A letter from Gregory I, pope (597, June)

Translated letter:

Gregory to Gregoria, cubicularia of the empress I received the desired letters of your sweetness in which you took pains to accuse yourself constantly of a multitude of sins. But I know that you love almighty God fervently, and I trust in his mercy that the sentence that was pronounced about a certain holy woman comes from the mouth of truth with regard to you: Many sins are forgiven her because she has loved much [Luc. 7:47]. And what followed afterward also showed how they were forgiven: that she sat at the Lord’s feet and heard the word from his mouth. For, rapt in the contemplative life she had already transcended the active life, which her sister Martha still upheld. Also she eagerly sought the Lord buried; bent over the tomb, she did not find his body; but even when the disciples departed, she remained lamenting before the door of the tomb, and weeping for him as dead, she deserved to see him living, and she announced to the disciples that he had risen again. And this was by the wondrous dispensation of God’s kindness that from a woman’s mouth life should be proclaimed, because in paradise from a woman’s mouth death had been tasted. She also at another time with the other Mary after the resurrection saw the Lord, and approaching, held his feet. Try to visualize, I pray, the hands that held his feet. That woman who had been a sinner in the city, those hands that had been polluted by wickedness, they touched the feet of him who sits at the right hand of the father over the summit of the angels. Let us consider, if we can, what profundities of heavenly kindness there are that a woman who had been plunged through sin into the depth of the abyss, thus through grace was raised on high on the wing of love. It was fulfilled, sweet daughter, fulfilled what was promised to us by the prophetic voice about this time of holy church: And on that day the house of David will be an open fountain for cleansing of the sinner and of the unclean woman [Zach. 13:1]. For the house of David is an open fountain for cleansing for us sinners because now we are washed from the filth of our iniquities by mercy that was unveiled by the son of David our Savior. But regarding what your sweetness added in her letters, that she will remain persistent with me until I write that it has been revealed to me that your sins are forgiven, you have requested a thing both difficult but also useless: certainly difficult because I am unworthy to receive a revelation, but useless because you should not be sure about your sins except on the last day of your life when you can no longer bewail those same sins. Until that day comes, you should, always suspicious, always fearful, be afraid of sins and wash them daily with tears. Certainly the apostle Paul already had ascended to the third heaven, had also been led into paradise, had heard the mysterious words that man is not allowed to speak, and yet still fearing he said: I castigate my body and subject it to servitude, so that perhaps when I preach to others I myself should not become a reprobate [1 Cor. 9:27]. He who is already brought to heaven still fears, yet he who still lives on earth wishes to fear no longer? Consider, sweetest daughter, that security is wont to be the mother of negligence. Therefore in this life you should not have hope that may render you negligent. It is written: Blessed is the man who is always fearful [Prov. 28:14]. And again it is written: Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice unto him with trembling [Ps. 2:11]. Therefore in the brief time of this life it is necessary that trembling secure your mind so that later through the joy of security it may exult without end. May almighty God fill your mind with the grace of his holy spirit and, after the tears that you pour out daily in prayer, lead you to eternal joys.1

Original letter:

GREGORIUS GREGORIAE CUBICULARIAE AUGUSTAE Desiderata dulcedinis vestrae scripta suscepi, in quibus vos omnino de peccatorum multitudine studuistis accusare. Sed scio, quia omnipotentem Deum ferventer diligitis, atque in eius misericordia confido, quia illa de vobis sententia ex ore veritatis procedit quae de quadam sancta muliere dicta est: 'Dimissa sunt ei peccata multa, quia dilexit multum'. Quomodo autem fuerint dimissa, in hoc etiam monstratum est quod postmodum est secutum; quia ad pedes Domini sedebat, verbum ex ore illius audiebat. In contemplativa enim vita suspensa iam activam transcenderat, quam adhuc Martha soror illius tenebat. Sepultum quoque Dominum studiose requisivit, ad monumentum inclinata corpus illius non invenit; sed etiam discipulis recedentibus ipsa ante ianuam monumenti plorans perstitit et quem mortuum flebat, viventem videre meruit et, quia resurrexisset, discipulis nuntiavit. Et hoc mira dispensatione pietatis Dei fuit, ut ex ore mulieris nuntiaretur vita, quia ex ore mulieris mors fuerat in paradiso propinata. Quae alio quoque tempore cum Maria altera post resurrectionem Dominum vidit et accedens pedes eius tenuit. Duc, rogo, ante oculos, quae manus cuius tenuerunt pedes. Illa mulier quae fuerat in civitate peccatrix, illae manus quae fuerant iniquitate pollutae, illius tetigerunt pedes qui ad patris dexteram super angelorum verticem sedet. Pensemus, si possumus, quae sunt ista viscera supernae pietatis, ut mulier quae in profundo voraginis fuerat demersa per culpam, ex amoris penna sic in altum levaretur per gratiam. Impletum est, dulcis filia, impletum quod de hoc sanctae ecclesiae tempore prophetica nobis voce promissum est: 'Et in die illo erit domus David fons patens in ablutionem peccatoris et menstruatae. Domus enim David nobis peccatoribus fons patens in ablutionem est, quia iniquitatum nostrarum sordibus per David filium Salvatorem nostrum aperta iam misericordia lavamur. Quod vero dulcedo tua in suis epistolis subiunxit importunam se mihi existere, quoadusque scribam mihi esse revelatum, quia peccata tua dimissa sint, rem et difficilem etiam et inutilem postulasti: difficilem quidem, quia ego indignus sum, cui revelatio fieri debeat, inutilem vero, quia secura de peccatis tuis fieri non debes, nisi cum iam in die vitae tuae ultimo plangere eadem peccata minime valebis. Quae dies quousque veniat, semper suspecta, semper trepida metuere culpas debes atque eas cotidianis fletibus lavare. Certe Paulus apostolus iam ad tertium caelum ascenderat, in paradiso quoque ductus fuerat, arcana verba audierat, quae loqui homini non liceret, et tamen adhuc trepidans dicebat: 'Castigo corpus meum et servituti subicio, ne forte aliis praedicans ipse reprobus efficiar’. Adhuc timet qui iam ad caelum ducitur, et iam timere non vult qui adhuc in terra conversatur? Perpende, dulcissima filia, quia mater neglegentiae solet esse securitas. Habere ergo in hac vita non debes spem per quam neglegens reddaris. Scriptum est: 'Beatus vir qui semper est pavidus'. Et rursum scriptum est: 'Servite Domino in timore et exultate ei cum tremore'. In pauco ergo vitae huius tempore mentem vestram necesse est ut tremor teneat, quatenus per securitatis gaudium sine fine postmodum exultet. Omnipotens Deus sancti spiritus sui gratia mentem vestram repleat et post fletus quos cotidie in oratione funditis ad gaudia vos aeterna perducat.

Historical context:

The pope urges Gregoria not to be overweighed by a sense of her sins, to remember the experience of the Mary who, though a sinner was the first to see and announce the risen Christ, the course of which he makes a not unusual misidentification, confusing Mary Magdalene, by then reputed to be a sinner, with Mary, the sister of Martha. Though he sympathizes with Gregoria, he tells her there can be no revelation about whether her sins are forgiven, and she must be vigilant until her death.

Scholarly notes:

1 Ashleigh Imus provided this translation.

Printed source:

Gregorii I Papae Registum Epistolarum, ed. Paulus Ewald and Ludovicus Hartmann (Berlin: Weidmann, 1887-91, repr. 1978), 7.22.

Date:

597, June