Quote from Letter to Chrystantus, bishop of Spoleto. June 599
And so we urge your Fraternity that, if indeed they [the clerics of the church of Bevagna] can find such a person as might be worthy of the hight office of bishop, you should direct him here with all speed, with the solemnity of a decree and testimony of your letter.
But is one cannot be found now, look out for persons with all seal and vigor who could be consecrated there with the rank of bishop. Carefully examine their way of live and their actions first of all, in such a way that neither the sacred canons nor the rules of the Church could in any way be an obstacle to them, and so that the people living there, since they complain tearfully that they have been deprived through their lack of priests, may with this provision rejoice at receiving communion, and in those churches they may no longer lack the hole solemnities of Mass.
And so we urge your Fraternity that, if indeed they [the clerics of the church of Bevagna] can find such a person as might be worthy of the hight office of bishop, you should direct him here with all speed, with the solemnity of a decree and testimony of your letter.
But is one cannot be found now, look out for persons with all seal and vigor who could be consecrated there with the rank of bishop. Carefully examine their way of live and their actions first of all, in such a way that neither the sacred canons nor the rules of the Church could in any way be an obstacle to them, and so that the people living there, since they complain tearfully that they have been deprived through their lack of priests, may with this provision rejoice at receiving communion, and in those churches they may no longer lack the hole solemnities of Mass.
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), II, 648.
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