Gregory the Great in a papal letter (Register 9.233) of 599, to Decius, bishop of Lilybaeum, asks him to consecrate a female monastery dedicated to *Peter (the Apostle, S00036), *Laurence (deacon and martyr of Rome, S01229), *Hermes (martyr of Rome, buried on the via Salaria vetus, S00404), *Pancratius (martyr of Rome, S00307), *Sebastianus (martyr of Rome, S00400), and *Agnes (virgin and martyr of Rome, S00097), inside the city of Lilybaeum (Sicily). Written in Latin in Rome.
E06411
Literary - Letters
Gregory the Great (pope)
Pope Gregory the Great, Register of Letters 9.233
Full text of the letter:
GREGORIVS DECIO EPISCOPO LILLIBITANO
Adeodata gloriosissima femina petitorii nobis insinuatione suggessit, quod habetur in subditis, in domo siquidem iuris sui intra ciuitatem Lillibitanam monasterium ancillarum dei a solo se pro sua deuotione fundasse, quod in honore beati Petri principis apostolorum atque sanctorum christi martyrum Laurentii, Ermetis, Pancratii, Sebastiani et Agnes desiderat consecrari. Et ideo, frater carissime, quippe quia in ciuitatis tuae commemorata constructio iure consistit et, si nullum corpus ibidem constat humatum, percepta primitus donatione legitima, id est in reditu praestantes liberos a tributis fiscalibus solidos x, pueros tres, boues paria tria, mancipia alia, quae seruiant in ipso monasterio numero u, equas numero x, uaccas numero x, hastulas uinearum numero iiii, oues numero xl, et cetera secundum morem.
‘Gregory to Decius, bishop of Lilybaeum
Adeodata, a most glorious woman, has suggested to us with the notification of a declaration, which is held in the appendix, that she has founded a monastery for nuns in a house legally hers, inside the city of Lilybaeum, as proof of her devotion. And she wants it to be consecrated in honour of Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, and of Saints Laurence, Hermes, Pancratius, Sebastianus and Agnes, martyrs of Christ. And for that reason, my very dear brother, [do so]. For the construction just mentioned is subject to the control of your city. Provided it is certain that no human body has been buried there, receive all the donation set out by law, that is for income, gold solidi, free from taxes, ten, and slave-boys, three, oxen of the same age, three, other servants to serve in that convent, five in number, mares, ten in number, cows, ten in number, vine plantations, four in number, sheep, forty in number, and the rest according to what is normal.’
Text: Norberg 1982, vol. 2, 815-16.
Translation: Martyn 2004, vol. 2, 706-7, modified.
Ceremony of dedication
Cult PlacesCult building - monastic
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Women
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 consecration and provision of the monastery is formulaic and appears in several other letters (E06366 and E06390). This provides a clear account of the procedure for consecrating a foundation dedicated to a saint. From the context provided by these letters, it seems clear that the sacred relics refer to the saint(s) to whom the foundation is dedicated.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:
Neil, B., and Dal Santo, M. (eds.), A Companion to Gregory the Great (Leiden: Brill, 2013).
Frances Trzeciak
20/12/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Petrus | Certain | S00037 | Laurence/Laurentius, deacon and martyr of Rome | Laurentius | Certain | S00097 | Agnes, virgin and martyr of Rome | Agnes | Certain | S00307 | Pancratius, martyr of Rome | Pancratius | Certain | S00400 | Sebastianus, martyr of Rome | Sebastianus | Certain | S00404 | Hermes, martyr of Rome, buried on the via Salaria vetus | Hermes | Certain |
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