Letter 1067: If with kind disposition we meet the needs of our neighbours by showing compassion, we shall undoubtedly find the Lord mercifully inclined to our petitions. Now we have learned that Pastor, who labours under exceeding weakness of sight, having a wife and two slaves, who also had formerly been with the glorious lady Jonatha, is suffering from gre...
Pope Gregory the Great→Peter, of Terracina|c. 590 AD|gregory great
barbarian invasionslavery captivitywomen
Barbarian peoples/invasions; Slavery or captivity; Military conflict
Book I, Letter 67
To Peter, Subdeacon [Gregory's delegate in Sicily].
Gregory to Peter.
If we meet our neighbors' needs with a compassionate spirit, we will surely find the Lord merciful toward our own prayers. We have learned that Pastor, who suffers from extreme weakness of sight and has a wife and two servants (who formerly served the distinguished lady Jonatha), is in great need.
We therefore direct you by this order to provide him without delay with three hundred modii [large measures] of wheat and the same quantity of beans for his sustenance. These may be charged to your accounts afterward. Act so that you may both earn the reward for your service and carry out our orders.
In the month of August.
Book I, Letter 67
To Peter, Subdeacon.
Gregory to Peter, etc.
If with kind disposition we meet the needs of our neighbours by showing compassion, we shall undoubtedly find the Lord mercifully inclined to our petitions. Now we have learned that Pastor, who labours under exceeding weakness of sight, having a wife and two slaves, who also had formerly been with the glorious lady Jonatha, is suffering from great need. Wherefore, we admonish your Experience, by the writing of this present order, not to delay giving him for his sustenance three hundred modii of wheat, and also as many modii of beans, which may afterwards be charged in your accounts. So act, then, as both yourself to obtain the benefit of reward for your good service, and to carry our orders into effect. In the month of August.
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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/360201067.htm>.
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Book I, Letter 67
To Peter, Subdeacon [Gregory's delegate in Sicily].
Gregory to Peter.
If we meet our neighbors' needs with a compassionate spirit, we will surely find the Lord merciful toward our own prayers. We have learned that Pastor, who suffers from extreme weakness of sight and has a wife and two servants (who formerly served the distinguished lady Jonatha), is in great need.
We therefore direct you by this order to provide him without delay with three hundred modii [large measures] of wheat and the same quantity of beans for his sustenance. These may be charged to your accounts afterward. Act so that you may both earn the reward for your service and carry out our orders.
In the month of August.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.