[Context: Milret was probably coadjutor to Bishop Wilfrith, who ruled over what is now Worcester and Gloucester. In 754 or 755 he visited Boniface and Lull in Germany and had not long returned home when he heard of the news of Boniface's martyrdom. He died in 775.]
To the kindly and beloved master in Christ, Bishop Lull, Milret, a servant of those who serve God.
After I had been obliged to leave your company and the presence of the holy father Boniface and returned by the aid of your prayers to my native land through c divers accidents and many adventures, hardly a year had passed when the sad news was brought to us that our blessed father had passed from the prison of the flesh to the world above. We may well call this sad tidings. And yet when we have been permitted to send before us such an advocate to heaven we have every confidence that we are supported by God's help and by his holy intercession. Though we lament with bitter tears the comfort we have lost in this life, yet he who is now consecrated a martyr to Christ by F the shedding of his blood, the glory and crown of all those whom this country has sent forth, soothes and relieves our saddened hearts by his blessed life, by the fulfilment of his noble work and hiss glorious end. We mourn our fate, hungering in this vale of tears, in this life filled with temptations. He, his pilgrimage accomplished with mighty effort, attained to a glorious death as martyr of Christ and now sits in glory in the heavenly Jerusalem to be, as I believe, a faithfullg intercessor for our sins, if God's grace together with Christ and the holy citizens of heaven permit. So much I write of our loving father. I beg you earnestly to send me an account of his venerable life and his glorious end.
One other thing occurs to me to say, seeing that we are close friends. I humbly beg of you, as if I were kneeling at your feet, to cherish in your heart not only as a passing memory but permanently that fraternal love which our r common father Boniface, of blessed memory, impressed upon us with his words in the love of Christ, uniting us in his gracious utterances. I am sure that it will, beyond all doubt, profit both you and me if we strive to carry out the precepts of so eminent a teacher.
Do not hesitate, loving master, to instruct me, the least deserving of your brethren, in brotherly love; fortify me by your precepts and assist me with your prayers. I pledge myself to follow faithfully and willingly all your directions in all things as far as I am able, and I promise, as God is my witness, to maintain that firm friendship as long as the spirit governs these limbs and the breath of life dwells in these mortal members. I pray with all my strength that with Christ's help the Scripture - may be fulfilled: "They had all things in common."
What I have briefly set down I am sending to you verbally and more fully by the bearers of this letter, should Almighty God prosper their journey.
I have sent you some trifling gifts which I beg you to accept in the same affectionate spirit in which they are given.
May Christ protect you in your loving intercession for my sons.
The book I cannot send, because Bishop Cuthbert [of Canterbury] has not yet returned it.
God be with us.
Source.
C. H. Talbot, The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany, Being the Lives of SS. Willibrord, Boniface, Leoba and Lebuin together with the Hodoepericon of St. Willibald and a selection from the correspondence of St. Boniface , (London and New York: Sheed and Ward, 1954)
Page numbers are from the Talbot edition.
The copyright status of this text has been checked carefully. The situation is complicated, but in sum is as follows. The book was published in 1954 by Sheed & Ward, apparently simultaneously, in both London and New York. The American-printed edition simply gave 'New York' as place of publication, the British-printed edition gave 'London and New York'. Copyright was not renewed in 1982 or 1983, as required by US Law. The recent GATT treaty (1995?) restored copyright to foreign publications which had entered US public domain simply because copyright had not be renewed in accordance with US law. This GATT provision does not seem to apply to this text because it was published simultaneously in the US and Britain by a publisher operating in both countries (a situation specifically addressed in the GATT regulations). Thus, while still under copyright protection in much of the world, the text remains in the US public domain.
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