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ID
ER 293
In a vision, a dying soldier sees a presbyter of pure life crossing a bridge to paradise. Account of Gregory the Great, "Dialogues", Rome, AD 593/594.
IV 37.11-12
 
A certain soldier on his deathbed died and then suddenly came back to life. He then described what he had just seen: in the afterlife there is a bridge leading to paradise. Only the worthy can cross it and the wicked fall from it into the stinking river below.
 
12. Ibi se etiam quemdam peregrinum presbiterum uidisse fatebatur, qui ad praedictum pontem ueniens, tanta per eum auctoritate transiit, quanta et hic sinceritate uixit.
 
(ed. de Vogüé 1980: 106-108)
IV 37.11-12
 
A certain soldier on his deathbed died and then suddenly came back to life. He then described what he had just seen: in the afterlife there is a bridge leading to paradise. Only the worthy can cross it and the wicked fall from it into the stinking river below.
 
12. He [the soldier] also admitted that he had seen there a certain travelling [peregrinus] presbyter, who, approaching the said bridge, crossed it with as much confidence as he lived in purity.
 
(trans. J. Szafranowski)

Discussion:

The word peregrinus that describes a presbyter in this passage  is ambiguous. It may just mean that he was travelling through the underworld (i.e. crossing the bridge to paradise). However, it may also indicate that he was a "foreign" presbyter, whatever that may signify.
 
Sinceritas, "purity", may indicate a sexual purity or just general integrity and honesty.

Place of event:

Region
  • Rome
City
  • Rome

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:

Sexual life - Sexual abstinence
    Travel and change of residence
      Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
        Fame of sanctity
          Reverenced by
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER293, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=293
            Record by: Jerzy Szafranowski
            last edited: 2019-08-09 12:01:46
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