Gregory the Great in two papal letters (Register 14.7 and 14.13) of 603 and 604, to Alciso, bishop of Corfu, refers to the deposition of the body of *Donatus (bishop of Euria, ob. late 4th c, S01274) in a church dedicated to *John (the Baptist, S00020, or the Apostle and Evangelist, S00042) in the fortress of Cassiopus (Corfu, Ionian Islands). Written in Latin in Rome.
E06440
Literary - Letters
Gregory the Great (pope)
Pope Gregory the Great, Register of Letters 14.7 [AD 603]
Extracts from two letters which both deal with an issue caused by insecurity on the mainland opposite Corfu. The clergy of the city of Euria (in the province of Epirus Vetus) had decided to withdraw to the greater security of Corfu, bringing with them the body of their saint, Donatus, and had established themselves in the castrum Cassiopi on Corfu. This Gregory approves of, as long as it does not in any way infringe on the authority of the bishop of Corfu, Alciso, within whose diocese the castrum Cassiopi lay:
Oportet ergo ut sacerdotes uel clerus Euriae ciuitatis ab antefati Cassiopi castri habitatione nullatenus repellantur, sed et beati Donati sanctum ac uenerabile corpus, quod se cum detulerunt, in una ecclesiarum antedicti loci, quam elegerint, siue intus seu foris habeant recondendi debita cum ueneratione licentiam; sic tamen, ut dilectioni tuae, in cuius parrochia castrum ipsum est positum, emissa procuretur cautione munitio, per quam promittat nullam sibi in eo potestatem, nullum priuilegium, nullam iurisdictionem, nullam tamquam cardinalis episcopus ulterius auctoritatem defendere sed, pace deo propitio reddita, ablato uenerabili sancti Donati, si maluerint, corpore ad propria se modis omnibus reuersuros, ut huius promissionis persistente memoria nec illi de cetero quicquam sibi illic principaliter quacumque occasione audeant uindicare sed omni se tempore esse ibidem hospites recognoscant, et fraternitatis tuae ecclesia iuris uel priuilegii sui in qualibet parte praeiudicium non incurrat.
‘Therefore, it is proper that the priests and clergy of the city of Euria should in no way be banned from inhabiting the aforesaid fortress of Cassiopus, and they should have the right of depositing with due reverence the holy and venerable body of Saint Donatus, which they brought with them, in one of the churches chosen by them in the aforesaid locality, either inside it or outside it. But let them do so in such a way that your Beloved, in whose diocese that fortress lies, can obtain protection with the issue of a caution, whereby their bishop promises not to defend any power for himself there, or any privilege or any jurisdiction or any further authority. Rather, when peace is restored through the grace of God, they should anyway return to what is theirs, and remove the body of the venerable Saint Donatus, if they prefer to do so, so that as the memory of this promise persists, in future they do not dare to claim any sort of rule there for themselves for any reason, but should recognise that they are guests there at all times, and the church of your Fraternity should incur no prejudice over any part of your lawful privilege.’
Pope Gregory the Great, Register of Letters 14.13 [604]
Sed quia in eodem capitulare memoratus sperasse legebatur antistes, ut in ecclesia beati Iohannis, quae intra castrum quod Cassiopi uocatur est posita, sanctum ac uenerabile corpus beati Donati habeat recondendi licentiam, paratum se esse inquiens dilectioni tuae, propter quod tua probatur esse diocesis, munitionem emittere, nullum tibi ex hoc praeiudicium generari, petitionem ipsius sine effectu non praeuidimus relinquendam, postquam ita sibi necessitatis tempore desiderat ferri consultum, ut ecclesiae tuae iurisdictionem seruare se in omnibus fateatur. Hac itaque ratione permoti, fraternitatem tuam scriptis praesentibus adhortamur ut sine aliqua mora uel excusatione in praenominata beati iohannis ecclesia recondendi suprascripti sancti uenerabile corpus praebeat facultatem.
‘But in that document, the bishop [of Euria] mentioned above was said to have hoped he might have permission to bury the holy and venerable body of Saint Donatus in the church of Saint John, that lies inside the fortress called Cassiopus, saying that he was ready to provide a safeguard for your Beloved, as it is proved to be in your diocese, stating that no damage to you would arise from this act. We decided, therefore, that his request should not be left without a result, for in a time of need he wants a decision to be made about himself, in such a way that he may admit that preserves the jurisdiction of your church in all matters. And so, influenced by this argument, we exhort your Fraternity with this present letter that, without any delay or excuse, you provide an opportunity for the venerable body of the Saint mentioned above to be buried in the afore-named church of Saint John.’
Text: Norberg 1982, vol. 2, 1075 and 1084-5.
Translation: Martyn 2004, vol. 3, 873-4 and 879, lightly modified.
Cult building - independent (church)
RelicsBodily relic - entire body
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
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)
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
11/01/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Iohannes | Certain | S00042 | John, the Apostle and Evangelist | Iohannes | Certain | S01274 | Donatus, bishop of Euroia (Epirus), ob. 387 | Donatus | Certain |
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