<LETTER OF PASCHASIUS TO EUGIPPIUS>
To the presbyter Eugippius, his holy and ever beloved lord, Paschasius the deacon
1. My beloved brother in Christ, You measure us by your skill in eloquence and by the happiness of your leisure, and shut your eyes to the bitterness of the many pursuits of sinners; in doing so you inflict on me a loss of modesty by your loving contemplation. 2. You have sent me your memorandum. There is nothing that could be added to it by the eloquence of a learned man. You have compressed in a short compass a work worthy to be placed before the whole Church. You have made known truthfully the life and character of blessed Severin, who lived in the provinces bordering on the Pannoniae, and you have handed down to posterity the memory of the miracles which the power of God has worked through him and which will last for all time-the works of the pious cannot perish with their age. You have done this in such a way that all those to whom the reading of your report brings him can see him, as it were, present and, in some way, experience his company. 3. And, therefore, since you have told with greater simplicity, and ex- plained more gracefully than I could do what you ask me to relate, I believe that nothing can be added to your work by our effort.
In what follows, Paschasius discusses how useful providing of the examples of the saints is for the church.
(trans. L. Bieler 1965: 101-02)
