Letter 6043: I have been sick with worry ever since I learned that my daughter is suffering from her familiar complaint.

One of Jerome's finest letters, written to console his old friend, Heliodorus, now Bp. of Altinum, for the loss of his nephew Nepotian who had died of fever a short time previously. Jerome tries to soothe his friend's grief (1) by contrasting pagan despair or resignation with Christian hope, (2) by an eulogy of the departed both as man and presb...

To my Brother.

The indispositions of the body originate from excess.

I reap annual harvests of joy from your letters -- this is the return, these are the riches that Spain pays me.

You have asked me about the story of Cain and Abel, and why God accepted Abel's offering but rejected Cain's.