Quote from Letter 7,11 to Rufinus, bishop of Ephesus. October 596
The bearer of this letter wanted to be recommended in your presence by our letters, but when I asked him whether he had learnt to write, as a cleric should be able to do, he replied he did not know how to. And so, I do not know what greater recommendation we should make for him before your Fraternity, other than that you ought to be concerned sbout his soul, and watch over him with pastoral care.
Thus, as he does not know how to read, your tongue must be his book, and he must see in the goodness of your preaching and work what he should imitate. For a living voice is often likely to attract the heart more closely that a cursory reading of a text.
But, while you supply him inwardly with this spiritual learning as his teacher, show plenty of external concern for him also, so that, assisted by this, he might come to seek spiritual things.
The bearer of this letter wanted to be recommended in your presence by our letters, but when I asked him whether he had learnt to write, as a cleric should be able to do, he replied he did not know how to. And so, I do not know what greater recommendation we should make for him before your Fraternity, other than that you ought to be concerned sbout his soul, and watch over him with pastoral care.
Thus, as he does not know how to read, your tongue must be his book, and he must see in the goodness of your preaching and work what he should imitate. For a living voice is often likely to attract the heart more closely that a cursory reading of a text.
But, while you supply him inwardly with this spiritual learning as his teacher, show plenty of external concern for him also, so that, assisted by this, he might come to seek spiritual things.
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), II, 464
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