Pope Gregory the Great → Natalis, of Salona
Tradução moderna em inglês
Book I, Letter 21
To Natalis, Bishop of Salona [modern Split, Croatia].
Gregory to Natalis.
Your deacon Stephen delivered your letter of congratulations, and we received it gladly. A greeting offered with genuine warmth deserves to be believed as such, and it's right that a bishop should share in the joy of a fellow bishop's appointment. We're glad you wrote.
I'll be honest: I took on this office with a heavy heart. But since I couldn't resist God's will, I've managed to find some peace with it. I'm writing to ask for your prayers — for me, and for the Christian flock now in my care — so that we may have the strength, with that support, to endure whatever these times throw at us.
The month of February; ninth Indiction [591 AD].
Texto inglês de origem
Book I, Letter 21 To Natalis, Bishop of Salona. Gregory to Natalis, etc. We have received at the hands of the deacon Stephen, whom you sent to us, the letters of your Reverence, wherein you congratulate us on our promotion. And truly what has been offered in the kindness and earnestness of charity demands full credence, reason having prompted your pontifical order to rejoice with us. We therefore, being cheered by your greeting, declare in conscience that I undertook the burden of dignity with a sick heart. But, seeing that I could not resist the divine decrees, I have recovered a more cheerful frame of mind. Wherefore we write to entreat your Reverence that both we and the Christian flock committed to our care may enjoy the succour of your prayers, to the end that in the security of that protection we may have power to overcome the hurricanes of these times. The month of February, ninth indiction.