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E06426: A letter of Pope Gregory the Great (Register 12.1) of 601, to Dominicus, bishop of Carthage (north Africa), thanks him for sending 'the blessing' of *Agileus (martyr of Carthage, S00630). Written in Latin in Rome.

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posted on 2018-09-11, 00:00 authored by frances
Pope Gregory the Great, Register of Letters 12.1


The closing sentence of the letter:

Praeterea ex transmissione uestrae sanctitatis beati Agilegi martyris benedictionem ea caritate qua nobis est a uobis transmissa percepimus.

‘Furthermore, we have received what your Holiness sent us, the blessing of your martyr, Saint Agileus, with the same love as yours in sending it.’


Text: Norberg 1982, vol. 2, 968. Translation: Martyn 2004, vol. 3, 807.

History

Evidence ID

E06426

Saint Name

Agileus, martyr in Carthage, ob. in the early 4th c. : S00630

Saint Name in Source

Agileus

Type of Evidence

Literary - Letters

Language

  • Latin

Evidence not before

601

Evidence not after

601

Activity not before

601

Activity not after

601

Place of Evidence - Region

Rome and region

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Rome

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Rome Rome Rome Roma Ῥώμη Rhōmē

Major author/Major anonymous work

Gregory the Great (pope)

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops

Cult Activities - Relics

Unspecified relic

Source

A letter transmitted as part of Gregory the Great’s Register of Letters. This letter collection, organised into fourteen books, is large and contains letters to a variety of recipients, including prominent aristocrats, members of the clergy and royalty. The issues touched on in the letters are equally varied, ranging from theological considerations to mundane administrative matters. This collection of letters, which was possibly curated by Gregory, was originally much larger. The surviving Register comprises several groups of letters which were extracted at several later moments in history, the largest of which took place in the papacy of Hadrian I (772-795).

Discussion

This ‘blessing' (benedictionio) may well have been a relic: filings from the chains of *Peter (the Apostle, S00036) are generally referred to using the same word elsewhere in the Register.

Bibliography

Edition: 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).

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    Evidence -  The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

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