Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 337

Gregory to Theodore, physician of the emperor. I give thanks to almighty God that distance of place does not divide the soul of those who truly love one another in turn. For behold, most sweet and most glorious son, we are far distant from one another in body, and yet we are present to one another in charity. This your works testify, this your writings attest, this I have experienced concerning the present, this I recognize by your renown concerning the absent. May He make you both lovable to men and worthy of almighty God forever. For since charity is the mother of virtues, therefore you bring forth the fruit of good works, because you hold the very root of those fruits in your mind.

But the things which you have sent, at God's inspiration, for the redemption of captives, I received joyful, most dear one, and yet sad. Joyful indeed on your account, whom I have come to know as thinking of preparing a dwelling in the heavenly fatherland; but very sad for myself, who, being over the care of the affairs of holy Peter the apostle, am now also going to have to render accounts concerning the affairs of my most sweet son, the lord Theodore—to be examined whether I have expended them anxiously or negligently. But may almighty God, who has poured into your mind the bowels of His mercy, who has granted you to think solicitously, show you—in the coming of our Saviour—rich in virtues, according to that which is said of Him through the excellent preacher: that He became poor, though He was rich (2 Corinthians 8:9),

and at the coming of that same Saviour may He show you rich in virtues, make you stand free from all fault, and grant you heavenly things for earthly, abiding joys for transitory ones. But as to what you write is being done for you at the most sacred body of holy Peter the apostle, hold it certain that even if your tongue is silent, your charity commands it. But would that we were worthy who ought to pray for you! Yet that I am not worthy, I do not doubt. But there are many here who are worthy, who by your offering are redeemed from enemies and faithfully serve our Creator, concerning whom you have done that which is written: 'Hide alms in the bosom of the poor, and it shall pray for thee' (Ecclesiasticus 29:12).

But because he loves more who presumes more, I have some complaint toward the most sweet mind of my most glorious son the lord Theodore, because he has received from the Holy Trinity the gift of talent, the gift of possessions, the gift of mercy and of charity; and yet he is unceasingly bound by secular affairs, occupied with constant public duties, and daily neglects to read the words of his Redeemer. For what is Sacred Scripture but a kind of letter of almighty God to His creature? And surely, if your Glory were established somewhere else, and were to receive the writings of an earthly emperor, you would not cease, you would not rest, you would not give sleep to your eyes, until you had first learned what the earthly emperor had written to you.

The heavenly Emperor, the Lord of men and of angels, has sent you His letters for your life, and yet, glorious son, you neglect to read those same letters ardently. Study therefore, I beg, and daily meditate on the words of your Creator. Learn the heart of God in the words of God, that you may pant the more ardently after eternal things, that your mind may be kindled with greater desires toward heavenly joys. For then his rest shall be so much the greater, in proportion as now, for love of his Maker, there was no rest. But to do these things, may almighty God pour into you the Spirit, the Comforter. May He fill your mind with His presence, and by filling, lift it up. But concerning myself, know that I suffer here many and innumerable bitternesses.

But I give thanks to almighty God, because I am afflicted far less than I deserve. Moreover I commend to your Glory my most dear son, your protégé the lord Narses. Him indeed I know that you hold commended in all things, but I ask you to do what you are doing, so that, while I ask what I see is being done, I may by my asking add myself to your reward. Furthermore, I have received your Excellency's blessing with the charity with which it was sent. But I have presumed to send one duck with two little ducklings, for the sake of your love, that as often as your eye is drawn to look upon it, the memory of me too, amid your occupations and the tumults of affairs, may be called back into your mind. Gregory to Narses the patrician.

Your most sweet charity has spoken to me much through its letters in praise of my good work, to all which I briefly answer: 'Call me not Naomi, that is, beautiful; but call me Mara, that is, bitter, for I am full of bitterness' (Ruth 1:20). But concerning the cause of the priests which is being conducted with my brother and fellow-bishop, the most reverend man John the patriarch, I think we suffer as an adversary the very one whom you assert wishes to keep the canons. But to your Charity I briefly confess that with all strength and all weight I am prepared, with almighty God helping, to press this same cause. And if in it I see the canons of the Apostolic See not observed, almighty God will grant what I may do against its despisers.

But as to what your Charity wrote to me, that I should give thanks on your behalf to my son the lord Theodore, the chief physician and ex-prefect, I have done so, and, as much as I could, I have not ceased to commend you. But I beg you to pardon me that I answer your letters with brevity, because I am pressed by such great tribulations that it is permitted me neither to read nor to say much through letters. This one thing only I say to you briefly: 'That I have forgotten to eat my bread from the voice of my groaning' (Psalm 101:5). All who are with you I ask to be greeted in my stead. Give my greetings to the lady Dominica, to whom I have not replied, because, though she is a Latin, she wrote to me in Greek.