34. And in the last years of his life, when he was already an old man and broken by his labors, he humbly wrote the following to Stephen II, recently elected Supreme Pontiff: "With all my heart and all my strength I plead for Your Holiness' clemency, that I may be deserving to obtain from your gracious mercy the favor of being intimately united with the Holy Apostolic See and that among the disciples of Your Holiness, in the service of the Apostolic See, I may remain your faithful and devoted servant, just as I have been of three of your predecessors."³⁸