Letter 230: Darius thanks Augustine, asks for the Confessions, requests prayer, and sends medicines.

Darius sends greetings to Augustine, his lord. Holy father, if only the God of all, your God, had placed me in your hands and before your eyes, just as my name reached your ears through the gracious kindness of your co-bishops, as you call them, Urbanus and Novatus. I do not say this because your better file of judgment might have found me greater, or even such as the kindly speech and written commendation of such men had made me seem before you, but because I would have drawn the truest and immortal fruits of your heavenly wisdom from your own mouth, like the sweetness of pure water from the present and ever-flowing spring itself. How blessed I would be, not merely three or four times over, as the poet says somewhere, but a thousand times and beyond all numbering, if I had been allowed to look in person on your truly starry face, to hear your divine voice singing divine things, and to receive and drink in not only the fruits of your mind but also the delight of your speech. I would have thought myself receiving certain laws of immortality not merely from heaven but while placed in heaven itself, and hearing certain words of God not from far away in the temple but while standing near God's own tribunal. Perhaps because of my most ardent longing for you I deserved this to happen; because of my conscience, I confess, I did not. Yet even while absent I have received very great fruits from a good desire, and for me the perfection of good things has come from secondary goods. I have been commended to the person to whom I wanted to be commended by the mouths of holy men, two priests far apart in place and region: one, as I have already said, by his kindly speech and present testimony about me; the other by flying letters of the same feeling and like judgment sent to you. Such great men wove for me before you a kind of crown, not from the sprouting of green flowers, but from glorious testimony as though from jewels of permanence. For that reason I pray the highest God for you, holy father, and I urgently ask your intercession, so that, since I am not at all conscious of being worthy of such testimony, I may at least someday become such a man. Has not all the loss caused by my absence already been overcome by the fact that you yourself deign to address us, to write, to greet us, and not to let me be absent though I am away? I was grieving that after God I had not seen you. Yet you attend, as you say, not to the face of the body but to what is more important, the heart; and I seemed more pleasing to you because you looked more deeply within. May God grant that I answer to your judgment, my father, and that I not stand guilty before my own conscience when inwardly I do not see myself as the person you have fashioned for yourself. In that same divine and heavenly letter of yours, your eloquence serving as usual what you wished to praise, you say that I kill wars with a word. At this, holy father, my spirit emerged as if from certain shadows of thought, as though it recognized its true praises. To confess everything briefly and plainly to Your Blessedness: if we have not extinguished wars, we have at least delayed them; and with God, the ruler of all, helping us, evils that had already risen almost to the height of disaster have been quieted. I hope from him, from whom we must hope for everything good, and I even take from your letter a blessing so generous and so certain, that this very delay of wars, as I called it, may possess and hold the lasting and perpetual firmness of peace. For you said, and by God's perpetual law you fixed it, that I should rejoice in this so great and truly good thing of mine, as you call it, and enjoy it in God, from whom you say I received both the character to be such a person and the tasks I undertook. Then you add, "May God confirm what he has worked for us through you." What prayers, offered not only for me but for the salvation of all! My glory cannot be separated from the safety of all, and if I am to be blessed through your prayers, all must be blessed together with me. Father, keep making and offering such prayers for a long time for the Roman empire, for the Roman commonwealth, and for any people whom you find worthy; and when late at last you are raised to heaven, hand them down to those after you and entrust them to those who follow. Perhaps I have gone further than I ought, yet I have said less than I wished. I confess that while writing to you I imagine your face as if you were present; and although my rough and poor speech has long failed me, I am still not satisfied, as though I were conversing and talking with you face to face. From this, then, measure our desire for you. Though the page of this letter should perhaps long ago have deserved an end to its tiresome wordiness, we set shame aside while serving desire, and we think that to leave the conversation is to go away from you. So I do not want not to stop; I cannot. Believe me, my father: you have so fastened yourself to my senses and my deepest heart from the moment when, not content with your so glorious and so great reputation, we chose to look on you through your own writings, that one brief letter of yours stirred such flames and fires of love in me. Therefore we ask you, and with our whole mind beg you, since by reading you we have despised pagan rites more fully and abundantly than ever before. Although from parents, grandparents, and the last offspring of our family we received Christ's laws, still the proud vanity of useless superstition sometimes wandered into our thoughts. I ask that you also deign to send and give us the books of the Confessions that you have written. If other people too have readily and generously given us your writings, how much more should you yourself not refuse your own? A letter is reported from a certain satrap, or rather king, begging the Lord God Christ, while he was still within the regions of Judea and had not yet returned to his heaven, that since the king was prevented by illness from going to him and did not believe he could be healed otherwise, the salvation and medicine of the world might come to him if he deigned to do so. And lest it seem that injury was being done to so great a majesty, which the ignorant king had conceived with a provident but imperfect mind, he is said also to have praised his city, so that God, drawn by the beauty of the city and the king's hospitality, would not disdain the prayers of a suppliant. God came to the king's aid. He was healed; and, enlarging the gift beyond the request, Christ sent by letter not only health to him as a suppliant but also security to him as a king, and further commanded that his city should always and forever be immune from enemies. What benefits can be added to these? I, a humble man and servant of kings, ask you, my lord, not to hesitate to intercede daily for my sins before that Christ, the ruling God, and to pray tirelessly for me, asking whatever you yourself wish. If my long letter wearies you, regulate it by the patience of your magnanimity and blame yourself, because you ordered me to write. Yet we ask, and again and again beg, that you write once more; then we will be able to suspect that you received my writings gladly. May God grant us Your Blessedness for many years, praying for us, truly holy father. Our son Verimodus greets Your Blessedness; he greatly rejoiced that in your letter to us you deigned to mention him. We have given to the holy presbyter Lazarus, to be carried to Your Blessedness, some medicines received from the chief physician who is with us. The man I mentioned says they will be of real help in easing pain and curing illness.

