St. Leo the Great, a.d. 460, in a discourse on the anniversary of his election to the Pontificate, says, 'If anything in our time and by us is well administered and rightly ordained, it is to be ascribed to his operation and to his government, to whom it was said, "Thou being converted, confirm thy brethren," and to whom after His resurrection, in answer to his threefold declaration of everlasting love, the Lord with mystical meaning thrice said, "Feed my sheep."'[1]
St. Gelasius, a.d. 496, writes to Honorius, Bishop of Dalmatia, 'Though we are hardly able to draw breath in the manifold difficulties of the times; yet in the government of the Apostolic See we unceasingly have in hand the care of the whole fold of the Lord, which was committed to blessed Peter by the voice of our Saviour Himself, "And thou being converted, confirm thy brethren," and again, " Peter, lovest thou Me? Feed My sheep."'[2]
Pelagius II., a.d. 590, in like manner writes to the Bishops of Istria, 4 For you know how the Lord in the gospel declares: Simon, Simon, behold Satan has desired you that he might sift you as wheat, but I
- ↑ Tantam potentiam dedit ei quem totius Ecclesiæ principem fecit, ut si quid etiam nostris temporibus recte per nos agitur recteque disponitur illius operibus illius sit gubernaculis deputandum, cui dictum est, Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos; et cui post resurrectionem suam Dominus ad trinam æterni amoris professionem mystica insinuatione ter dixit, Pasce oves meas.—St. Leo, serm. iv. cap. iv. tom. i. p. 19, ed. Ballerini, Venice, 1753.
- ↑ Licet inter varias temporum difficultates vix respirare valeamus, pro sedis tamen apostolicæ moderamine totius ovilis dominici curam sine cessatione tractantes, quæ beato Petro salvatoris ipsius nostri voce delegata est, Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos; et item, Petre, amas me? pasce oves meas.—St. Gelasius, epist. v.; in Labbe, Concil. tom. v. p. 298, Venice, 1728.
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