The Presbyters Project

Letter 167 [inc. "Epistolas fraternitatis tuae"]

Leo responds on the queries of Rusticus in the form of questions and answers:

Inquisitio 9. — De his, qui dolore nimio perurgente rogant dari sibi poenitentiam, et cum venerit presbyter daturus quod petebant, si dolor parum perquieverit, excusant et nolunt accipere quod offeretur.

Responsum. — Dissimulatio haec potest non de contemtu esse remedii, sed de metu gravius delinquendi. Unde poenitentia, quae dilata est, cum studiosius petita fuerit, non negetur, ut quoquo modo ad indulgentiae medicinam anima vulnerata perveniat.

(Patrologia Latina 54, 1206 = Ballerini 1753: 1424)

Letter 167 [inc. "Epistolas fraternitatis tuae"]

Leo responds on the queries of Rusticus in the form of questions and answers:

Question 9. — Concerning those who under pressure of great pain ask for penance to be granted them, and when the presbyter has come to give what they seek, if the pain has abated somewhat, make excuses and refuse to accept what is offered.

Reply. — This tergiversation cannot proceed from contempt of the remedy but from fear of falling into worse sin. Hence the penance which is put off, when it is more earnestly sought must not be denied in order that the wounded soul may in whatever way attain to the healing of absolution.

(trans. Ch. Lett Feltoe 1895: 111)

Discussion:

Place of event:

Region

Rome
Gaul

City

Rome
Narbonne

About the source:

Author: Leo the Great
Title: Letters, Epistulae
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Leo the Great was the bishop of Rome from AD 440 to his death in AD 461. We have the collection of 173 letters of Leo.

The present letter is not dated and various possible datings were proposed in the scholarship. The most convincing is a conjecture of Ballerini that the letter was written not before 458:

1) Leo`s letters safely dated to 458 such as Letter 159 to Bishop Nicetas of Aquileia and Letter 166 to Bishop Neo of Ravenna also mention Romans held in captivity by the pagan or heretical barbarians;

2) in Letter 166 to Neo of Ravenna (dated to 23 October 458), Leo refers to a problem of former Roman captives who return home not knowing whether they were baptized or not, as something new and unheard; the same issue is discussed by Leo in the letter of Rusticus which needs to be later than that to Neo.

The letter was written before 461, the year of death of Leo, but also before the episcopal promotion of the Archdeacon Hermes which took place still during the pontificate of Leo (see PCBE, Gaule, v. 1, Hermes).

Edition:

P. and G. Ballerini eds., Sancti Leoni Magni Romani pontificis opera, vol. 1, Venice 1753

Patrologia Latina, vol. 54

Translation:

Leo the Great, Letters, trans. Ch. Lett Feltoe, [in:] The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, 2nd series, vol. 12, Edinburgh 1895, 1-114

Bibliography:

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Ritual activity - Reconciliation/Administering penance

Pastoral activity - Visiting the sick

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1816, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1816