St. Augustine
omni malo et hic et in futuro saeculo, domini dilectissimi et desiderantissimi fratres.
Tanta est sollemnitas ad quam me affectus tuae fraternitatis invitat, ut corpusculum meum ad vos traheret voluntas, nisi teneret infirmitas. Possem venire, si hiems non esset; possem hiemem contemnere, si iuvenis essem; aut enim ferret rigorem temporis fervor aetatis aut temperaret frigus aetatis fervor aestatis. Nunc hieme iter tam prolixum non suffero cum annositate algida, quam mecum fero, domine beatissime, sancte ac venerabilis frater et consacerdos. Salutationem debitam reddo meritis tuis; salutem vero meam commendo precibus tuis, poscens et ipse a domino, ut dedicationem tantae fabricae pacis prosperitas prosequatur.
Letters of St. Augustine
you from all evil, both in this world and in the world to come, my well-beloved lords and much longed for brethren.
So important is the ceremony to which your brotherly affection invites me, that I should drag my poor body to you with willingness, were it not detained by weakness. I might have come, had it not been winter; I might have scorned the winter, had I been young; for either the glow of youth would have endured the rigour of the season, or else the glow of summer would have allayed the chill of age. As it is, my saintly lord, my holy and revered brother and fellow-priest, in winter I cannot bear so lengthy a journey since I must bear with me the frigidity of great age. I return the greeting that I owe to your merits: my own welfare I commend to your supplications, while beseeching the Lord myself that peace and prosperity may follow upon the dedication of so great a building.