EPISTOLA 230 Scripta a. 426/427. Darius Augustino pro litteris ab eo acceptis gratias agens (nn. 1-2); confirmans se in pace solidanda navare, petit sibi mitti Confessionum libros (n. 4), memoratque commenticiam quandam epistolam Abgaris regis ad Christum (n. 5), iterumque gratias referens nunciat medicinas quasdam misisse Augustino (n. 6). DARIUS AUGUSTINO DOMINO SUO SALUTEM. Exoptat coram aspicere A. 1. Utinam, domine sancte pater, ut meum nomen ad aures tuas, coepiscoporum, ut ais, tuorum Urbani et Novati benigna erga me gratia faciente, perlatum est; ita memetipsum Deus omnium, Deus tuus, manibus tuis atque oculis obtulisset: non quo maiorem, aut forsitan talem, qualem tantorum virorum apud te benevolus sermo, et litterarum commentatio fecerat, tui me probasset melior lima iudicii; sed ut coelestis sapientiae tuae verissimos atque immortales fructus, ore tuo potius, veluti cuiusdam purae aquae dulcedinem, ab ipso fontis praesenti ac perpetuo liquore sumpsissem. O me, non modo ter aut quater, ut apud nescio quem est, sed millies, et omni numero plus beatum! 1 si mihi datum esset praesenti intueri tuos vere sidereos vultus, vocemque divinam, ac divina canentem, et non solum mentis fructus, sed etiam cum aurium iucunditate sumere et haurire licuisset. Putarem profecto me quasdam immortalitatis leges, non modo de coelo, sed in ipso constitutum coelo suscipere, et quasdam Dei voces non longe de templo, sed prope ipsum Dei astantem tribunal audire. D. gratus Augustino pro accepta epistola. 2. Hoc ut mihi contingeret, propter ardentissimum tui desiderium forsitan merebar; propter conscientiam, fateor, non merebar. Sed absens quoque cepi fructus cupiditatis bonae non minimos, et est mihi de secundis bonis bonorum summa perfectio. Commendatus sum ei cui vellem, ore sanctorum et duorum locis ac regionibus inter se distantium sacerdotum; unius, quod iam dixi, de me benevolus sermo, et praesens, ut ita dicam, testimonium; alterius eiusdem sensus parilisque sententiae volantia ad te scripta concurrunt. Coronam mihi apud te quamdam, tanti ac tales viri, non viridantium florum germine, sed gloriosae vocis testimonio tamquam quibusdam perpetuitatis gemmulis texuerunt. Propter quod Deum summum oro pro te, et tuam intercessionem, sancte pater, expostulo, ut quoniam minime mihi testimonii tanti sum conscius, esse mihi talem vel quandoque proveniat. Iam illa nonne omnia absentiae meae detrimenta vicerunt, quod ipse nos alloqui, quod scribere, quod salutare dignaris, et absente me, absentem esse non pateris. Dolebam me modo post Deum non visum: attamen non carnis faciem, sic enim ais, sed quod plus est, cordis attendis; eoque visus sum tibi esse iucundior, quo penitius inspexisti. Faxit Deus, ut iudicio, mi pater, tuo respondeam, nec sim apud meam conscientiam reus, cum talem me, qualem tibi ipse formasti, interius ego non videam. Semper se navasse in bello extinguendo vel differendo. 3. Bella me in eadem divina ac coelesti epistola tua 2, ex more tibi, quod laudare velles, eloquentia ministrante, bella me, inquam, verbo ais occidere. Hic vero, mi sancte pater, animus mihi tamquam e quibusdam cogitationum tenebris, quasi veras sui laudes recognovisset, emersit. Ut enim totum breviter ac simpliciter Beatitudini tuae confitear, si non exstinximus bella, certe distulimus; et Deo opitulante omnium principe, quae iam usque ad quemdam calamitatum apicem increverant mala, sopita sunt. Spero tamen ab eo, a quo quidquid bonum est totum sperare debemus, quin etiam epistolae tuae auguror benedictionem tam largam, tam certam, ut haec ipsa bellorum, quam dixi, dilatio, pacis habeat teneatque perennem ac perpetuam firmitatem. Dixisti enim, et perpetua Dei lege fixisti, ut gaudeam isto, ut tu ais, meo tam magno ac vere bono, et fruar in Deo, unde