Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 269
Sanctulus, presbyter in Norcia (Italy), hires workers to rebuild a church burned by the Lombards, AD 568/593. Account of Gregory the Great, "Dialogues", Rome, AD 593/594.
III 37.4-7
 
4. Alio quoque tempore uehemens ubique famis incubuerat, et beati Laurentii martyris ecclesia a Langobardis fuerat incensa. Quam uir Dei restaurare cupiens, multos artifices ac plures subministrantes operarios adhibuit. Quibus necesse erat ut cotidiani sumptus laborantibus sine dilatione praeberentur, sed exigente eiusdem famis necessitate panis defuit. Coeperunt laborantes instanter uictum quaerere, quia uires ad laborem per inopiam non haberent. Quod uir Dei audiens, eos uerbis consolabatur foras promittendo quod deerat, sed ipse grauiter anxiabatur intus, exhibere cibum non ualens quem promittebat.
 
5-7. Gregory narrates how Sanctulus was able to supply workers with bread by multiplying one loaf of bread he had miraculously found.
 
(ed. de Vogüé 1979: 414-416, summurised by J. Szafranowski)
III 37.4-7
 
4.At another time a terrible famine spread everywhere and the church of Saint Laurentius the Martyr was burned by the Lombards. The man of God, desiring to repair it, hired many workers (subministrantes operarios). The labourers needed to be supplied without delay with daily provisions but, because of the said famine, bread was scarce. The workers started to urgently demand provisions, because they were not able to work due to destitution. Hearing that, the man of God comforted them with [soothing] words and promised [to supply them] with what was lacking. However, within himself he was deeply anxious, not knowing where to get the food he had promised.
 
5-7. Gregory narrates how Sanctulus was able to supply workers with bread by multiplying one loaf of bread he had miraculously found.
 
(trans. Gardner 1911: 167-168; changed and summarised by J. Szafranowski)

Place of event:

Region
  • Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
City
  • Norcia

About the source:

Author: Gregory the Great
Title: Dialogues, Dialogorum Gregorii Papae libri quatuor de miraculis Patrum Italicorum, Dialogi
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
Gregory the Great wrote his Dialogues between 593 and 594 in Rome when he was the Bishop of this city. They were written in order to present lives and miracles of Italian saints, many of them contemporary to Gregory, and the greatest of them, saint Benedict of Nurcia. The Dialogues are divided into four books in which Gregory tells the stories of various saints to Peter, who was a deacon and a friend of Gregory, and is also known from the Gregory`s private correspondence.
Edition:
Grégoire le Grand, Dialogues, ed. A. de Vogüé, Sources Chretiennes 251, 260, 265, Paris 1978-1980.

Categories:

Food/Clothes/Housing - Food and drink
Functions within the Church - Urban presbyter
Fame of sanctity
Ecclesiastical administration - Construction/Renovation
Economic status and activity - Wage labour
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER269, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=269