To Claudius in Spain, Commending the Abbot Cyriacus

Gregory to Claudius, and so on. [a]

Since the fame of good deeds is fragrant like ointment, the scent of your glory has spread from the West all the way here. Sprinkled with the sweetness of that breath, I declare that I loved greatly someone I did not know, and in the depths of my heart I took hold of you with the hand of love. Nor did I love without already knowing him to be a man whose good qualities I had learned of. For of someone who is known to me by great depth of feeling, though unknown to my bodily sight, I can truly say without doubt that I know the person, though I do not know his home. Now this is a great proof of your good name: it is said that your glory holds devotedly to the excellent king of the Goths. For since good men always displease bad ones, it is certain that you are good, since you have pleased one who is good. For this reason, greeting you as is your due, I hope that you are being exercised in the things you have begun, so that the true saying of Solomon may be fulfilled in you: “The path of the just is like a shining light, and grows to the perfect day” (Proverbs 4, verse 18). For now that the light of truth shines on us, and the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom opens itself to our minds, it is indeed already day, but not yet the perfect day. It will be the perfect day then, when there is no longer anything of the night of sin in our souls. But grow on toward the perfect day, so that, until the heavenly homeland appears, good works may spread and increase here, and the fruit of the reward in the recompense to come may be all the greater as the earnestness of the labor has grown now. So we commend to your glory our most beloved son Cyriacus, the father of our monastery, so that once he has carried out what he was charged with, nothing may hinder him and delay his return. May Almighty God guard you by the protection of his heavenly arm, and grant you to be glorious both now among men and, after long courses of years, among the angels. [b]