Letter 11020: The bearer of this letter is Candidus the abbot, a man of God whom I commend to your care and hospitality.
When Candidus the abbot, the bearer of this present letter, came here to request relics, which have indeed been granted, the more I rejoiced at the nourishment of your brotherliness, because in him the zeal of your brotherliness appeared, the more I was grieved that I could not, as I wished, enjoy his presence, for the reason that he both found me sick and, when departing, left me still laid up in infirmity. For it has now been a long time that I am unable to rise from my bed. For at one moment the pain of gout torments me, at another I know not what fire spreads itself with pain throughout my whole body; and it usually happens that at one and the same time the burning together with the pain wage war within me, and both my body and my spirit fail within me. But with how many other necessities of infirmity, beyond these which I have recounted, I am afflicted, I am unable to enumerate. But I say briefly that the infection of a noxious humor so soaks me through that to live is a torment to me, but that I long for and await death, which alone I believe can be a remedy for my groanings. Therefore, most holy brother, beseech for me the mercy of the divine compassion, that it may graciously soften the scourges of its chastisement toward me and grant me the patience to endure, lest, which God forbid, my heart break out into impatience through excessive weariness, and lest that fault, which could have been healed by the blow, increase through murmuring.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Latore hic praesentium Candido abbate^ pro petendis reliquiis, quae et con-
cessae* sunt, yeniente, quanto de fratemitatis tuae nutrimento laetatus sum, quod in
eo studium^ tuae fratemitatis appamit, tanto contristatus sum, quod eius*', ut volui,
praesentia frai non potui, propter^ quod me et aegrotum repperit et discedens* in
infirmitate adhuc positum dereliquit^. Multum enim iam tempus est, quod surgere de
lecto non valeo. Nam modo podagrae dolor craciat', modo nescio quis in toto corpore
cum dolore se ignis expandit; et fit plemmque, ut uno in me tempore ardor cum
dolore confligat et corpus in me animusque deficiat. Quantis autem aliis^ necessitatibus
extra haec quae** retuli» infirmitatis afficiar, enumerare non valeo. Sed breviter dico,
quia sic me infectio noxii humoris inbibit, ut vivere mihi poena sit, sed mortem deside-
ranter*^ expectem, quam gemitibus meis solam esse credo posse^ remedium. Proinde,
firater sanctissime, divinae pro me pietatis misericordiam deprecare, ut percussionis
suae erga me flagella™ propitius mitiget et patientiam tolerandi° concedat, ne nimio,
quod absit, taedio in impatientiam'' '* cor emmpat^ et ea^ quae decurari' per plagam
poterat culpa crescat ex murmure.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern gregory great retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/gregoriiipapaer00greggoog
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