To Leo, Bishop in Corsica, on Visiting the Church of Saona

Gregory to Leo, and so on.

Our charge as shepherd obliges us to come, with anxious thought, to the help of a church that has no priest to govern it. And since we have learned that the church of Saona has been entirely in that state for many years, since the death of its pontiff, we have thought it necessary to lay on your fraternity the work of visiting it, so that its welfare may be advanced through your direction. In this church, and in its parishes, we also give you license to ordain deacons and presbyters. About them, however, take care to make diligent inquiry, so that they are not in any personal respect such men as the sacred canons reject. But whomever your fraternity finds worthy of so great a ministry, once you have made sure that their character and conduct fit them for ordination, you may freely promote to that office by permission of our authority. We wish you, therefore, to use all the property of the church named above as though you were its own pontiff, until we write to you again. Be so diligent and careful, then, in all these matters that through your direction everything may, with God’s help, be soundly arranged for the church’s benefit. [b]