To the holy and most blessed and apostolic lord, first of all priests in the whole world, Pope Vigilius, Arator the subdeacon sends greeting. Beholding the fires of war upon the wave-beset walls, I was then part of the people that dreaded the weapons. You come, O Vigilius, most holy pope, as public liberty, to loose the chains for the enclosed flock. From the swords the sheep are snatched, with the shepherd ministering, and we are borne upon pious shoulders, at your recall. It is enough thus to have escaped bodily peril, yet for me a greater salvation of the soul is born thereby. Shipwrecked, I enter the Church, having left the hall; I forsake the treacherous sails of the worldly sea. I am carried over, without storm, to the snow-white folds of Peter, and now I enjoy the station of the longed-for soil.
That one prepared a curve of shore for our sails, he for whom in the midst of the waves there was a dry path. I shall be guilty if I cease to render thanks: by the gratitude of one, the nine gave displeasure. An ardor is in my senses to celebrate the labors of those by whose voice faith obtains the world's journeying. In verses therefore I shall sing the acts which Luke recounted, and, following the history, I shall speak true songs. In alternating measures I shall set forth what the letter reveals, and any mystical matter, if it be granted to my heart. The power of meter is not unknown to the sacred books; lyric feet composed the Psalter; they say that in their original tongue the Canticles, the laments of Jeremiah, and the sayings of Job too consist of hexameter sounds.
When I offer you this gift of love, O great Father, consider that I am paying the debt owed to your merits. With you as my leader I, a raw recruit, am enrolled; with you as my master I learn the teachings; if anything from my lips please, the praise shall belong to my counselor.