![]() ![]() |17 when no master has constructed, and no proper foundation has been laid? So I, who have with difficulty prepared and most miserably put together the precious material for thy genius, ought I to be thought to have composed what I desire, when a liberal education has not fashioned the work, nor literary training lent it elevation and elegance? My work has, indeed, the sure foundation of faith alone that foundation upon which, as thou knowest, rose the saint's admirable, resplendent virtues and now I commit the materials to the architect, whose hands shall be thy eloquence and when the capstone is placed upon thy work, I shall return due thanks to Christ. For he who seeks an architect to build a house, carefully prepares the necessary materials but if the architect delays, and he puts together in the likeness of walls unfashioned heaps from the rough stones, ought one to speak of his work as a building, Until these memoranda win admission to a book of thy construction, let them not offend the mind of the critic. Lash me not, I beseech thee, with harsh terms say not, Why expect water from the flint? Indeed I do not expect water from the flint of this world's highway, but from thee, who, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, 2 shalt refresh us from the living rock by that honey of speech with which thou overflowest and already from that honey thou sendest a nectar-taste of sweetest promise, while thou biddest me transmit a memoir or notes upon the life of Saint Severinus. Only veil not the rays of thy knowledge by a cloud of excuse, accusing thine own ignorance. ![]() Cultivated in profane literature alone, he would be likely to compose the biography in a style difficult for many to understand so that the remarkable events, which had too long remained hidden in silence and night, might fail through the obscurity of his eloquence to shine brightly forth for us, untrained as we are in polite letters.īut I shall search no more for the feeble light of that lamp now that thy sun-like radiance is here. |16 seemed rash to impose upon a lay writer the arrangement and composition of the work. ![]() Yet I did this with great regret for I deemed it unreasonable, that, while thou wert alive, I should ask a layman to write a life of Severinus. In response to this offer, I prepared a memoir, filled full with testimonies from the daily narrations of the elder brethren, with which I was perfectly familiar. When the author of the letter knew of this, he eagerly requested me to send him some memoranda in regard to Saint Severinus, that he might write a short account of the saint's life for the benefit of later generations. When I learned that some were making copies of this letter, I began to reflect, and also to declare to the clergy, that the great miracles which the divine power had wrought through Saint Severinus ought not to be hidden. It contained the life of Bassus a monk, who formerly dwelt in the monastery of the mountain called Titas, above Ariminum, and later died in the district of Lucania: a man very well known to me and to many others. To the holy and venerable Deacon Paschasius, Eugippius sends his salutation in Christ.Ībout two years ago, in the consulship of Importunus, 1 a letter of a noble layman, directed to a priest, was offered me to read. ![]()
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