Letter to the Georgian Catholicos Kirion I

In this letter to St. Gregory the Great (Dvoeslov) answers questions from the Georgian Catholicos Kirion I regarding the practice of admitting into the fold of the Catholic Church clergy and laity who previously belonged to various heretical movements, in particular Nestorianism. The saint sets forth principles based on the ancient tradition of the Fathers of the Church, distinguishing approaches to reception depending on the form of baptism performed in heresy (in the name of the Most Holy Trinity or not), and on heretical errors. Particular attention is paid to the Nestorians, whose acceptance requires a firm confession of faith “in one and the same Son of God and Son of Man, our Lord Jesus Christ,” and the anathematization of Nestorius. St. Gregory calls for mercy and pastoral care in the conversion of heretics, preserving their priestly degrees if possible, in order to avoid resistance and promote their reunification with the Church. Gregory to Bishop Kirion and other Catholic bishops in Iberia Since nothing is too far for love, let a letter connect what is separated by distance. Your envoy, having reached the Church of Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, reported that he had received letters for us from your brotherhood and lost them along with other things in the city of Jerusalem. In these letters, according to him, you want to know how to deal with clergy and laity who, being confused by the Nestorian heresy, return to the Catholic Church, the Mother of all the elect, namely: whether to accept them into her bosom through baptism, or through the confession of the true faith. We have learned from the ancient institution of the Fathers that all who are baptized in heresy in the name of the Trinity (ut quilibet apud haeresim in Trinitatis nomine baptizantur), when they return to the Mother Church, should call into her bosom either by anointing with chrism, or by the laying on of hands, or only by confession of faith (aut unctione chrismatis aut impositione manus aut sola professione fidei ad sinum Matris Ecclesiae revocentur). Therefore, Arians are accepted into the Catholic Church in the West through the laying on of hands, and in the East through anointing with myrrh. Monophysites and others are accepted through the mere confession of the true faith, since the holy baptism that they received from heretics then takes on the power of purification in them, when those (Arians) receive the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands, and these (Monophysites) unite with the bosom of the Holy Universal Church through the confession of the true faith (quia sanctum baptisma, quod sunt apud haereticos consecuti, tunc in eis vires emundationis accipit, cum vel illi per impositionem manus spiritum sanctum acceperint uel isti per professionem verae fidei sanctae et uniuersali Ecclesiae visceribus fuerint uniti). Those heretics who were baptized not in the name of the Trinity, such as the Bonosians and Catafriges, of whom the former do not believe in Christ as the Lord, and the latter, from a perverted understanding, believe in a certain vicious man Montanus as the Holy Spirit, and others like them, when they return to the Holy Church, are baptized, since what they received in heresy not in the name of the Holy Trinity was not baptism. And this baptism [after returning to the Church] cannot be called repeated, since, as stated above, what was given [previously] was not given in the name of the Trinity (nec potest hoc ipsum baptisma dici iteratum, quod, sicut dictum est, in Trinitatis nomine non erat datum). The Nestorians accept baptism in the name of the Trinity, but they, who are like the infidel Jews and do not believe in the incarnation of the Only Begotten, are overshadowed by the error of their heresy. Therefore, when they come to the holy Catholic Church, they must be taught steadfastness and profession of faith, so that they believe in the same Son of God and Son of Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was divine before the ages, and became man at the end of the ages, for “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). We say that the Word became flesh, not losing what it was, but accepting what it was not. For the Only Begotten of the Father in the mystery of the Incarnation was enriched by ours and did not diminish His own. So, the Word and the flesh are one person, as He himself said: “No one has ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who came down from heaven and is in heaven” (John 3:13). He who is the Son of God in heaven was the Son of Man who spoke on earth. Therefore John said: “We also know that the Son of God came and gave us understanding” (1 John 5:20). And he immediately added: “Let us know the true God.” Who does he speak of as “true God” if not the Almighty Father? And he added what he knows about the almighty Son: “and that we may be in His true Son Jesus Christ.” Now, he said that the Father is the true God, that Jesus Christ is His true Son. And what he knows about the true Son, he said even more clearly: “This is the true God and eternal life.” If, according to the error of Nestorius, one were the Word, and the other was Jesus Christ, the true man, then, of course, [Jesus Christ] would not be “true God and eternal life.” But the Word, before all ages the Only Begotten of the Father, became man. He is the true God and eternal life. Of course, when the Holy Virgin was about to conceive Him and heard an Angel speaking to Her, She said: “Behold, the Servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). And when She, having conceived Him, came to Her relative Elizabeth, she immediately heard from her: “Where am I worthy for the Mother of my Lord to come to me?” (unde ego digna, ut mater Domini mei veniat ad me?) (cf. Luke 1:43). Behold, the same Virgin is called both the Servant of the Lord and the Mother. The Servant of the Lord because the Word, even before the Only Begotten, was equal to the Father, and the Mother - because in Her womb from the Holy Spirit from Her own flesh [this Word] became man. Not the Slave of one and the Mother of the other, for when the One who existed before the age was born as a man from Her womb, She, by an incomprehensible miracle, became both the Slave of man according to divinity, and the Mother of the Word according to the flesh. It is not that first flesh was conceived in the womb, and then the Divinity descended upon this flesh, but immediately, as soon as the Word entered the womb, It, retaining the power of His nature, became flesh (sed mox Verbum venit in utero, mox Verbum servata propriae virtute naturae factum est caro). And the Only Begotten Son of God was born through the womb of the Virgin as a perfect man, that is, in true flesh and with a true rational soul. That is why He is called anointed before those who are partakers of Himself, as the psalmist said: “O God, your God has anointed you with the oil of joy and is more than your partaker” (Ps. 44:8). He is anointed with oil, that is, with the gift of the Holy Spirit. And before those involved he was anointed, because we were all formerly sinners, but afterward we are sanctified through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He who was God before the ages, at the end of the ages was conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, and was anointed with the same Holy Spirit where he was conceived. Not that he was first conceived and then anointed, but the same One who was conceived in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit was [immediately] also anointed by the Holy Spirit. All who return from the Nestorian error must confess this truth of His birth before the holy assembly of your brotherhood, anathematizing Nestorius with his followers and other heresies. And when they promise to honor and accept the venerable councils accepted by the Universal Church, then let your holiness, without any doubt, accept them into your assembly, preserving their degrees [of the priesthood]. [This is done in order] so that you can dispel the darkness of their minds with care, and through true knowledge teach them what is right, which they should adhere to, and by meekness not create any opposition or difficulty with their own degrees [of the priesthood], and so snatch them from the jaws of the ancient enemy. And so that your reward of eternal glory from Almighty God may increase as many as you gather together, so that together with you they may be endlessly glorified in the Lord. May the Holy Trinity, to whom you pray for us, protect you with His protection and multiply your gifts in His love.