Letter 1011: Having received your Glory's letter speaking of the passing away of the late Eutherius of magnificent memory, we give you to understand that our mind no less than yours is disturbed by such a sorrow, in that we see how men of approved repute are by degrees removed from this world, whose ruin is already evidenced in the actual effects of the caus...
Pope Gregory the Great→Clementina, Patrician|c. 590 AD|gregory great
grief deathimperial politicsproperty economics
Military conflict; Conversion/baptism
Book I, Letter 11
To Clementina, Patrician [a noblewoman of the highest rank].
Gregory to Clementina.
Your letter telling me of Eutherius's passing — a man of distinguished memory — found me grieving just as deeply as you. We watch the people worth knowing disappear from this world one by one, and it's visible everywhere: the world is coming apart at the seams. The wise course is to disengage from it ourselves, through genuine spiritual conversion, before it pulls us down in its own collapse.
The grief of losing friends should be somewhat easier to bear precisely because we knew, going in, that we would lose them — our mortality guarantees it. And the One who allowed their departure has the power to comfort us; He steps into the empty place Himself.
As for your request that I send you the deacon Anatholius — I can't, but not out of any reluctance. I've appointed him my household steward [the official managing the papal residence and its affairs], and the running of our house now rests with him.
Book I, Letter 11
To Clementina, Patrician.
Gregory to Clementina, etc.
Having received your Glory's letter speaking of the passing away of the late Eutherius of magnificent memory, we give you to understand that our mind no less than yours is disturbed by such a sorrow, in that we see how men of approved repute are by degrees removed from this world, whose ruin is already evidenced in the actual effects of the causes thereof. But it becomes us to withdraw ourselves from it by the wise precaution of conversion , lest it involve us too in its own ruin. And indeed our sorrow for the loss of friends ought to be the more tolerable as our condition of mortality requires from us that we should lose them. Nevertheless, for the loss of aid to our carnal life He Who granted permission for its removal is powerful to console, and to come Himself as a comforter into the vacant place.
That we are unable to accede to your request that the deacon Anatholius should be sent to you is due to the circumstances of the case, and not to any rigorous austerity. For we have appointed him our steward , having committed our episcopal residence to his management.
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/360201011.htm>.
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Book I, Letter 11
To Clementina, Patrician [a noblewoman of the highest rank].
Gregory to Clementina.
Your letter telling me of Eutherius's passing — a man of distinguished memory — found me grieving just as deeply as you. We watch the people worth knowing disappear from this world one by one, and it's visible everywhere: the world is coming apart at the seams. The wise course is to disengage from it ourselves, through genuine spiritual conversion, before it pulls us down in its own collapse.
The grief of losing friends should be somewhat easier to bear precisely because we knew, going in, that we would lose them — our mortality guarantees it. And the One who allowed their departure has the power to comfort us; He steps into the empty place Himself.
As for your request that I send you the deacon Anatholius — I can't, but not out of any reluctance. I've appointed him my household steward [the official managing the papal residence and its affairs], and the running of our house now rests with him.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.