X - CLOSE

Subscribe for free today!

Get newsletters with the latest content, and access to exclusive ebooks and podcast episodes.

First name:
Last name:
Email address:

Already subscribed? Log in to stop seeing invitations to subscribe.

Fathers of the Church

Epistle XXIX: to Aristobulus, Ex-Prefect and Antigraphus

Description

This epistle is from Book I of the Register of the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great. It is a brief letter of friendship and support.

Provenance

St. Gregory (b. 540 in Rome) was elected pope at the age of 50, serving from 590 to 604. In 14 years he accomplished much for the Church. England owes her conversion to him. At a period when the invasion of the barbarian Lombards created a new situation in Europe, he played a great part in winning them for Christ. At the same time, he watched equally over the holiness of the clergy and the maintenance of Church discipline, the temporal interests of his people of Rome and the spiritual interests of all Christendom. He removed unworthy priests from office, forbade the taking of money for many services, and emptied the papal treasury to ransom prisoners of the Lombards and to care for persecuted Jews and victims of plague and famine. Gregory also reformed the liturgy, and it still contains several of his most beautiful prayers. The name "Gregorian chant" recalls this great Pope's work in the development of the Church's music. His commentaries on Holy Scripture exercised a considerable influence on Christian thought in the Middle Ages. Following his death in 604, his numerous epistles, including the following letter, were compiled into the Papal Register of Letters.

by Gregory the Great in 590-604 | translated by James Barmby, D.d

Gregory to Aristobulus, &c.

For fully expressing my affection I confess that my tongue suffices not: but your own affection will better tell you all that I feel towards you. I have heard that you are suffering from certain oppositions. But I am not greatly grieved for this, since it is often the case that a ship which might have reached the depths of the ocean had the breeze been favourable is driven back by an opposing wind at the very beginning of its voyage, but by being driven back is recalled into port. Furthermore, if you should by any chance receive for interpretation a lengthy letter of mine, translate it, I pray you, not word for word, but so as to give the sense; since usually, when close rendering of the words is attended to, the force of the ideas is lost.

Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in 1867. (LNPF II/XII, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

To Fathers of the Church home page

Wed17 September
Ordinary Time

Wednesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time; Opt Mem of St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop & Doctor; Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin & Doctor; Ember Wednesday

Image for Wednesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time; Opt Mem of St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop & Doctor; Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin & Doctor; Ember Wednesday

Today the Church celebrates two Optional Memorials: St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor (1542-1621) was born in Montepulciano, Italy, and died in Rome. The son of noble parents, he entered the Society of Jesus, finishing his theological studies at Louvain, Belgium. His services to the Church…

Learn more about this day.

September Calendar ›