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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Gregory the Great in a papal letter (Register 6.58) of 596, to Brunhild, queen of the Franks, grants her relics of the Apostles *Peter and *Paul (S00036; S00008), and enjoins her that they be treated with due respect. Written in Latin in Rome.

Evidence ID

E06371

Type of Evidence

Literary - Letters

Major author/Major anonymous work

Gregory the Great (pope)

Pope Gregory the Great, Register of Letters 6.58


Gregory responds to a request from Brunhild for relics (the extract is from the middle of the letter):

Atque ideo congruo honore uestram excellentiam salutantes indicamus latori praesentium Leparico, quem vos esse presbyterum scripsistis, per quem eloquia uestrarum suscepimus litterarum, reliquias nos beatorum apostolorum Petri ac Pauli iuxta excellentiae uestrae petitionem cum ea ueneratione qua dignum est praebuisse. Sed ut in uobis magis magisque laudabilis et religiosa possit clarere deuotio, prouidendum uobis est ut sanctorum beneficia cum reuerentia et debito honore condantur et seruientes ibidem nullis oneribus nullisque molestiis affligantur, ne forsitan necessitate exterius imminente in Dei seruitio inutiles segnes que reddantur et iniuriam, quod absit, neglectum que beneficia sanctorum collata sustineant.


‘And for that reason, we greet your Excellency with suitable honour, and we inform Leuparic, bearer of this letter, who is a priest as you tell us, through whom we have received your very eloquent letters, that we have provided you with relics of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, in accordance with the request of your Excellency, with that veneration which they deserve. But so that the devotion in you can shine forth more and more laudable and religious, you must take care that the relics of the saints are put in place with due honour, and those entrusted with their care are not afflicted by any burdens or troubles, in case perhaps, with the threat of external necessity, they may be rendered useless and idle in the service of God, and the relics of the saints brought there may sustain damage (Heaven forbid!) and neglect. Therefore, let your Excellency ensure their security, so that, when they are protected with your support, free from all disturbance, they may offer praises to our God with secure minds, and a reward may increase for you in eternal life.’


Text: Norberg 1982, vol. 1, 431.
Translation: Martyn 2004, vol. 2, 443.

Relics

Unspecified relic
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Transfer/presence of relics from distant countries
Privately owned relics

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Women
Monarchs and their family

Theorising on Sanctity

Considerations about the veneration of saints

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

Gregory distributed many small reliquaries to important correspondents for their personal protection and use, particularly in the form of small keys containing filings from the chains of Peter. The relics described here do not seem to be of that nature, but to be more 'major' relics designed for the consecration of an ecclesiastical building.


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:

Dal Santo, M.,
Debating the Saints' Cult in the Age of Gregory the Great (Oxford: OUP, 2012).

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).


Record Created By

Frances Trzeciak

Date of Entry

15/11/2018

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00008Paul, the ApostlePaulusCertain
S00036Peter, the ApostlePetrusCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Frances Trzeciak, Cult of Saints, E06371 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E06371