Letter 1056: Being exceedingly desirous of observing the festivals of saints, we have thought it needful to address this our letter of direction to your Experience, informing you that we have arranged for the dedication with all solemnity, with the help of the Lord, in the month of August, of the Oratory of the Blessed Mary lately built in the cell of brethr...

Pope Gregory the GreatPeter, of Terracina|c. 590 AD|Pope Gregory the Great
barbarian invasionmonasticism
Barbarian peoples/invasions; Military conflict; Miracles & relics

Book I, Letter 56

To Peter, Subdeacon.

Gregory to Peter, etc.

Being exceedingly desirous of observing the festivals of saints, we have thought it needful to address this our letter of direction to your Experience, informing you that we have arranged for the dedication with all solemnity, with the help of the Lord, in the month of August, of the Oratory of the Blessed Mary lately built in the cell of brethren where the abbot Marinianus is known to preside, to the end that what we have begun may through the Lord's operation be completed. But, inasmuch as the poverty of that cell requires that we should assist in that day of festival, we therefore desire you to give for celebrating the dedication, to be distributed to the poor, ten solidi in gold, thirty amphoræ of wine, two hundred lambs, two orcæ of oil, twelve wethers, and a hundred hens, which may be afterwards charged in your accounts. Provide therefore for this being done at once without any delay, that our desires, God granting it, may take speedy effect.

About this page
Source. Translated by James Barmby. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 12. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/360201056.htm>.

Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

Related Letters

Avitus of ViennePeter, of Terracinac. 497 · avitus vienne #2007

Avitus, bishop of Vienne, to Peter, bishop of Ravenna.

Pope Gregory the GreatPeter, of Terracinac. 590 · gregory great #1035

Joseph, a Jew, the bearer of these presents, has informed us that, the Jews dwelling in the camp of Terracina having been accustomed to assemble in a certain place for celebrating their festivities, your Fraternity had expelled them thence, and that they had migrated, and this with your knowledge and consent, to another place for in like manner ...

Pope Gregory the GreatPeter, of Terracinac. 592 · gregory great #3005

As we have no wish to disturb the privileges of laymen in their judgments, so, when they judge wrongfully, we desire you to resist them with moderate authority. For to restrain violent laymen is not to act against the laws, but to support law. Since then Deusdedit, the son-in-law of Felix of Orticellum, is said to have done violent wrong to the ...

Pope Gregory the GreatPeter, of Terracinac. 590 · gregory great #1072

You have learned from a former letter that we have desired our brethren and fellow bishops dwelling in the island of Sicily to assemble here for the anniversary of the blessed Peter the apostle. But, seeing that their suit with the magnificent Justin the ex-prætor has meanwhile hindered them, and that there is not now sufficient time for comin...

Pope Gregory the GreatPeter, of Terracinac. 592 · gregory great #3035

Our brother and fellow bishop Paul has often requested us to allow him to return to his own church. And, having perceived this to be reasonable, we have thought it needful to accede to his petition. Consequently let your Experience convene the clergy of the Neapolitan church, to the end that they may choose two or three of their number, and not ...