A Plea for the Dead

In magna tamen tribulatione me constitutum scias, et, ac si sis meum praeseus, sic charitatis pristinae reminsicor die ac nocte. Deus solus scit. Et ideo peto ut annuas desiderio meo et mecum doleas in morte sororis meae, quae cecidit in hac vastatione a Christo. Sacrificavit enim et exacerbavit Dominum nostrum. Quod nobis manifestum videtur. Pro ejus factis ego in hac die laetitiae Paschae flens die ac nocte, in cilicio et cinere lacrymabundus dies exegi et exigo usque in hodiernum, donec auxilium Domini nostri Jesu Christi et pietas per te vel per eos dominos meos qui coronati fuerint, a quibus postulaturus es ut veniam habeant nefanda naufragia. Memoratus sum enim charitatis tuae pristinae, quod cum omnibus doleas pro sororibus nostris, quas et tu bene nosti, id est Numeria et Candida; pro quarum peccato, quia nos fratres habent, debemus excubare. Credo enim Christum secundum earum poenitentiam et opera, quae penes collegas nostros fecerunt extorres, qui a vobis venerunt, a quibus ipsis de operibus eorum audies, jam Christum eis, vobis martyribus suis petentibus, indulturum. Audivi enim te floridiorum ministerium percepisse. O te felicem, suspicere vota tua quae semper desiderasti vel in terra dormiens. Optasti pro nomine illius in carcerem mitti; quod nunc tibi contigit, sicut scriptum est: Det tibi Dominus secundum cor tuum. Et nunc super ipsos factus antistes Dei recognovit idem minister. Rogo itaque, domine, et peto per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum ut caeteris collegis tuis, fratribus tuis, meis dominis referas, et ab eis petas ut quicumque prior vestrum coronatus fuerit, istis sororibus nostris Numeriae et Candidae tale peccatum remittant. Nam hanc ipsam Etecusam semper appellavi, testis est nobis Deus, qui pro se dona numeravit ne sacrificaret; sed tantum ascendisse videtur usque ad Tria Fata, et inde descendisse. Hanc ergo non sacrificasse ego scio. Quarum jam causa audita, praeceperunt eas praeposisti tantisper sic esse donec epsicopus constitiuatur. Sed quatenus per vestras sanctas orationes et petitiones, in quas nos fidimus, quoniam estis amici sed et testes Christi, quod omnia indulgeatis. Epistola Celerini ad Lucianum

Know, however, that I am gravely troubled, and that, as if you were present with me, I remember your former love day and night, God only knows, and therefore that I seek that you will grant my desire and that with me you will lament the death of my sister who has fallen from Christ in this present devastation. She has sacrificed and provoked our Lord, it seems manifest to us. For her deeds on this joyous Paschal I am weeping day and night, and in sackcloth and tears I have exhausted days, and I do so even to today, until the aid of our Lord Jesus Christ, through your piety, or through those my lords who have been crowned, from whom you will request it, shall come to the help of a terrible shipwreck. I am mindful of your former love, that with everyone you will grieve for our sisters whom you also knew so well, that is, Numeria and Candida, for whose sin, because they have us as brothers, we ought to have care. Indeed I believe that Christ, according to their repentance and the works which they have done for our exiled colleagues who came from you, those from whom you will hear of their works, will have mercy upon them, with you, His martyrs, petitioning. I have heard that you have received the ministry of those who flourish. O happy you, to receive your wishes that you have always desired, even sleeping on the ground. You have yearned to be sent into prison for His name, that which now has befallen you, as it is written: 'May The Lord give according to your heart.' And now made a priest of God over them, the same minister has acknowledged it. I ask, therefore lord, and beseech by our Lord Jesus Christ, that you will refer this to the rest of your colleagues, your brothers, my lords, and ask from them, that whichever of you is first crowned, should absolve from such a sin our sisters, Numeria and Candida. For the latter, God is our witness, I have always called Etecusa, that is, and excused, because she would give gifts for herself that she might not sacrifice, and she appears only to have gone up to the Three Fates and then descended. I know, therefore, that she did not sacrifice. Their case was recently heard, and they were ordered to to remain as they are for the present, until a bishop is appointed, but until then, by your holy prayers and petitions, in which we trust, because you are friends and witnesses of Christ, be merciful in all this. Letter of Celerinus to Lucianus