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English Correspondence

St Boniface, tr. Kylie, 1911

Letter 8: Abbess Eangyth and Heaburg Thank Wynfrith for His Letters. They Write of Their…

To Wynfrith called Boniface, blessed in the Lord, honourable in faith and in love, enriched with the dignity of a priest, crowned with flowers of virgin chastity as with a garland of lilies, trained in the knowledge of doctrine, Eangyth, unworthy handmaid among the Lord’s handmaidens, who, though undeserving, holds the place of abbess, and her only daughter Heaburg, called Bugga, send greetings in the Holy Trinity.

To thank thee for the love and affection which thou didst send in the letter brought by the messenger from across the sea no words from our lips can avail. Happy are we if thy praise of us is merited, though we fear greatly that praise undeserved is more of a reproach than a commendation.

Beloved, brother in the spirit more than in the flesh, lavishly endowed with spiritual graces, God alone is our witness, that by the tears which thou canst see staining the letter, to thee alone have we wished to tell how we are weighed down by a crushing load of misery, and by the distraction of worldly affairs. As when the might of the foam-laden sea sweeps and rends the mountainous billows broken on the rocks, and the raging winds and tempests drive in headlong wrath through the long channel and the boat keels are upturned, and the ship’s mast is bent under, so the vessels of our souls are shaken by a great coil of woes and the burden of many calamities; thus the voice of Truth speaks of the house in the gospel: “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house,” and the rest.¹

First and beyond all the woes which the aforementioned evils from without create must be put the chain of innumerable offences, and the perfect confidence which rests upon no sure ground. It is not so much thought on our own souls, but, what is more difficult and serious, thought on the souls of all those of different sex and age committed to us. We are to serve these many and varied minds and characters and afterwards to give an account before the judgment-seat of Christ not only for manifest sins in deed or in word, but also for those hidden thoughts which escape all men, and are plain to God alone; it is to lead a battle with one line against two, with ten thousand in the face of twenty thousand. And to the care of souls are added difficulties with household affairs and the disputes and discords which the enemy of all goodness sows; he infects the hearts of men with bitter malice and scatters it among all mankind, but especially among monks and the dwellings of monks, for he knows that “the mighty shall be mightily tormented.”²

Besides, poverty and the scarcity of temporal things grind us and the barrenness of our land; and the hostility of the king before whom we are accused by those who envy us, as a wise man says: “For the bewitching of vanity obscureth good things.” So, too, the service of the king and queen, of the bishop and the prefect, the nobles and counts: it is all too long to tell, and can be reviewed more easily in the mind than by word of mouth.

Added to all these sorrows is the loss of our friends and the band of our relatives and kinsfolk. Neither son nor brother, father nor uncle have we, but an only daughter, almost destitute of everything valued in this life, an aged mother, her sister and their brother’s son. He is very unfortunate, because of his own disposition and the hatred which the king bears his race. There is no one else of our kin, for in divers ways God has removed them. Some died in their fatherland, and their bodies rest in the foul dust of the earth, to rise again on the day of doom, when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and all the human race shall come forth from the dark tombs, to give its account; their spirits will be borne away on the arms of angels to reign with Christ, where all pain will cease and envy die and sorrow and lamentations flee before the faces of the saints. But others of them left their country’s shores and trusted themselves to the fields of the sea, and sought the shrines of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and of the many martyrs, virgins and confessors whose number and whose names are known to God.

For these and all such reasons, which we could scarcely recount in a day, even though, as is said, it were when time lengthens in July or August, we are weary of life and find it loathsome to live. Every man who is wanting in his own cause, and trusts not his own counsels, seeks out a faithful friend whose counsels he can trust, since he trusts not his own; he will have such faith in him as to reveal and lay open to him every secret of his heart. What is sweeter, as is said, than to have a friend with whom thou canst speak of everything as with thyself? So because of all these woes which we have related in redundant phrases, it was needful for us to seek out a faithful friend, one in whom we could trust better than in ourselves, who would bear our griefs and misery and poverty, and would feel for us and console us and sustain us with his eloquence and lift us up with the strength of his words. Long have we sought, and we trust that in thee we have found that friend whom we craved and desired. And if God would grant that by the guidance of His angel, as He sent the prophet Habakkuk into the den of lions with food for the prophet Daniel, and Philip, one of the seven deacons, to the eunuch, we could come into those foreign lands where thou dwellest, and couldst hear the living words from thy mouth, how sweet, O my master, would thy eloquence be to my palate, sweeter than honey itself to our lips.

But since by our merits we have not deserved this, but are separated from thee by a long stretch of land and sea and the borders of many provinces, yet because of that trust in thee which we have mentioned above, we would have thee know, Boniface, our brother, that for a long time we have desired, like most of our relatives and friends, and many strangers, to seek Rome, once mistress of the world, and there obtain pardon for our sins, just as many others did and still do; I myself especially had this desire, who am the more advanced in years, and in my life have transgressed and sinned the more. With this wish and purpose of mine, Wale, once my abbess and spiritual mother, was acquainted. But my only daughter was still in the years of her youth, and could not feel the same longing. We know there are many who attack this wish and cry down this service of love, supporting their opinions with such proofs as these: the decrees of the synods command that every one should remain where he has been placed and has made his vows, and should there discharge his vows to God. But we all live with different desires, and the judgments of God are hidden, as the prophet says: “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains: Thy judgments are a great deep.”³ In this case His will and law are utterly concealed from us. Therefore, amidst this uncertainty and darkness, we beg of thee, with our faces cast down in all humility, to be our Aaron, that is a mount of courage, to support us by the strength of thy intercession, and from the burning censer of thy prayers to make the incense rise before the sight of God, and to let the lifting up of thy hands be set forth as an evening sacrifice. For truly we trust in the Lord and beseech His clemency, that in answer to the entreaties from thy mouth and thy fruitful prayers, He may show us through thee, whatsoever He judges right and useful for us, whether to live in our native land or to go hence on our pilgrimage. Likewise we beg thee deign to send us thy answer across the sea, and reply to what we have set down on these tablets, in our rustic and unpolished style. Little faith have we in those who glory in appearance and not in heart, but all in thy loyalty and devotion to God and love of thy neighbour.

The brother to whom we referred above, though we named him not, our friend and kinsman Denewald, if God decree that he should turn his course to those lands and to that mission where thou dwellest, do thou receive in love and kindness, and with thy blessing and favour, guide him, if it is his wish to go, to the venerable brother Bertheri, priest and confessor, who has long dwelt in that mission.

Farewell, brother in the spirit, faithful and beloved with a sincere and pure affection. Mayst thou attain all prosperity in the dear Lord. A friend is long sought, scarcely found, and hard to keep. Pray in our behalf, that bitter faults and transgressions may not work us harm.

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