Gregory the Great in a papal letter (Register 2.6) of 591, to Felix, bishop of Messina, refers to the foundation of a basilica dedicated to *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030), *Pancratius (bishop and martyr of Taormina, S00307) and *Euplus (martyr of Catania, S00207), in Messina (Sicily), and to the provision of contact relics (sanctuaria) for it. Written in Latin in Rome.
E06330
Literary - Letters
Gregory the Great (pope)
Pope Gregory the Great, Register of Letters 2.6
Extract from the start of the letter:
Ianuarius diaconus ecclesiae Messanensis petitorii nobis insinuatione suggessit, quae habetur in subditis, intra ciuitatem Messanensem basilicam se pro sua deuotione fundasse, quam in honore sanctorum Stephani et Pancrati et Eupli desiderat consecrari. Et ideo, frater carissime, si in tuae in diocesis ciuitatis iure consistit, et nullum corpus ibidem constat humatum, percepta primitus donatione legitima, id est: a praesenti annuos, a tributis liberos fiscalibus solidos decem, et de reliqua substantia sua sibi tantummodo usumfructum retineat.
'Januarius, deacon of the church of Messina, has informed us in the notification of a petition, which appears in an appendix, that as a mark of his own devotion, he has founded a basilica in the city of Messina, which he wants to be consecrated in honour of Saints Stephen, Pancratius and Euplus. For that reason, my dearest brother, if this place legally belongs to your city, and it is certain that no corpse is buried there, first of all receive the legitimate donation, that is to say from today, ten gold coins a year free of imperial tribute, and from the rest of his property let him retain the usufruct.'
Gregory ends the letter with the following sentence:
Sanctuaria uero suscepta sui cum reuerentia collocabis.
'You will take up his sacred relics (sanctuaria) and place them therein with due reverence.'
Text: Norberg 1982, vol. 1, 94.
Translation: Martyn 2004, vol. 1, 196-7, lightly modified.
Ceremony of dedication
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityBequests, donations, gifts and offerings
RelicsTransfer, translation and deposition of relics
Contact relic - cloth
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Source
Gregory's Register is a collection of some 854 of his letters as pope, collected into 14 books (each book representing an indictional year of his pontificate, from 1 September to 31 August) of varied length and deriving from the file-copies that were made in Rome and kept in the papal archive. The original copies survived into the ninth century, but were subsequently lost; from the late eighth century onwards, however, because of the exceptional stature that Gregory had by then attained, various collections of his letters were assembled from the original copies (the largest under Pope Hadrian I at the end of the eighth century), and these constitute the Register as we have it today.The Register does not contain all the letters that Gregory despatched as pope, since in some of those whose text survives there are references to other letters, wholly lost; but the collection we have is unique from the late antique period, and only matched in quantity and range of subjects by the registers of high-medieval popes. Recipients range from papal administrators, through prominent churchmen and aristocrats, to kings and the imperial family, and treat a wide variety of topics, from mundane administrative affairs of the papal patrimony to deep theological and moral considerations.
For the cult of saints, there is much that is of interest in the letters, but two particular concentrations of evidence stand out. The first is a clutch of around a dozen letters that mention requests for relics from Rome, or that accompanied small personal relics as gifts to influential correspondents. The second concentration of evidence relates to the dedications of churches and other ecclesiastical institutions in southern Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. Because the papacy owned extensive estates in these regions, and exercised particular authority there, many of Gregory's letters mention churches and other ecclesiastical institutions, by the name of the saint to whom they were dedicated, thereby providing us with a rich panorama of the spread of both local and imported saintly cults.
Gregory's Register has been the subject of two substantial critical editions: the first by Ewald and Hartmann for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica; the second by Dag Norberg for Corpus Christianorum. The numbering of the letters is often the same in both editions, but it can differ, because Norberg removed letters (and other passages) that appear to have been added at a later date to the original Register, assigning them instead to Appendices. We have used Norberg's numbering, which is that now generally used.
Discussion
The description of the process required for the building and provision for the church is formulaic and appears in several other letters (e.g. E06366 and E06390). This provides a clear account of the procedure for providing a foundation dedicated to a saint.The Saint Pancratius mentioned is presumably Pancratius of Taormina, since this city is very close to Messina (and Euplus is another local Sicilian saint); but it is just possible that Pancratius of Rome (S02271) is the saint referred to.
The use of the term sanctuaria strongly suggests that the relics mentioned here were contact relics, made by placing a piece of cloth in close contact with the grave of the saint. For more detail about the process, see E00615 and E00617, and on the word, McCulloh 1976, 158-165.
Bibliography
Edition:Ewald, P. and L.M. Hartmann (eds), Gregorii I papae Registrum epistolarum, 2 vols. (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epistolae I and II, Berlin 1891 and 1899).
Norberg, D., S. Gregorii Magni, Registrum epistularum. 2 vols. (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 140-140A; Turnhout: Brepols, 1982).
English translation:
Martyn, J.R.C., The Letters of Gregory the Great, 3 vols. (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2004).
Further Reading:
McCulloh, J., "The Cult of Relics in the Letters and Dialogues of Gregory the Great," Traditio 32 (1976), 145-184.
Neil, B., and Dal Santo, M. (eds.), A Companion to Gregory the Great (Leiden: Brill, 2013).
Frances Trzeciak
11/09/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Stephanus | Certain | S00207 | Euplius/Euplos, deacon and martyr of Catania | Euplius | Certain | S02271 | Pancratius, bishop and martyr of Taormina, Sicily | Pancratus | Uncertain | S02271 | Pancratius, bishop and martyr of Taormina, Sicily | Pancratus | Certain |
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