Gregory the Great in a papal letter (Register 6.22) of 596, to Petrus, bishop of Aleria in Corsica, orders the foundation of a church and baptistery in honour of *Peter (the Apostle, S00036) and *Laurence (deacon and martyr of Rome, S00037) in Negeunus (Corsica), and the deposition of contact relics (sanctuaria) therein. Written in Latin in Rome.
E06366
Literary - Letters
Gregory the Great (pope)
Pope Gregory the Great, Register of Letters 6.22
Full text of the letter:
GREGORIUS PETRO EPISCOPO ALERIAE DE CORSICA
In insula Corsica in loco Nigeuno in possessione quae Cellas Cupias appellatur iuris sanctae Romanae cui Deo auctore deseruimus ecclesiae basilicam cum baptisterio in honore beatorum Petri apostolorum principis atque Laurentii martyris pro lucrandis animabus fundari praecepimus, idcirco fraternitatem tuam his hortamur affatibus quatenus ad praedictum locum debeat incunctanter accedere, uenerandae sollemnia dedicationis impendens. Praedictam ecclesiam et baptisterium sollemniter consecrare te uolumus, sanctuaria uero suscepta sui cum reuerentia collocabis.
‘In the island of Corsica, at the place called Negeunus, there is a property called Cellas Cupias that belongs to the holy Roman Church, which we serve with God’s authority. There we have ordered a church with a baptistry to be founded, in honour of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles, and Saint Laurence the martyr, to benefit the souls living there. For that reason, with these words, we exhort your Fraternity, that you should visit the aforesaid place without delay, providing the solemnities of a venerable dedication. We want you to solemnly consecrate the aforesaid church and baptistry and place therein, with due reverence, the contact relics (sanctuaria) you have received.’
Text: Norberg 1982, vol. 1, 392.
Translation: Martyn 2004, vol. 2, 418, lightly modified.
Ceremony of dedication
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Cult building - dependent (chapel, baptistery, etc.)
RelicsContact relic - cloth
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
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 9th century, but were subsequently lost. From the late 8th century onwards, however, because of the exceptional stature that Gregory had by then attained, various collections were assembled from the original copies (the largest under Pope Hadrian I at the end of the 8th 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 some whose text survives refer to others which are 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 the 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.
(Bryan Ward-Perkins)
Discussion
The description of the process required for consecration and provision of the monastery is formulaic and appears in several other letters (E06330 and E06390). This provides a clear account of the procedure for consecrating a foundation dedicated to a saint. In this case, on a papal estate, it is unsurprising that it is Roman saints who are being honoured.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
15/11/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Petrus | Certain | S00037 | Laurence/Laurentius, deacon and martyr of Rome | Laurentius | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
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