Letter 309

309. Without address, concerning a man in need

I thoroughly disapproved when this brother grew anxious about the registration of his estate, seeing that he has already received the exemption he needs from his very poverty. For from a life of plenty he has now been reduced—the Lord having so ordered it for the good of his soul—to the utmost poverty, so that he scarcely has even his daily food in sufficiency, and is master of not a single slave, out of the many he formerly held under his own authority. To this man only his body is left, and that too feeble and aged, as you yourself can see, and three children, an addition to the cares of a poor man.

That he had no need of our intercession, having in his poverty enough to move compassion through the kindliness of your character, I knew well. But since those who make requests are hard to satisfy, I was afraid that something owed to him might be left wanting, and so I have written, knowing that the day on which he first sees your dignity will become for him the beginning of a happy life for the time thereafter, and will give some better change to his affairs.