living elsewhere, we shall reap much consolation.
[CXXXVII] To Procopius. (From the year 404 to 407.) We were with you there but for a short time, my most admirable sir, yet we obtained much experience of your genuine love, and of your unburdened soul, and of your sincere and fervent disposition. Therefore, even though we have been removed to the very ends of the habitable world and carried off to this final desert, because we carry you everywhere with us wherever we may go, and have you inscribed upon our conscience, we write to you from such a great distance and render you the due greeting. And we beseech your excellence—if it be not heavy and burdensome—to grant us this favor also, and to bring us the good news regarding your health. For we learn these things even when you do not write, by questioning those who arrive from there, because it is of great concern to us to know about your vigor and your well-being. But we desire that these things be made clear to us also by your own tongue and by your own hand, so that we may reap a double pleasure: both from writing, and from receiving letters from your nobility. Grant us this favor, which is both most sweet and reasonable, and one that provides us with much joy.
[CXXXVIII] To Marcellinus. (Cucusus, the year 404.) We have truly been removed to the most desolate place of all, Cucusus; yet when we contemplate the love you and those who love us have, we reap the greatest consolation, finding ourselves wealthy in the desert. For a treasure of no common kind is it to encounter men who know how to love genuinely. For this reason, even though we are not present in body, we are bound to you in soul, held fast by the chain of love. Hence too, we write from such a great distance and render the due greeting. For that we have enrolled you among the first of our beloved, you yourself do not ignore, my most admirable sir. Do you yourself, therefore, grant us this favor, and write to us continually, bringing us good news of your health, so that by writing and by receiving such letters we may reap much solace and joy, and, though we dwell in the desert, may enjoy the greatest consolation.
[CXXXIX] To Antiochus. (Cucusus, the year 404.) For when could we ever forget your sweet and fervent disposition, your genuine and unsullied love, and your free, high-minded, and bold soul? For even if we should go to the very limits of the inhabited world, we go away carrying you everywhere with us, our fervent lover, and one strongly bound to us by the law of love. Therefore, having been removed to this very desert of the world we dwell in—Cucusus, I mean—and being unable to find those who convey letters easily, we have made great effort to seek and find someone who would convey this letter of ours, so as to greet your excellence and render the due greeting to your magnificence. But that you yourself, from what you have already done, will not need any reminder from us to write to us continually and bring us good news regarding your health, I do not believe there is any need to doubt. For we have reaped no common consolation whenever we receive letters from you who love us so much, declaring your vigor, continually renewing love through letters, and making the presence of your love appear vivid. For the frequency of letters is sufficient, when it is brought by genuine friends, to counterfeit the pleasure of presence.
[CXL] To Brison. (The year 404.) What is this? While we were there, you were eager to do and say a myriad of things, and you became manifest to the whole city, or rather to the entire world, for the affection that you showed toward us, not being able to keep it in silence, but displaying it everywhere through your deeds and your words; yet you have not deigned to write to us even once, and this while we are thirsting for your letters and desiring your writings? You do not know what consolation we were about to reap from such a genuine soul, receiving the offspring of such fervent friendship! And I say this not in reproach (for I know that whether writing or silent, you preserve the disposition toward us in its prime), but because I greatly desire your letters. And though you do not write, we do not cease questioning those who arrive from there about your vigor and cheerfulness, and we rejoice greatly hearing what we desire; but we wish to learn these things from your tongue and from your right hand as well. If therefore we do not ask what is heavy nor burdensome, now at least grant us this favor, which is very great and most sweet, and brings us much joy.
[CXLI] To Amprucla the Deaconess. (Cucusus, the year 404.) I received the second letter, which you said was the first, my most honorable and respectable lady. And I say again, do not call it boldness to have been the first to send letters to us, nor consider it a sin, for it is the greatest praise. For we take this as a token of a fervent and glowing love, and of your genuine and unsullied disposition of…