A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

[To the same when she would reenclose herself] A mind fertile for God, Radegund, life of the sisters, who, as you burn your members, taming them, you nourish your soul: cultivating annual vows, you come back today to be enclosed: my spirits will wander seeking you. The lights how swiftly you hide from our eyes! For without you I am too weighed down by an oppressive cloud. With all excluded, you will be retained by one cave: you enclose us more whom you cause to be outside. And though you may be hidden, a fugitive, for brief days, this month will be longer than a swift year. You remove times, as you do not appear to the one who loves you, since while I see you, I believe it is not enough for me. But yet we shall come with you as one from the vow and I follow in spirit where the place forbids me to go. This I pray, that the joys of Easter bring you back safe and the twin light returns equally to us.

Original letter:

[Ad eandem cum se reclauderet] Mens fecunda deo, Radegundis, vita sororum, quae ut foveas animam membra domando cremas: annua vota colens hodie claudenda recurris: errabunt animi te repetendo mei. lumina quam citius nostris abscondis ocellis! nam sine te nimium nube premente gravor. omnibus exclusis uno retineberis antro: nos magis includis, quos facis esse foris. et licet huc lateas brevibus fugitiva diebus, longior hic mensis quam celer annus erit. tempora subducis, ceu non videaris amanti, cum vos dum cerno hoc mihi credo parum. sed tamen ex voto tecum veniemus in unum et sequor huc animo quo vetat ire locus. hoc precor, incolumem referant te gaudia paschae, et nobis pariter lux geminata redit.

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 VIII, ix.

Date:

after 567