Letter from Pope Gregory I to Candidus
Overview
Cadidus was appointed by Pope Gregory the Great to serve as the Rector of the Church’s estates in Southern France, known as the Patrimony. He accompanied Augustine’s group on their journey to Kent and made a stop in Lyons to meet Bishop Etherius. A letter in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English from Pope Gregory to Etherius verifies that Candidus was traveling with them. Afterward, Candidus parted ways with Augustine’s group, presumably to manage the estates.
This letter to Candidus is significant because it aligns with Pope Gregory’s desire to convert the island of Britain. According to Bede, Gregory had a deep concern for the “Angli” ever since he witnessed some being sold as slaves in a Roman market before his papal appointment. The letter confirms Bede’s traditional story of Gregory’s compassion for these island people.
Gregory to the priest Candidus, setting out for the patrimony of Gaul.
We desire that, when you proceed with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ to the manage the patrimony in Gaul, you would be so good as to buy clothes, with the money which you will receive, for the poor and English (Angli) boys who are seventeen or eighteen years old, that they may be given to God and educated in the monasteries; to the end that the money of the Gauls, which cannot be spent in our land, may be usefully spent in the place where it is from. If indeed you are able to recover any of the money which is said to have been taken away, with this also we ask you to buy clothes for the poor, and as we have said above, boys who may make progress in the service of God Almighty. However, because those who are there are pagans, I request that a priest accompany them to baptize anyone he deems to be dying in case of illness; be so good, therefore, as to act on this and be prompt in carrying out these things earnestly.
Related Topics
Further Research & References
Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 70-71.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009, p.182.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity. Vol. 1, Beginnings to 1500. New York City, NY: Harper & Row Publishers Inc., 1975.
Southern, R. W. Western Society and the Church in The Middle Ages, New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1970.