These are the gifts we bring you, dear shepherds. These are the people we present to you, and with them we welcome our friends, our guests, and our fellow travelers. We had nothing more beautiful or splendid to offer you, so from all we possessed we sought out the greatest. We wanted you to know that although we are strangers here, we are not in need: we are poor, yet we make many rich.
If these things are small and not worth speaking about, I would like to know what is greater and more worthy of attention. This city is the eye of the inhabited world, foremost on both land and sea, a kind of link between East and West. The farthest regions converge on it from every direction, and from it they set out again, as from a common marketplace of the faith. It is shaken by so many voices coming from every side. If establishing it and strengthening it with sound teaching is no great thing, then it is hard to see what else could count as great or worth serious effort.
But if this achievement deserves praise, then allow us some share in the honor. We too contributed something to what you now see.