Avitus of Vienne
Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus
Top correspondents
All letters (99)
It would be a long story - and it is of no importance - to tell you how I came to be dining - for I am no particular...
Some men have a passion for horses, others for birds, others for wild animals.
As the proverb says, "You told me my own dream" [the equivalent of "Queen Anne is dead" — telling someone what they...
Even if you do not write to me about other matters, you ought at least to have written about that enemy of the gods,...
If anything deserves our fostering care, it is the sacred art of music.
To the Bishops.
Avitus to whom this letter is addressed is probably the same person who induced Jerome to write to Salvina (see Letter LXXIX., §I, ante). The occasion of writing is as follows. Ten years previously (that is to say in A.D.
To the Bishops.
To the Bishops.
First Letter of the Eastern Commissioners from Chalcedon,
Second Letter of the Eastern Commissioners from Chalcedon,
Third Letter of the Eastern Commissioners from Chalcedon,
SIDONIUS TO HIS DEAR ECDICIUS, GREETINGS
SIDONIUS TO HIS DEAR AVITUS, GREETINGS
You asked — or rather commanded, dearest brother — that I write to Your Beatitude and explain whether heretics'...
Avitus, bishop, to Faustus and Symmachus, senators of the city of Rome.
Avitus, bishop, to Viventiolus the rhetorician.
Avitus, bishop, to the Pope of Constantinople.
Avitus, bishop, to Liberius the prefect.
With the arrival of the present bearers, the gifts of your longed-for and revered affection have reached me now for...
Avitus, bishop of Vienne, to the most illustrious Apollinaris.
After the holy festival — which we passed through, though anxious and fearful, under your intercession and God's...
Though the person of this venerable bearer commends himself to the hearts of brotherly love, the holy Bishop...
The holy festival, which we celebrated prosperously through your intercession, was crowned by the letter of...
Though I have not earned any letter from Your Apostleship to prompt this initiative, your reputation compels me to...
Avitus, bishop, to the most illustrious Aurelianus.
The letters from Your Beatitude, which the passage of time had made all the more desirable, arrived and were made...
Avitus, bishop, to the deacon Helpidius.
After the holy services of the Lord's Nativity — at which I was present, though very ill and truly more than...
It is perfectly clear how great is the grace of God in your merit, or how great a sum of virtues may be inferred,...
Avitus, bishop, to the most illustrious Senarius.
The happy beginnings of the festival, which you obtained by your intercession, you communicated with your affection.
I would happily draw out the occasion that has earned me such frequent letters from you — if doing so did not burden...
Avitus, bishop, to Bishop Contumeliosus.
Avitus, bishop of Vienne, to Peter, bishop of Ravenna.
It speaks well of your proven and outstanding devotion that you consider my counsel worth seeking on matters that...
From the see most worthy of reverence — Avitus to Pope Hormisdas.
As is your custom, you have heaped upon my longings the welcome tokens of your devotion.
You satisfy both prudence and charity by honoring me — and burdening me — with your questions.
I attribute it to my own sins rather than to any fault of yours that bodily illness prevented you from carrying out...
What you have done is doubly full of devotion: by taking a brother to Lyon and sending word here, you sought out the...
I have already sent a letter through my servants informing you how much your recommendation has benefited brother...
That I sent the servant who was needed for questioning from the basilica of Vienne to that of Lyon under guard —...
[Bishop Avitus to Pope Symmachus of Rome.
The delicacies you sent are indeed magnificent and wonderfully generous — in their quantity, their timing, and their...
[Bishop Avitus to the Bishop of Jerusalem.
I returned from the feast to which I had traveled with the greatest haste.
Were it not for the constant obstacles that sins throw in the way of our shared hopes, I would have obeyed the...
The sharpness of your intelligence has not been deceived by the various followers of schisms who have tried to veil...
For the firmness of a divine promise, let what you first granted stand as your "Yes, yes!
Another person's need makes me importunate, because I owe it to those in difficulty to speak on their behalf.
Although you ought to have consulted more learned bishops about this prophetic reading — among whom I dare not count...
It is a matter as much of my longing as of my obligation to attend with particular care to the services that your...
I know that my silences cry out to you as loudly as any letter, and that nothing happens between us that goes unnoticed.
You reproach me for not having reported to you about the royal conference.
Avitus, bishop, to the most excellent Lord Sigismund.
Avitus, bishop, to the most excellent Lord Sigismund.
If I could speak as well as you are kind enough to believe, my Latin would be an unwelcome intrusion on Greek ears.
Avitus, bishop, to the most distinguished Messianus.
Avitus, bishop, to the most holy brother Alexandrinus.
Necessity prevented me from attending the feast; your kindness made the feast come to me.
Avitus, bishop, to the most holy brother Apollinaris.
Sigismund, king, to the most pious Emperor Anastasius.
Avitus, bishop, to the most distinguished Heraclius.
Your devotion has done what it always does — both extending concern about us and entrusting yours to us.
You maintain the pattern of your kindness — or rather, to speak more truly, you surpass it.
Your Apostolic Authority exercises the primacy granted by God and demonstrates that the preeminent position you hold...
I know with what devoted affection you wished me to come to our shared feast.
As far as it concerns this poor little body of mine, I am getting by with some small reserves of strength — though...
It has been a long time — if you will take my word for it, or if you judge rightly from our mutual affection — since...
The matter you reported in your letter had already reached me through faint rumor before your account.
However attentive the servants of the Lord's vineyard may be in their constant work of planting, there are always...
I am greatly surprised that the person on whose behalf you deign to intercede — who denied his guilt to me alone...
While others feast on the holy and serene delights of your presence, I sustain the barrenness of my longing more by...
---
You command — and it is my heart's desire — that I attend both the new and the customary celebrations with the...
The greatest fulfillment of our longing comes when our eager hopes learn that the magnificent state of your devotion...
---
I received your letters after a long time.
With God's favor, we celebrated with you — with you, I say, not in place but in spirit — the paschal feast, your...
Detained for two days by the presence of your glorious father, I organized the bearer somewhat late — the one...
Returning from the city of Lyon, where he had remained after we left the council to attend to some private business,...
The recent and — as I sense — not yet fully resolved illness of our lord has kept your servants so attentive and...
I recognize that every day of my life leaves me indebted to the duty of service, but all the more so on the present...
Recently, when I sent the usual service owed to your eminence on the occasion of the apostolic feast, you said — in...
By keeping your household dependents away and in suspense about your plans, you prevent us from fully achieving or...
---
Your devotion maintains its customary care, visiting us with your gracious attention and your letters alike.
Having dispatched my service of a letter to our common lord, I also pay the respects always owed to your dear...
While the perpetual cause of love always supplies reason enough to pay my respects to your greatness, and while I...
After the feast, during which our hopes for the presence and safety of our lord were rightly fulfilled, I dispatched...
I am confident — and I have no doubt it is by divine gift — that our shared joy has been announced through shared...
Hormisdas to Bishop Avitus and all bishops of the province of Vienne under his jurisdiction.
Bound and burdened alike by the graciousness of your concern, the magnificence of your gift, and the constancy of...
[Bishop Avitus to Amandus.
I know that a letter of service intrudes importunely on the cares and occupations in which, under heaven's help, you...
It might seem like a failure of trust in divine promises for anyone to be anxious about your prosperity.
Although we have exchanged many letters on many subjects, the conversation is not exhausted.
If I were not groaning with a shaken heart over the fall of a friend, there is much I would say about you — lying in...