A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

[Again to the same about the birthday of the abbess] Splendid mother, noble, be happy in the blessed vow, rejoice: your sweet daughter has a birthday. Not a uterus but grace gave her to you; not flesh, but Christ gave her in love. Who [Agnes] may be with you in eternity, the creator conferred on you, the father without end gives perpetual progeny. Happy posterity which fails in no age, which remains with her mother always never to die! Let there be a feast day now, with holy honor for Radegund: the lamb gave you this Agnes* in the world. May you celebrate joys for extended years and people cultivate the highest desires through you, and teaching virgin choirs and holy governance may you distribute the riches of perpetual life. May long health hold you here joined in body, and again may love join you in eternal light.

Original letter:

[Item aliud ad eandem de natalicio abbatissae] Mater opima, decens, voto laetare beato, gaude: natalem filia dulcis habet. hanc tibi non uterus natam, sed gratia fecit; non caro, sed Christus hanc in amore dedit. quae sit in aeternum tecum, tibi contulit auctor, perpetuam prolem dat sine fine pater. felix posteritas quae nullo deficit aevo, quae cum matre simul non moritura manet! sit modo festa dies, sancto Radegundis honore: Agnen hanc vobis agnus in orbe dedit. gaudia distensos pariter celebretis in annos et per vos populus vota superna colat, virgineosque choros moderamina sancta docentes perpetuae vitae distribuatis opes. hinc longinqua salus teneat vos corpore iunctas, rursus in aeterno lumine iungat amor.

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.

Scholarly notes:

* A play on the name Agnes and the word for lamb, agnus.

Printed source:

Venanti Fortunati Opera Poetica, ed. Fridericus Leo (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), 259, Librum XI, iii.

Date:

after 567