Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 123

GREGORY: Since you have believed with such labour, I think it worth the effort if I relate the things that have been set forth to me by faithful men. For Julian, the second Defensor of this Roman Church which I serve by God's appointment, who died about seven years ago, used often to come to me while I was still living in the monastery, and was accustomed to converse with me about the profit of the soul. This man, then, one day related to me, saying: 'In the days of King Theodoric, the father of my father-in-law had carried out the collection of the tax in Sicily, and was now returning to Rome. His ship put in at the island which is called Lipari.'

And because there dwelt in that place a certain solitary man of great virtue, while the sailors were repairing the ship's tackle, it seemed good to the aforesaid father of my father-in-law to go to that same man of God and commend himself to his prayers. When the man of the Lord had seen them, conversing with them among other things, he said: 'Do you know that King Theodoric is dead?' To this they immediately answered: 'Far from it! We left him alive, and nothing of the kind has been reported to us about him up to now.' To them the servant of God added, saying: 'Indeed he is dead: for yesterday, at the ninth hour, ungirt and unshod and with his hands bound, he was led between Pope John and Symmachus the patrician, and was cast into this nearby crater of Vulcano.'

Hearing this, they carefully wrote down the day, and returning to Italy, they found that King Theodoric had died on that very day on which his destruction and punishment had been shown to the servant of God. And because he had killed Pope John by afflicting him in custody, and had likewise slain the patrician Symmachus by the sword, he appeared to be justly cast into the fire by those whom he had unjustly judged in this life. At that time too, when I first panted with the desires of a secluded life, a certain honourable old man named Deusdedit, a great friend of the nobles of this city, was diligently joined to me also in friendship, who used to relate to me, saying: 'In the time of the Goths a certain distinguished man named Reparatus came to his death.'

While he lay for a long time already speechless and rigid, it seemed that the breath of life had utterly gone out of him, and that his body remained lifeless. And when many who had gathered, and the household, were already mourning him as dead, he suddenly returned, and the tears of all who were lamenting were turned into astonishment. On returning he said: 'Send a boy quickly to the church of the blessed martyr Lawrence, which is called by the name of its builder Damasus, and let him see what is being done about the priest Tiburtius, and hasten to report back.' Now this Tiburtius was at that time said to be given over to carnal desires: of whose life and conduct up to now Florentius, the present priest of that church, also has good remembrance.

When the boy had gone, Reparatus, who had returned to himself, related what he had learned about that man, to the place where he had been led, saying: 'A huge pyre had been prepared, and the priest Tiburtius, being led away, was placed upon it, and with fire set beneath was burned up. But another pyre was being prepared, whose summit seemed to stretch from earth to heaven. And with a voice sent forth it was cried out whose it was.' When these things had been said, Reparatus immediately died; but the boy who had been sent to Tiburtius found him already dead. This Reparatus, then, having been led to the place of punishments, when he had seen, returned, related, and died.

It is plainly shown that he saw those things for our sake, not for his own—for us to whom, while it is still granted to live, it is permitted also to amend from evil works. Reparatus indeed saw the pyre being built, not that wood burns in hell so that a fire may be made; but, being about to relate it here to the living, he saw those things concerning the burning of the wicked, from which a corporeal fire is wont to be nourished among the living, so that through these familiar things the hearers might learn what they ought to fear concerning things unfamiliar.