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...
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.
Human translation — New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
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