Letter 28

From: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan To: Sabinus, Bishop of Piacenza Date: ~385 AD Context: A personal letter to his close friend Sabinus, apologizing for a delayed reply and discussing the burdens of episcopal office with rare candor. Ambrose to his dear brother Sabinus — greetings. Forgive the delay in writing back. You know the demands of this office — or rather, you know your own demands, and mine are worse, since Milan never sleeps and neither does its bishop. I received your letter with the joy I always feel when I hear from you, and with the guilt I always feel when I realize how long I have taken to respond. You chided me gently for my silence. I accept the rebuke. A friend who stops writing has stopped being present, and I never wish to be absent from you, even when distance makes physical presence impossible. You ask how I am bearing up. The honest answer: some days well, some days poorly. The Arian controversy has quieted for the moment, but the court remains unpredictable, and the administrative burdens of this see would exhaust a younger man. I sometimes envy the monks their silence, the hermits their solitude, and you your smaller but more manageable diocese. But self-pity is an unbecoming vice in a bishop, so I will move on. Tell me about Piacenza. Are your clergy behaving? Are your poor being fed? Is your health holding? These are the things I care about, and the things you never tell me because you are too busy asking about Milan. I am sending with this letter a small gift — nothing of value, just a token of affection. Friends exchange gifts not because they need them but because the exchange itself is a language, and some things are said better with objects than with words. Write soon, brother. Your letters are the best part of my correspondence — and given the volume of correspondence I receive, that is no small compliment. In Christ, farewell.

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