Although the very person of the venerable bearer commends himself to minds by a fraternal charity, nevertheless the holy bishop Maximianus has asked that this page of my duty be more particularly directed to you; through which it is manifest that I ought rather to be commended by him than he by me. And because he has deigned to bid me lay open his necessities by my speech, I have undertaken to say nothing of the labour of his pilgrimage; for however much, by length of times or vastness of journey, one may leave the dwelling of his native land, a priest cannot be called a stranger where the catholic Church can be found. Although neither ought that subversion of his region to be exaggerated to you as though unknown;
since your piety, which everywhere seeks the approaches of mercy, is not unaware where the place of misery is. Yet his principal cause of coming, so far as he deigns to assert, is that he may seek out anywhere a more skilled physician, who by the art of some remedy may succour the weakness of his bodily eyes. Although the gaze of a religious mind, being more occupied in contemplating spiritual things, and not overly terrified by the blindness of the outer man, seeks this care, so far as I have learned, with such moderation that he strives rather to satisfy those who love him in the necessity of this pursuit; and at the same time lest, through the fault of health neglected, the capacity of the priestly office should seem blamably diminished in him.
But the hope of recovering his sight, so far as I judge, he seeks also from an example: namely, that a hidden medicine within an angel restored our Tobias (Tobit 11:13-15) — who was indeed dimmed as to earthly things, but beheld the things that were invisible to the world, intent upon the eternal light, and already almost forgetful of himself as mortal — by a salve of gall, back to the sweetness of one being healed. Wherefore receive the brother with the reverence due to your accustomed sincerity: and if any consolation is owed to a holy man, bestow it. But the common desire will be fulfilled if some remedy also come to his infirmity. Which if it come short, let at least the incorruptible countenance of a mutual piety be recognized by the eye of a priestly conscience, subject to no blindness.