Heloise to Peter the Venerable

Abstract

With a visitation of God’s mercy, we have received the favor of a visit from your excellency. We rejoice, most gracious father, and we glory in the fact that your greatness should have descended to our smallness. For a visit from you is a great glory even for the greatest. Others may know what a blessing your sublime presence has conferred upon them. As for myself, I cannot put into words, or even comprehend in thought, how beneficial and delightful your coming was to me. Our abbot and our lord, on November 16 (16 kal. Decembris) last year, you celebrated here a mass in which you commended us to the Holy Spirit. You nourished our spirits in chapter with a funeral oration of divine eloquence. You gave us the body of our master and so yielded to us the distinction belonging to Cluny.