Letter 37: It is indeed established and prescribed by Gelasius's own orders that no one in a church or oratory not dedicated...
Pope Gelasius I to John, Bishop of Sora (495).
It is indeed established and prescribed by Gelasius's own orders that no one in a church or oratory not dedicated with the permission of the apostolic see is to be thought worthy of a public procession, and that donors may not use crafty usurpations to slip past the established rules. However, because the matter of Magetia concerns the commemoration of the dead and not a public procession, Gelasius grants permission for divine offices to be celebrated in the oratory of Magetia, a lady of spectabilis rank, for the repose of the dead, provided there is no public procession.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
--m] Gelasii papae acl Johannem episcopum Soranum.
Ut in oratorio quodojn Magetuie feminae spectabitis defunctorum nondne eHvina p.i
celebrentur officia , sed publica frequentatione et processione cessanie , indadffei.
Gelasius papa Johanni episcopo Sorano^).
Certum est quidem et nostris praeceptionibus constitutum, ne
quis in ecclesia aut in oratorio, quod sedis nostrae non legitur per-
missione dedicatum, processionem publicam putaret impendi, ne con-
ditores furtivis subreptionibus contra regularum statuta prosilirent.
Sed quia Magetia-) spectabilis femina petitorii nobis oblatione sug-
gessit, in possessionibus propriis suonmi corpuscula condidisse; frater
carissimC; humanitatis intuitu, quod priora statuta non maculef)
funeribus et sepulcris, tantum in comprehensis petitorio locis mini-
steria noveris pro soUemnitate prae^tanda, ut defunctorum nomine
solummodo divina celebrentur officia, publica frequentatione et pro-
cessione cessante. Data^) Idibus Aprilis.
Revision history
- 2026-03-20v2.1.0-import
Initial corpus import from Unreviewed source import.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/epistolaeromano00thiegoog
Related Letters
Two clergymen of the church of Grumentum — Silvester and Faustinianus — have tearfully complained to Gelasius that...
A similar decree concerning two serfs of Maxima, an illustrious and magnificent lady, who have been ordained as...
Trusting in the most sincere love with which you honor me in the Lord — not for my merits but from the goodness of...
The solicitude I feel for you, which grows daily through the bond of kinship that links my affection to yours, would...
The grandeur you avoid in your letters you possess by nature.