Stand By Your Calling

Letter 2,26 - to Stephen, our recorder for Sicily, on the restoration of monks. 19 May 592.

"And so it has been suggested to us by the abbot of the monastery of Saint George, which is situated in the domain called Maratodis, that two monks have taken refuge there, and one of them has in fact already taken a wife from the locals, while the other lives a secular life, having become a layman.
They themselves assert that they are not from slaves of the domain, but are free men. But even if they have been tied to their situation, it was contrary to God that after receiving the sacrament of the divine office, they should go back to their secular life and clothing.
For that reason I encourage you to take consideration of the eternal judge, and make the monks hand themselves over without delay, so that the strictness of the other monasteries is not weakened by their example, with you at fault (God forbid!). But rather, with the support of your Greatness, let the hope of doing such things be removed from all other monks."

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 208.