Letter 120
Polianus has returned to us and reported the favors he received, and both he and I are grateful. Now, heading back to you again, he was eager to bring a letter -- not because he doesn't already stand high enough in your regard to mention other people's names with confidence, but because he knows that letters from me put you in a good mood, and he was afraid he'd be punished for not bringing one.
So I gave it gladly, for both reasons: to bring you some pleasure and to spare my friend a penalty.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
1. Your letter, dear friend, finds me dwelling in that quarter of the desert which is nearest to Syria and the Saracens. And the reading of it rekindles in my mind so keen a desire to set out for Jerusalem that I am almost ready to violate my monastic vow in order to gratify my affection.
Sent to Florentius along with the preceding letter, which Jerome requests him to deliver to Rufinus. This Florentius was a rich Italian who had retired to Jerusalem to pursue the monastic life. Jerome subsequently speaks of him as a distinguished monk so pitiful to the needy that he was generally known as the father of the poor.