To Theodelinda, Queen of the Lombards, on the Baptism of Her Son

Gregory to Queen Theodelinda. The letters you sent us a little while ago from the region of Genoa have made us share in your joy, for we learned that by the favor of Almighty God a son has been given you, and that, greatly to your excellency’s credit, he has been received into the fellowship of the catholic faith. Nor indeed was anything else to be expected of your Christianity than that you would strengthen with the support of catholic uprightness the child you have received as God’s gift, so that our Redeemer might both acknowledge you as his own servant and also bring up a new king for the nation of the Lombards to prosper in his fear. So we pray Almighty God both to keep you in the way of his commandments and to make our most excellent son Adaloald grow in his love, so that, as he is great among men in this world, he may also be glorious for his good deeds before the eyes of our God. [a]

Now as to your excellency’s request in your letter, that we should reply in full to what our most beloved son the abbot Secundus has written: who could think of putting off his petition or your wishes, knowing how much good they would do to many, if sickness did not stand in the way? But so severe an attack of gout has held us fast that we can hardly get up, not only to dictate, but even to speak. Your envoys, who carry this letter, know it too: when they arrived they found us weak, and when they left they left us in the utmost peril and danger of our life. But if by the ordering of Almighty God I recover, I will reply in full to everything he has written. I have, however, sent by the bearers of this letter the synod that was held in the time of Justinian of pious memory, so that my most beloved son may see on reading it that everything he had heard against the Apostolic See or the catholic church was false. For far be it from us to accept the views of any heretic whatever, or to depart in any respect from the Tome of our predecessor Leo, of holy memory. But we receive whatever has been defined by the four holy synods, and we condemn whatever they have rejected. [c]

Further, we have taken care to send our son King Adaloald some phylacteries: that is, a cross containing wood of the holy cross of the Lord, and a reading from the holy Gospel enclosed in a Persian case. To my daughter, his sister, I am also sending three rings, two of them set with hyacinths and one with an albula. I ask that they be given to them through you, so that our love for them may be seasoned by your excellency. [e] Furthermore, while we pay you our duty of greeting with a father’s love, we ask you to thank our most excellent son the king, your husband, on our behalf for the peace that has been made, and, as you have been in the habit of doing, to move his mind toward peace in every way in the future; so that among your many good deeds you may find a reward in the sight of God in an innocent people, who might have perished in the strife. [f]