Letter 9025: It pleases me that Your Greatness has noticed my devotion.

25. Ennodius to Agnella. It is pleasing to me to deliver to your Greatness the gifts of a letter, because to your lineage and to your conscience this honor is not so much shown as repaid. It is just that a man of religious purpose, being nobly born, should venerate a holy and noble widow. I give thanks to my God, because the good fragrance of your reputation has flowed out even to us; may he grant that fruit even to the consummation of your life, who has planted a good root in this worldly manner of living. You have done well, lady Agnella, to spurn the allurements of this world, and, while you pursue loftier things, not to keep even those things which might have come to you from lawful remedies: you have known how to seek not only pardon but a crown. Let the ailing rejoice over the medicine: it is near at hand that he should be next to wholeness to whom it is granted to unlearn enticements happily. Therefore, my lady, paying you the grace and honor of a greeting, I ask that on behalf of me, your friend and kinsman, you do not cease to make supplication at the thresholds of the apostles, that I may deserve to keep what I proclaim, and that I myself may not neglect what I extol in others.

XXV. ENNODIVS AGNELLAE. Gratum mihi est ad magnitudinem uestram litterarum munera promulgare, quia et generi et conscientiae uestrae non tam exhibetur honor iste quam redditur. iustum eat ut religiosi homo propositi sanctam niduam et nobilem ueneretur ingenuus. ago deo meo gratias, quia bonus opinionis uestrae ad nos odor emanauit ille usque ad consummationem uitae fructus tribuat qui bonam radicem in hac saeculi conuersatione plantauit. bene fecisti, domna Agnella, mundi istius blandimenta respuere, et dum celsiora sequeris, etiam quae potuerunt uenire a legitimis remediis non habere: scisti non solum ueniam quaerere sed coronam. gaudeant de medicina languentes: prope est ut proximus sit integritati cui conceditur, ut feliciter dediscat inlecebras. ergo, domina mi, salutationis gratiam honorificentiamque persoluens rogo, ut pro me amico et parente tuo apostolorum liminibus non desinas subplicare, ut merear seruare quod praedico et quod in aliis extollo ipse non neglegam.