A letter from Augustine (402?)

Translated letter:

Augustine gives greeting in the Lord to the most religious and excellent lady, Fabiola, his daughter worthy of praise in the charity of Christ. I have read the letter of your Holiness and, although it is an answer to mine, I feel impelled by the obligation of answering it. For you grieve over the pilgrimage through which we attain to rejoice forever with the saints, and you rightly give first place to the longing for our heavenly country where we shall not be separated by earthly distance, but shall rejoice always in the contemplation of the One. You are happy in dwelling faithfully on the thought of such things, happier in loving them, and you will be most happy in attaining them. But examine more carefully even now in what sense we are said to be absent, whether it is because we do not see each other in the flesh, or because our minds do not give and receive communications from each other, that is, we do not converse. For I think, although separated in the flesh by long distance, if we could know each other's thought we should be more together than if we were in one place, looking at one another but sitting in silence, giving no sign by words of our inner feeling, showing our minds by no movement of our bodies. Hence you understand that each one is more present to himself than one is to another, because each one is better known to himself than to another, not by beholding his own face which he carries around without seeing it, unless there is a mirror at hand, but by beholding his own conscience which he sees even with his eyes closed. How great, then, is our life which is so prized!

Original letter:

Dominae religiosissimae et praestantissimae, et in Christi charitate laudabili filiae Fabiolae, Augustinus, in Domino salutem. Quanquam rescripta reddideris, sic tamen legi litteras Sanctitatis tuae, ut eis respondere debitum duxerim. Doluisti enim peregrinationem, qua contingit perpetuo gaudere cum sanctis; et desiderium supernae patriae, ubi jam non terrarum spatio dividemur, sed semper unius contemplatione laetabimur, merito praetulisti, Felix es talia fideliter cogitando; amando felicior; et ideo eris etiam felicissima consequendo. Sed etiam nunc diligentius intuere unde magis dicamur absentes; utrum quia nostra invicem corpora non videmus, an quia signa non damus et recipimus animorum, quod est colloqui. Puto enim quod, licet longinquis regionibus corpore separati, si nostras cogitationes nosse possemus, magis essemus nobiscum, quam si uno in loco alter alterutrum conspicantes taciti sederemus, nulla vocibus signa sensus intimi proferentes, nullis corporum motibus nostros animos indicantes. Quocirca intelligis ideo unumquemque sibi esse praesentiorem quam alterum alteri, quod unusquisque sibi magis quam alteri notus est; non faciem suam, quae, nisi adsit speculum, gestatur et latet, sed conscientiam contuendo, quam et clausis oculis videt. Quanta est igitur etiam vita, quae pro magno habetur, nostra?

Historical context:

All we know is that Fabiola and Augustine live at a great distance, which would not be inconsistent with the first Fabiola who corresponded with Jerome. She had visited Jerome in the Holy Land in 394 but returned to Rome a year later; the second Fabiola, who was also probably in Africa when Jerome sent her books on Ezekiel, was in Rome when Augustine wrote her a later letter, ep.20.

Printed source:

S. Augustini Episcopi Epistolarum, PL 33, c.1091, ep.267, also in S. Aureli Augustini, Hipponiensis Episcopi, Epistulae, ed. A. Goldbacher, CSEL 4v (Vienna: Tempsky, 1911); translation from Saint Augustine Letters, 5v. , trans. Sister Wilfrid Parsons SND (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1951-56), 4.285-86.

Date:

402?