St. Augustine
Implestis gaudio cor nostrum tanto iucundius quanto carius, tanto gratius quanto citius. Vestrae namque stirpis sanctimoniam virginalem quoniam quacumque innotuistis, ac per hoc ubique, fama celeberrima praedicat, velocissimum volatum eius fideliore atque certiore litterarum nuntio praevenistis et prius nos fecistis exultare de cognito tam excellentissimo bono quam dubitare de audito. Quis verbis explicet, quis digno praeconio prosequatur, quantum incomparabiliter gloriosius atque fructuosius habeat ex vestro sanguine feminas virgines Christus quam viros consules mundus? Nam volumina temporum si magnum atque praeclarum est nominis dignitate signare, quanto est maius atque praeclarius cordis et corporis integritate transcendere! Magis itaque
Letters of St. Augustine
You have filled my heart with joy, the more delightful because of your affection, and the more welcome because of your promptitude. For while the consecration of a daughter of your house to the life of virginity is being proclaimed by busy rumour wherever your fame is known, and that is everywhere, you outstripped its speediest flight by the surer and more trustworthy information in your letter and made us exult at the news of so very excellent a blessing before we had time to doubt the rumour of it. What words are adequate to tell, what commendation worthy to commemorate, how incomparably greater is the glory and the gain, that Christ should have women from your family dedicated to virginity than that the world should have men from it elevated to the consulship? For if it is a great and notable thing to leave the mark of an honoured name upon the scrolls of time, how much greater and more notable it is by unsullied innocence of mind and body to rise above them! So let this maiden, noble in