Letter 2
Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to the most excellent lord, our son Reccared, king of the Visigoths.
The joy that your letter brought me is beyond my ability to express in words. What God has accomplished through you in the Gothic kingdom — the conversion of a whole people from the Arian error to the Catholic faith — is a work that will be spoken of as long as the Church endures in the West.
I want to say something plainly that I hope you will receive as the counsel of a father rather than the correction of a superior: the conversion of a people is not completed in a council, however magnificent that council was. It is completed in the lives of the people and in the formation of a church that can sustain and deepen the faith that the council proclaimed. This will require good bishops — men of learning, holiness, and pastoral commitment. It will require clergy who can explain and celebrate the faith they now hold. It will require patience with those whose understanding of the change is incomplete and whose habits of worship were formed in the old ways.
You have accomplished the great thing. Now comes the long, slow, necessary work of making it real in every parish and every household.
I send with this letter a small gift and my prayers for your kingdom.
Gregory, bishop of Rome
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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