A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

[Again to the same, that she drink wine] If piety and holy love give desires to the seeker, hear [and favor] your servants with a generous gift. Fortunatus acting, and Agnes also, pray with verses, that you, exceedingly tired, drink benign wines. Just as the lord may give you whatever you ask him, and that both may live, we ask you, as you love. We seek, as suppliants, both, if we do not offend, that you lift up your two children, splendid mother. It is not gluttony, but need that draws you now to take wine, for such a drink can help your tired innards. So Paul, a trumpet to the gentiles, ordered Timothy, to take wine, lest his stomach grow weak.

Original letter:

[Item aliud ad eandem, ut vinum bibat] Si pietas et sanctus amor dat vota petenti, exaudi famulos munere larga tuos. Fortunatus agens, Agnes quoque versibus orant, ut lassata nimis vina benigna bibas. sic tibi det dominus quaecumque poposceris ipsum, et tibi, sicut amas, vivat uterque rogans: suppliciter petimus, si non offendimus, ambo, ut releves natos, mater opima, duos. non gula vos, sed causa trahat modo sumere vina, talis enim potus viscera lassa iuvat. sic quoque Timotheum Paulus, tuba gentibus una, ne stomachum infirmet sumere vina iubet.

Historical context:

Bishop Venantius Fortunatus met Radegund and Agnes, whom Radegund had had installed as her abbess, when he visited Poitiers. They became good friends and exchanged epistolary poems and small gifts until the women died. After her death, Fortunatus wrote a life of Radegund emphasizing her ascetic qualities.

Printed source:

Venantii Fortunati, Opera Poetica, ed. Fridericus Leo (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), 195, Librum XI, iv.

Date:

after 567