Library › St Boniface › English Correspondence

English Correspondence

St Boniface, tr. Kylie, 1911

Letter 12: Boniface Reminds Abbot Duddo of Their Old Friendship. He Asks Him to Send…

To his dear son Abbot Duddo, Boniface or Wynfrith, servant of the servants of God, kind greetings of love in Christ.

I desire thee, my beloved son, to remember the maxim of the wise man who said, “Hold fast to an old friend,”¹ and not to forget in age that old friendship, which we began and kept in youth, but to hold in mind thy father now grown feeble, whose limbs are turning into the way of all earthly things. Though I was a teacher too little learned, yet as thou didst thyself allow, I sought to be devoted to you above all. Mindful of that devotion, have pity on an old man worn out by the storms of the German sea which buffet him on all sides; raise me up with thy prayers poured out to God, and aid me with the Holy Scriptures, and especially with the spiritual treatises of the Fathers. The spiritual treatise is recognized as being the instructor of those who read the Sacred Scriptures. I ask thee to send me as an aid to my knowledge of divine things a part of a commentary on Saint Paul, which I lack. I have commentaries on two of his Epistles, the one to the Romans, and the first to the Corinthians. So too, whatever thou shouldst find in the library of thy church and think useful but unknown to me or not in my possession, inform me of it as a faithful son would an unlettered parent, and send me, as well, thine own notes. And should it please thee, let us so arrange between ourselves that whatever . . . . my son, Eaba, the priest who carries my letter will tell thee about the marriage of a mother to a man who has stood sponsor for her son at baptism. Search in the Scriptures why this is judged by the Romans to be a capital crime; and if thou findest any discussion of this sin anywhere in the writings of the Church be sure to make it known to me.

I wish thee health and prosperity in Christ.

Previous · Contents · Next