To Venantius and Italica, on Sickness and the Nearness of the End

Gregory to the lord Venantius, patrician, and Italica his wife. [a]

I have taken care, with fitting affection, to ask some people who have come from Sicily about your excellency’s health. But they have given me a sad report of how often you are ill. Now, when I say this, I find nothing to tell you about myself either, except that, for my sins, for eleven months now it has been very rare for me to be able to get up from my bed, even now and then. For I am afflicted with such great pains of gout, and such great troubles, that my life is the most grievous pain to me. For every day I faint under my sufferings, and sigh as I wait for the relief of death. Indeed, among the clergy and people of this city there has been such an outbreak of fevers that hardly any free man, hardly any slave, is left fit for any office or service. Moreover, from the neighboring cities we have news every day of devastation and of deaths. Then, how Africa is being wasted by death and sickness, I believe you know more exactly than we do, since you are nearer to it. And those who come from the East report still more grievous desolation. In the midst of all these things, then, since you see that a blow is falling on everyone as the end of the world draws near, you ought not to be too much distressed over your own troubles. But, as befits wise nobles, bring your whole heart back to the care of your souls, and fear the strict judgment all the more as it is so much nearer at hand. Give yourselves to piety, of which it is written that “it holds promise for the life that now is, and for the life to come” (First Timothy 4, verse 8). But Almighty God is able both to preserve the life of your excellency here for a long time, and to bring you after many years to eternal joys. I ask that my most sweet daughters, the lady Barbara and the lady Antonina, be greeted in my name. I pray that heavenly grace may protect them and grant them to prosper in all things.