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English Correspondence

St Boniface, tr. Kylie, 1911

Letter 32: Boniface Asks Huetberht, Abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow, to Send Him the Works…

To the most beloved and revered brother Abbot Huetberht and all the brothers of his holy congregation, Boniface, poor servant of the servants of God, greetings of fraternal love in Christ.

With the most earnest entreaties, we ask of your fraternal piety that you aid us with your holy prayers, while we toil among the wild and ignorant people of Germany and plant the gospel-seed, so that by your prayers the cruel rage of Babylonian fire may be quenched in us and the seed scattered in the furrows may spring up and multiply in the harvest. In the words of the apostle: “Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase; that utterance may be given unto us and the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified.”¹

Meanwhile we ask that you should deign to send us copies of the works of the monk Bede, that wise investigator of the Scriptures, who, as we have heard, through his knowledge of the Scriptures, but lately shone among you a candle of the church in the house of the Lord. We ask you also, if it is not too much trouble, to send a cloak, a great comfort in our exile. We have sent you as a token of deep affection some reading-desks of goat’s-horn, as they call them here. These, though they are unworthy, we beg of you to accept for memory’s sake.

May the merciful Trinity and one God keep you well, and advancing in virtue; and may He make you glorious in happiness to come, among the bright ranks of the angels.

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