sumpsisse me dicis, ut et talis essem, et talia gerenda susciperem. Connectis deinde: "Confirmet, inquis, Deus quod per te operatus est nobis." O vota non modo pro me, sed pro salute omnium nuncupata! Nec enim mea ista gloria separari a salute omnium potest, et ut ego orationibus tuis felix esse possim, una mecum omnes felices esse necesse est. Diu, pater, pro Romano imperio, pro Romana republica, pro his etiam, quos dignos esse tibi occurrerit, talia vota sumas ac nuncupes; quandoque te serus in coelum tollis 3, tradas posteris, mandesque sequentibus. Cupit sibi mitti Confessionum libros. 4. Satis progressus sum fortasse quam debui, sed parum locutus certe quam volui. Confiteor enim, scribens ad te vultus mihi tuos tamquam praesentis imaginor; et cum olim me sermo rudis et inops lingua deficiat, tamen quasi coram tecum colloquar fabulerque, non satior. Proinde hinc etiam nostra in te desideria metire. Cum iamdiu finem mereretur epistolaris paginae forsitan ingrata verbositas, subtrahimus verecundiam; dum cupiditati consulimus, et sermonem relinquere, esse a te recedere suspicamur. Nolo ergo non desinere, sed non possum: si enim credis, mi pater, adeo nostris sensibus ac praecordiis inhaesisti, ex quo non contenti tua fama tam gloriosa, tam maxima, scriptis te tuis intueri maluimus, cum una mihi, atque haec brevis epistola tua, ardoris tantas flammas, incendiaque commoverit. Unde deprecamur te, ac tota mente deposcimus, ut quoniam gentiles ritus te etiam legendo, ut numquam alias, abunde affatimque contempsimus (quamquam enim a parentibus, ab avis, et postrema usque gentis prole Christi iura percepimus, tamen aliquoties sensibus nostris superfluae superstitionis superba vanitas inerrabat); peto ut etiam Confessionum libros a te perscriptos, nobis mittere ac donare digneris. Si enim alii quoque, prono animo ac benigna mente, tua nobis scripta largiti sunt, quanto magis de tuis ipse excusare non debes? Abgaris regis epistola ad Christum. 5. Fertur satrapae, seu regis potius cuiusdam epistola 4: Deum Dominum Christum deprecantis, cum intra Iudaeae regiones adhuc versaretur, et necdum in coelum suum remeaverat, quoniam is ad eum ire ac pergere per aegritudinem praepediretur, et sanari aliter se posse non crederet, ad se, si dignaretur, mundi salus ac medicina decurreret; et ne tantae maiestati, quam ignarus rex provida, sed non perfecta mente, conceperat, iniuria fieri videretur, laudasse insuper suam dicitur civitatem, ut pulchritudine urbis et regis hospitio Deus illectus, preces supplicis non dedignaretur. Adfuit Deus regi; sanatus est: et amplificato petitionis munere, per epistolam non modo salutem ut supplici, sed etiam securitatem ut regi transmisit; iussit insuper eius urbem ab hostibus in perpetuum esse ac semper immunem. Quid his addi beneficiis potest? Ego humilis, et regum servus, a te meo domino peto ut apud istum Christum ac principem Deum quotidie pro meis peccatis intercedere ne cuncteris, ac pro me indefessus ores, ac petas quidquid ipse volueris. Benevoli gratique animi attestationes. 6. Si tibi taedium affert longa epistola mea, hoc tuae magnanimitatis patientia moderare, et tibi imputa, quoniam ipse iussisti. Oramus tamen, atque identidem deprecamur, ut iterum scribas; sic enim fiet ut libenter suscepisse te scripta mea suspicari possimus. Deus donet nobis Beatitudinem tuam per multos annos pro nobis orantem, domine vere sancte pater. Filius noster Verimodus salutat Beatitudinem tuam, qui admodum gratulatus est quod in epistola ad nos tua eius mentionem fecisse dignatus es. Nescio quae medicamenta ab archiatro, qui nobiscum est, accepta dedimus Lazaro sacro presbytero, ad tuam Beatitudinem deferenda; quae, ut vir memoratus affirmat, ad alleviationem doloris et morbi curationem non parum proficient.