Letter 31
You ask what I'm up to. I'm waiting day by day for letters — the kind your present position now promises and your affection has always delivered. I'm pleased with how things stand: my enemy has been left with no ground to stand on, and meanwhile I can promise a well-deserved fortune for you, whose success I always wish for.
So since events have taken this turn and anxieties have given way to relief, let me enjoy the fruit of your much-desired letter — one that lifts my spirits and shows that, after such a long friendship, you genuinely long for my company. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
I know you will often write, Here is another Cappadocian for you! I expect that you will send me many. I am sure that you are everywhere putting pressure on both fathers and sons by all your complimentary expressions about me.
An effort having been made to convert Marcella to Montanism, Jerome here summarizes for her its leading doctrines, which he contrasts with those of the Church. Written at Rome in 385 A.D. 1.
A commentary on Ps. XLV. addressed to Marcella's friend and companion Principia (see Letter CXXVII.).