Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XII:
The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great.: Epistle II

p. 162b Book V.

Epistle II.

To Felix, Bishop, and Cyriacus, Abbot 1575 .

Gregory to Felix, &c.

The tenor of the report submitted to you sufficiently explains the complaint of the religious lady Theodosia, in which we have found on reading it many heads of accusation, not befitting priestly gentleness, against our brother and fellow-bishop Januarius; so much so that, after the foundation by her of a monastery for servants of God, all that pertains to avarice, turbulence, and wrong is said to have been exhibited at the time of the very dedication of the oratory.  Wherefore, if the case is as we find in her aforesaid representation, and if you are aware that anything at all unbecoming has been committed besides, we exhort you that, all wrongs having first been redressed, you press upon Musicus, the abbot of the monastery of Agilitanus 1576 , that he lose no time in giving the greatest attention to his monks whom he had began to settle there, to the end that, this venerable place being with the Lord’s help set in order by you in a decent and regular manner, neither may we be disturbed by the frequent complaints of the aforesaid religious lady that her good desires are not fulfilled, nor may it be to the detriment of your soul that so pious a design should languish, as we do not believe it will, through any neglect of yours.

Footnotes

They had been sent by Gregory into Sardinia with the special purpose of promoting the conversion of the natives, which had been neglected by the bishops and clergy of the island.  See V. 41, and IV. 23, note 8.

Apparently the designation of the monastery which had been now at length founded by Theodosia in execution of her late husband’s will.  See above, IV. 8, 15.  In IV. 15, Gregory had acceded to her desire in view of certain difficulties in carrying out her husband’s intention, to found a nunnery in a house of her own at Cagliari.  But it seems that a monastery of monks had in the end been founded.