Letter 44: Many good things to you for your eagerness on my behalf -- but you seem to have quite forgotten about my body in...
**To Florentius** (358/359)
May many blessings come to you for your goodwill toward me, but you seem to have quite forgotten my body when you issue such commands. For I am that man for whom even a trip to the marketplace involves some labor — what comes as pleasure to others is for me a sweet resting of the elbow, on account of my infirmity.
To pray that I might come to you — that I could manage. But actually to come, I could not, any more than I could cross the open sea without a ship. It is not merely that I would be unable to hasten to Illyricum or Thrace — I could not do it even if you were sitting in Cilicia and tried to stir me. You would prove no stronger than necessity.
Knowing all this, Spectatus persuaded you to say those things about me to the emperor, and then to report the conversation back to me — so that he himself might appear to have left nothing undone, while my body would take the blame for nothing having been accomplished.
Well, may Spectatus never cease making sport of his friends' earnest concerns! But I, remaining here, shall not neglect my hymns of praise. And if ever our good emperor should appear to me, perhaps I shall not greet him in silence.
Related Letters
Cyprian — also known as Thascius — to Florentius, also known as Pupianus, his brother, greetings.
As long as your goodwill toward us keeps growing, we'll keep needing to write to you about our friends.
1. Your letter, dear friend, finds me dwelling in that quarter of the desert which is nearest to Syria and the Saracens. And the reading of it rekindles in my mind so keen a desire to set out for Jerusalem that I am almost ready to violate my monastic vow in order to gratify my affection.
Polianus has returned to us and reported the favors he received, and both he and I are grateful.
Sent to Florentius along with the preceding letter, which Jerome requests him to deliver to Rufinus. This Florentius was a rich Italian who had retired to Jerusalem to pursue the monastic life. Jerome subsequently speaks of him as a distinguished monk so pitiful to the needy that he was generally known as the father of the poor.