To Sebastian, Bishop of Sirmium

Gregory to Sebastian, bishop of Sirmium. I have received your fraternity’s most sweet and pleasant letter. You are never absent from my heart, and yet it has made your holiness present with me, as it were, in body. I pray Almighty God to protect you with his right hand, to grant you a peaceful life here, and, when it pleases him, eternal rewards. But I beg you, if you love me with the love you always had for me when we were together, to pray for me more earnestly, so that Almighty God may loose me from the bonds of my sins and make me stand free in his sight, released from the burden of this corruption. For however immeasurably the sweetness of the heavenly homeland draws one toward it, still there are many sorrows in this life that drive us daily to the love of heavenly things. And these alone please me greatly, for the very reason that they let nothing in this world please me. [a]

For we cannot possibly describe, most holy brother, what we suffer in this land at the hands of your friend, the lord Romanus. Yet I may say briefly that his malice toward us has outdone the swords of the Lombards, so that the enemies who kill us seem kinder than the judges of the state, who wear us out with anxiety by their malice, their plundering and their deceit. And then to carry at the same time the charge of bishops and clergy, of monasteries and people, to keep anxious watch against the plots of the enemy, and to be always suspicious of the deceit and malice of the dukes: what labors and what sorrows all this brings, your fraternity can judge the more truly, the more purely you love me, who suffer these things. [b]

Further, while greeting you as I owe you, I let you know that I have learned from the report of Boniface the defensor that our brother, the most holy lord Anastasius the patriarch, wished to entrust to you the government of the church in one of his cities, and that you refused your consent. This feeling and this wisdom of yours I most gladly approve and strongly commend. I count you happy, and myself unhappy for having agreed, at such a time as this, to take on the government of the church. If, however, you should ever decide to agree to such a proposal, perhaps out of deference to your brothers and because you are intent on works of mercy, I beg you by no means to prefer anyone else’s love to mine. For there are churches without bishops on the island of Sicily, and if, with God guiding you, you are pleased to take the government of a church, you will be able to do it better near the threshold of the blessed apostle Peter, with his help. But if you are not so pleased, stay happily as you are, so that this resolve may last in you, and pray for us unhappy ones. Now may Almighty God keep you under his protection, in whatever place he wills you to be, and bring you to heavenly rewards. [c]