Gregory the Great in a papal letter (Register 11.5) of 600, to Adeodata, a noblewoman, refers to her request for unspecified relics. Written in Latin in Rome.
E06414
Literary - Letters
Gregory the Great (pope)
Pope Gregory the Great, Register of Letters 11.5
Full text of the letter:
GREGORIVS ADEODATAE ILLVSTRI FEMINAE
Ut moram in dandis reliquiis, quas gloria uestra petit, faceremus, non uoluntate distulimus, sed praecedentis rei nos casus fecit ambigere. Deus autem omnipotens cordis uestri deuotionem intuens miraculorum signis admonentibus a uestra uos intentione fraudari non pertulit. Sed ideo desiderium uestrum modica uoluit dilatione differri, ut docentibus miraculis et amor uobis cresceret in ueneratione sanctorum et maior fieret exsultatio gaudiorum. Quia ergo in effectu postulate rei gloriae uestrae uota completa sunt, hortamur ut, cuius praedicatores colitis, eius sollicite mandata seruetis et, sicut religiosa deuotione terrena sanctorum honoribus loca construitis, sic quoque cum eis mansionem uobis procurare in caelestibus festinetis, quatenus et hic illos in omnibus adiutores et in futura mereamini habere uita consortes.
‘Gregory to Adeodata, illustris woman
That there was a delay in giving you the relics that your Glory seeks, did not happen willingly, but the occurrence of an earlier matter made us hesitate. But almighty God looked down on the devotion of your heart, and with the warning signs of miracles, He did not allow you to be cheated of your intention. But you wanted to put off your wish with a moderate delay, for the purpose that, as the miracles are evident, your love might grow in the veneration of the saints and exultation of your joys might become greater. And so, since the prayers of your Glory have been fulfilled in the outcome of the matter as requested, we exhort you to observe carefully the commandments of God, whose priests you cherish. Just as with religious devotion you construct earthly places to honour the saints, so also you hasten to look for a dwelling for yourself with them in Heaven, so that you may deserve to have them as your helpers in all things here, and as your partners in future life.’
Text: Norberg 1982, vol. 2, 866.
Translation: Martyn 2004, vol. 3, 741, lightly modified.
Construction of cult buildings
MiraclesUnspecified miracle
RelicsUnspecified relic
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Aristocrats
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 letter provides no evidence as to where Adeodata was living, nor of why she requested relics.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).
Frances Trzeciak
20/12/2020
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | Certain |
|---|
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