A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

May this feast day approach me for many year, bringing great joys, this feast day to me. May god in love ensure favorable desires through time, through the merits of Martin, may God ensure through love. Me participating with you in these joys may Christ preserve long in the world, me participating. A sound gentle in the ear rings with soft sweetness, having the organ of the voice, a sound gentle in the ear. Food more pleasing than honeycombs ran from your throat and gave new honey, food more pleasing than honeycombs. Here with motley choir the voice ran round, with angelic senses here with motley choir. Holy songs long may that voice minister from the mouth and restore souls, holy songs long.

Original letter:

Haec mihi festa dies longos superinstet in annos, gaudia magna ferens haec mihi festa dies. praestet amore deus tam prospera vota per aevum, Martini meritis praestet amore deus. participata mihi vobiscum hec gaudia Christus servet in orbe diu participata mihi. mitis in aure sonus suavi dulcedine tinnit, organa vocis habens mitis in aure sonus. blandior esca favis vestra de fauce rigavit et nova mella dedit blandior esca favis. huc variante choro vox inde rotata cucurrit, sensibus angelicis huc variante choro. carmina sancta diu vox illa ministret ab ore et recreent animos carmina sancta diu.

Historical context:

Bishop Venantius Fortunatus met Agnes and her patron, Radegund, 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:

Venanti Fortunati Opera Poetica, ed. Fridericus Leo (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), 285, Appendix, xix.

Date:

after 567