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Handout #93 |
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Two ways of envisaging the conversion of pagans |
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Advice given by Pope Gregory the Great to St. Augustine on his mission to England |
| Destroy as few pagan temples as possible; only destroy their idols, sprinkle them with holy water, build altars and put relics in the buildings, so that, if the temples have been well built, you are simply changing their purpose, which was the cult of demons, in order to make a place where from henceforth the true God will be worshipped. Thus the people seeing that their places of worship have not been destroyed, will forget their errors and, having attained knowledge of the true God, will come to worship him in the very places where their ancestors assembled. In former times they used to sacrifice a large number of cattle in honor of demons; there is no need to change their customs at festivals. Thus, on the feast of dedication or on the feasts of martyred saints whose relics have been placed in the church, they should build booths out of branches round the church as they used to round pagan temples, and celebrate the festival with religious banquets... Allowing them to give outward expression to their joy in the same way, you will more easily lead them to know inner joy. For be assured that it is impossible to rid such deluded souls of all their misconceptions at once. You do not climb a mountain in leaps and bounds, but by taking it slowly. Gregory the Great, Letters XI, 56. |
