Letter 6007: Gregory to Candidus, Presbyter, going to the patrimony of Gaul. Now that you are proceeding, with the help of our Lord God Jesus Christ, to the government of the patrimony that is in Gaul, we desire your Love to procure with the money you may receive clothing for the poor, or English boys of about seventeen or eighteen years of age, who may prof...
Pope Gregory the Great→Candidus, Presbyter|c. 595 AD|gregory great
illnessmonasticismproperty economics
Conversion/baptism; Trade & commerce
Gregory to Candidus, priest, departing for the patrimony in Gaul. As you proceed with the help of our Lord God Jesus Christ to take charge of the Church estates in Gaul, I want you to use whatever funds you receive to purchase clothing for the poor and English boys of about seventeen or eighteen years of age who may benefit from being placed in monasteries to serve God. This way, the revenue from Gaul that cannot be transferred to our own country can be put to good use where it is collected. If you also manage to obtain anything from the funds classified as ablata, use that money too for clothing for the poor or for acquiring boys who can be dedicated to the service of Almighty God. Since the boys available there are likely pagans, I want you to send a priest along with them on the journey, so that if anyone falls gravely ill on the way, the priest can baptize them before they die. Act on this without delay.
Book VI, Letter 7
To Candidus, Presbyter.
Gregory to Candidus, Presbyter, going to the patrimony of Gaul.
Now that you are proceeding, with the help of our Lord God Jesus Christ, to the government of the patrimony that is in Gaul, we desire your Love to procure with the money you may receive clothing for the poor, or English boys of about seventeen or eighteen years of age, who may profit by being given to God in monasteries, that so the money of Gaul, which cannot be spent in our country , may be expended profitably in its own locality. Further, if you should succeed in getting anything from the moneys accruing to revenue which are called ablatæ , from this too we desire you to procure clothing for the poor, or, as we have before said, boys who may profit in the service of Almighty God. But, since such as can be found there are pagans, I desire that a presbyter be sent hither with them to provide against the case of any sickness occurring on the way, that he may baptize those whom he sees to be about to die. Wherefore let your Love so proceed as to lose no time in accomplishing these things diligently.
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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/360206007.htm>.
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Gregory to Candidus, priest, departing for the patrimony in Gaul. As you proceed with the help of our Lord God Jesus Christ to take charge of the Church estates in Gaul, I want you to use whatever funds you receive to purchase clothing for the poor and English boys of about seventeen or eighteen years of age who may benefit from being placed in monasteries to serve God. This way, the revenue from Gaul that cannot be transferred to our own country can be put to good use where it is collected. If you also manage to obtain anything from the funds classified as ablata, use that money too for clothing for the poor or for acquiring boys who can be dedicated to the service of Almighty God. Since the boys available there are likely pagans, I want you to send a priest along with them on the journey, so that if anyone falls gravely ill on the way, the priest can baptize them before they die. Act on this without delay.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.