Hormisdas, Saint: Epistola ad Caesarium Arelatensem

This short letter of Pope Hormisdas (pope 514–523) is addressed to his dearest brother Caesarius, that is Caesarius, bishop of Arles. The pope rejoices that Caesarius’s zeal for religion is so vigorous that he is never content with what he has done but always adds more, citing the Psalmist’s words ‘I will add to all your praise’: true love is not satisfied with services rendered, and charity counts itself lacking unless the fervour of love overflows. God, who sees the secrets of the heart, wishes his servants to bring hidden devotion into the open.

The second part of the letter grants Caesarius’s request concerning the consecrated virgins of his foundation, applying Paul’s words about presenting the Church as a chaste virgin to Christ, and decrees by apostolic authority that no bishop is to infringe the arrangements made. It thus belongs to the papal privileges for the convent that Caesarius founded at Arles, one of the earliest monastic foundations for women in Gaul. The text is brief, but it documents relations between Rome and the see of Arles in the early sixth century.