Gregory to Peter, subdeacon. Since we devote ourselves with longing to the festivals of the saints, we have judged it necessary to direct this page of our present instruction to your discretion, informing you that we have determined, with the Lord's help, to have most solemnly dedicated in the month of August the oratory of blessed Mary which was recently built in the cell of the brethren, where Abbot Marinianus is known to preside; and that our vows may, by the Lord's working, be brought to completion. But because the smallness of that cell requires that we assemble on that very festival day, we therefore wish that, for the celebration of the dedication, you should provide for distribution to the poor: ten gold solidi, thirty amphorae of wine, two hundred lambs, two casks of oil, and wethers
twelve, and a hundred hens, which may afterwards be charged to your accounts. Therefore see that these things are done at once, without any interval of delay, so that our vows may, God being their author, obtain a speedy fulfilment.