Letter 2026: Inasmuch as we have enjoined on our brother and fellow bishop Paulus the work of the visitation of the Neapolitan church, therefore let not Fraternity shrink from assuming the visitation of the Nepesine Church, to the end that, according to the requirements of the Paschal festivity, whatever the solemnity of divine service demands may, through y...

Pope Gregory the GreatJohn of Jerusalem|c. 591 AD|gregory great
Personal friendship

Book II, Letter 26

To John, Bishop [of Nepi, a town north of Rome].

Gregory to John.

Since we have assigned our brother Bishop Paul to oversee the Neapolitan church, let Your Fraternity not hesitate to take on the oversight of the church of Nepi [a town in central Italy north of Rome]. The Easter season's requirements demand that whatever the solemnity of divine worship calls for be fully carried out through your efforts.

Until we can decide what should be done regarding our brother Bishop Paul, let Your Fraternity prove yourself so skillful and attentive in all things that the bishop's absence is not felt at all.

The month of April; the tenth Indiction [592 AD].

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

Related Letters

Pope Gregory the GreatJohn of Jerusalemc. 595 · gregory great #6015

Gregory to John, Bishop of Constantinople. As the pravity of heretics is to be repressed by the zeal of a right faith, so the integrity of a true confession is to be embraced. For, if one who declares himself sound in the faith is scorned, the faith of all is brought into doubt, and fatal errors are generated from inconsiderate strictness.

Pope Gregory the GreatJohn of Jerusalemc. 590 · gregory great #1012

Agapitus, abbot of the monastery of St. George, informs us that he endures many grievances from your Holiness; and not only in things that might be of service to the monastery in time of need, but that you even prohibit the celebration of masses in the said monastery, and also interdict burial of the dead there. Now, if this is so, we exhort you...

Pope Gregory the GreatJohn of Jerusalemc. 599 · gregory great #9012

One coming from Sicily has told me that some friends of his, whether Greeks or Latins I know not, as though moved by zeal for the holy Roman Church, murmur about my arrangements [i.e. of divine service], saying, How can he be arranging so as to keep the Constantinopolitan Church in check, when in all respects he follows her usage? And, when I sa...

Pope Gregory the GreatJohn of Jerusalemc. 594 · gregory great #5011

I find that your Fraternity is greatly distressed on account of being forbidden by the censure of reason to wear the pallium in litanies. But through the most excellent Patrician, and through the most eminent Prefect, and through other noble men of your city, you have urgently requested to have this allowed you. Now we, having made careful enqui...

Pope Gregory the GreatJohn of Jerusalemc. 592 · gregory great #3006

Gregory to John, bishop of Prima Justiniana. After the long afflictions which Adrian, bishop of the city of Thebæ, has endured from his fellow priests, as though they had been his enemies, he has fled for refuge to the Roman city. And though his first representation had been against John, bishop of Larissa, to wit that in pecuniary causes he had...