retations of
that sacred book, in such a manner as to reduce into one body the most
excellent principles of morality, and also of an interior life, of both
which this admirable work hath been ever since regarded as the great
storehouse and armory. Out of it St. Isidore, St. Thomas, and other
masters of those holy sciences have chiefly drawn their sublime maxims.
Mauritius having married the daughter of Tiberius, in 582, who had the
empire for her dowry, St. Gregory was pitched upon to stand godfather to
his eldest son. Eutychius was at that time patriarch of
Constantinople.[5] This prelate, having suffered for the faith under
Justinian, fell at length into an error, importing, that after the
general resurrection the glorified bodies of the elect will be no longer
palpable, but of a more subtile texture than air. This error he couched
in a certain book which he wrote. St. Gregory was alarmed, and held
several conferences with the patriarch upon that subject, both in
private and before the emperor, and clearly demonstrated from the
scriptures, that the glorified bodies of the saints will be the same
which they had on earth, only delivered from the appendices of
mortality; and that they will be palpable as {571} that of Christ was
after his resurrection.[6] The good bishop being docile and humble,
retracted his mistake and shortly after falling sick, in presence of the
emperor, who had honored him with a visit, taking hold of his skin with
his hand, said: "I profess the belief that we shall all rise in this
very flesh."[7]

Pope Pelagius recalled St. Gregory in 584. He brought with him to Rome
an arm of St. Andrew, and the head of St. Luke, which the emperor had
given him. He placed both these relics in his monastery of St. Andrew,
where the former remains to this day; but the latter has been removed
thence to St. Peter's, where it still continues. The saint with joy saw
himself restored to the tranquillity of his cell, where he eagerly
desired to bury himself with regard to the world, from which he had fled
naked into this secure harbor; because, as he signified to St. Leander,
he saw how difficult a thing it is to converse with the world without
contracting inordinate attachments.[8] Pope Pelagius also made him his
secretary. He still continued to govern his monastery, in which he
showed a remarkable instance of severity. Justus, one of his monks, had
acquired and kept privately three pieces of gold, which he confessed o