Letters379 Letter CCCLXXIX. I » to the same. (A.D. 1149)

He entreats Suger to come to the help of a certain Abbot who is in want.

To his lord and very dear father SUGER, by the grace of God the Reverend Abbot of S. Denys, Brother BERNARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, health and his devoted prayers in Christ.

I send a poor Abbot to a rich one, that the need of the one may be relieved out of the abundance of the other. In so doing I yield to you the better part, according to that saying of the Truth that it is better to give than to receive (Acts xx. 35). Nor do I doubt that you would extend your bounty willingly and liberally to this one of the poor of Christ if you knew, as I do, his piety and probity, and the extreme necessity in which he is. He is burdened with debts, and he has not bread to eat, because his fields have produced only noxious herbs instead of grain. As your districts have not been stricken with the same sterility, I beg and entreat you of your charity to assist him, and you may be assured that whatever you shall be pleased to bestow upon him could not be devoted to a better object.