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 Great→Peter, of Terracina|c. 590 AD|gregory great
barbarian invasionmonasticism
Barbarian peoples/invasions; Military conflict; Miracles & relics
Book I, Letter 56
To Peter, Subdeacon [Gregory's delegate in Sicily].
Gregory to Peter.
Being very eager to properly honor the saints' feast days, we are writing to inform you that we have arranged, with the Lord's help, to dedicate with full solemnity in August the Chapel of the Blessed Mary, recently built in the monastic house where Abbot Marinianus presides, so that what we have begun may be completed through God's work.
Since the poverty of that house requires our assistance for the celebration, we direct you to provide the following for the dedication, to be distributed to the poor: ten solidi in gold, thirty amphorae [large jars] of wine, two hundred lambs, two orcae [containers] of oil, twelve rams, and one hundred hens. These may be charged to your accounts afterward. Arrange this without any delay, so that our wishes, God granting, may be quickly fulfilled.
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.
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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>.
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Book I, Letter 56
To Peter, Subdeacon [Gregory's delegate in Sicily].
Gregory to Peter.
Being very eager to properly honor the saints' feast days, we are writing to inform you that we have arranged, with the Lord's help, to dedicate with full solemnity in August the Chapel of the Blessed Mary, recently built in the monastic house where Abbot Marinianus presides, so that what we have begun may be completed through God's work.
Since the poverty of that house requires our assistance for the celebration, we direct you to provide the following for the dedication, to be distributed to the poor: ten solidi in gold, thirty amphorae [large jars] of wine, two hundred lambs, two orcae [containers] of oil, twelve rams, and one hundred hens. These may be charged to your accounts afterward. Arrange this without any delay, so that our wishes, God granting, may be quickly fulfilled.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.