ the Lord: which they accepted most readily, as sons or ministers of obedience, as they have been taught by God or according to God. Receive, then, in these slight words of my littleness the tokens of a charity that is not slight: and keep these writings of mine as certain pledges of your soul, as it were, and testimonies of my mind and love towards you.
3. Spero autem de misericordia Christi Domini, quod incolumes haec mea verba sumatis: et si deinceps opportunam et per hujusmodi tabellarios occasionem donaverit, rescribere impigrum habeatis. Quod sine dubio et per istos filios meos vestra fecisset affectio, si eorum ad me directae profectionis conscii fuissetis. Nam cum ab eis hoc quaererem, quia vicinos esse vos noveram, ignorantibus vobis, se de monasterio suo navigasse dixerunt. Verumtamen quia sicut regnum Dei non in sermone est, sed in virtute; ita et caritas, in cujus perfectione et plenitudine regnum Dei continetur vel acquiritur, in thesauro cordis et fidei virtute consistit; pro gratia familiari, vestrae unanimitatis scripta desidero. Ceterum de animorum vestrorum piissima affectione confidens, etiam tacentium mentibus me inhaerere non ambigo. Non enim humana amicitia, sed divina gratia invicem nobis innotuimus, et connexi sumus per viscera caritatis Christi. Atque ideo necesse est perpetuam inter pectora nostra manere concordiam, quae, Christo autore, conjuncta est. Quae enim vis aut oblivio valeat separare quod Deus junxit?
3. And I hope from the mercy of Christ the Lord that you will receive these words of mine in good health: and if He grants hereafter a timely occasion, through letter-carriers of this kind too, that you will be unhesitating to write back. Which your affection would without doubt have done through these sons of mine also, if you had known of their journey directed to me. For when I asked them about this, since I knew you to be neighbours, they said that they had sailed from their monastery without your knowledge. Nevertheless, since just as the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power (1 Cor. 4:20), so also charity, in whose perfection and fullness the kingdom of God is contained or gained, consists in the treasury of the heart and the power of faith; in the way of familiar kindness I desire letters from your Unanimity. For the rest, trusting in the most devout affection of your hearts, I do not doubt that I cleave to your minds even when you are silent. For it is not by human friendship but by divine grace that we have come to know one another, and we are bound together through the bowels of the charity of Christ. And therefore the concord between our breasts, which was joined with Christ as its author, must abide perpetually. For what force or forgetfulness could separate what God has joined?
4. Benedicat vos Dominus ex Sion, ea benedictione qua benedicitur homo qui timet Dominum, perpetui conjuges et parentes, cum benedicta vobiscum Deo progenie nobilissimae sanctitatis vestrae. Videatis quae bona sunt Hierusalem, et pariter habitare mereamini in domo Domini in longitudinem dierum, filii sancti, merito venerabiles, intima mihi caritate dilecti et semper desiderandi.
4. May the Lord bless you out of Sion, with that blessing with which the man is blessed who fears the Lord (Ps. 127:5 and 4), perpetual spouses and parents, together with the offspring of your most noble Holiness, blessed to God with you. May you see the good things of Jerusalem (Ps. 127:5), and together may you deserve to dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days (Ps. 22:7), holy children, deservedly venerable, beloved by me with inmost charity and ever to be longed for.
PASSIO S. GENESII ARELATENSIS.
THE PASSION OF ST GENESIUS OF ARLES.
1. Proprium atque indigenam Arelatensis urbis beatissimum Genesium martyrem, alumnum ejusdem jure nascendi, patronum virtute moriendi, celebrare jam a principio atque extollere, omnium fidelium studia, omnes religiosorum litterae debuerunt, ut tanti meriti gloriosa documenta, consignata scriptorum fide, et vivacibus commendata monumentis, illibata atque integra ad posteros pervenirent: quae admiratio semper faceret nova, et veneratio probaret antiqua. Sed quoniam succedentes sibi per incertum vitae tempus aetates, tradere haec invicem memoriae mutuae, quam mandare litteris, maluerunt: vel nunc oportet eadem fidelibus scriptis
1. The most blessed martyr Genesius, the city of Arles's own and native-born, its nursling by right of birth, its patron by the power of his dying, all the zeal of the faithful and all the writings of religious men ought from the very beginning to have celebrated and extolled, so that the glorious records of so great a merit, sealed by the good faith of writers and committed to living monuments, might come down to posterity unimpaired and whole: records which wonder would always make new, and veneration would approve as ancient. But since the generations succeeding one another through the uncertain span of life preferred to hand these things on to one another's memory rather than commit them to writing: at least now it is fitting that the same things, in faithful writings,
Editors' notes and page, col. 418
Footnotes
(d) ‹anchor: qui timet Dominum› · call in col 418
Psal. CXXVII, 5 et 4.
Psalm 127:5 and 4.
(printed under page 212)
(e) ‹anchor: bona sunt Hierusalem› · call in col 418
Ibid., 5.
The same, verse 5.
(printed under page 212)
(f) ‹anchor: longitudinem dierum› · call in col 418
Psal. XXII, 7.
Psalm 22:7. [So it reads at this resolution; the quoted words are verse 6 of the Vulgate psalm.]
Editors' notes
(*) ‹anchor: not visible (heading of the letter)› · call in col 417 Accedit huic editioni. Scripta ab anno 409 ad annum 426.
Added in this edition. Written between the year 409 and the year 426. [The last numeral is faint at this resolution.]
(printed under page 212)
Editors' prose
(none) <!-- note: Col. 418 holds only the author's text (end of Ep. LI, §§2–4) and the opening of the Passio S. Genesii Arelatensis, which begins with no editors' argumentum. The cropped italic fragments at the left edge of the images belong to col. 417 and were not set here. -->
Page
- running head: EPISTOLA LI. 418
- marginal letters: A ‹vestrae gratum fore officium›; B ‹dubio et per istos filios meos›; C ‹manere concordiam, quae, Christo›; D ‹riendi, celebrare jam a principio›
- old-edition numerals: 314 after ‹pignora animae›
- other: lettered calls c–f omitted (scripture note c, I Cor. IV, 20, whose call is at ‹in virtute› in this column, is set in n417). Note f reads "Psal. XXII, 7" (set as printed in the English; UNSURE reading of the numeral). The Passio S. Genesii does NOT end in this column: it continues mid-sentence ("fidelibus scriptis") into col 419, so the unit's end lies beyond col 418; VARIANTES LECTIONES were not seen in this column. Inline "(V. not. 215)" is an editors' cross-reference printed in the text; not set, per the unit rule (removed from the English by Q4).