Quote from Letter 5,58 to Virgil, bishop of Arles in Gaul, sent through the priest, John and deacon, Sabinian. 12 August 595
O what a good thing charity is, which through a mental image shows what is absent as present to ourselves, through love, uniting what is devided, putting in order what is confused, levelling what is unequal and completing what is incomplete! The outstanding preacher rightly calls it the 'bond of perfection', because the other virtues certainly generate perfection, but charity binds them together also, so that they cannot now be loosened from the mind of the one who loves. And so I find you, dearest brother, to be filled with this virtue, as testified bothe by these who come from Gaul, and the words of the letter you sent to me.
O what a good thing charity is, which through a mental image shows what is absent as present to ourselves, through love, uniting what is devided, putting in order what is confused, levelling what is unequal and completing what is incomplete! The outstanding preacher rightly calls it the 'bond of perfection', because the other virtues certainly generate perfection, but charity binds them together also, so that they cannot now be loosened from the mind of the one who loves. And so I find you, dearest brother, to be filled with this virtue, as testified bothe by these who come from Gaul, and the words of the letter you sent to me.
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), II, 392
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