The Malta Classics Association is organising a public lecture entitled 'Ritual Purity in the Correspondence between Gregory the Great and Augustine of Canterbury'.

The public lecture will be delivered by Rev.Prof. Hector Scerri, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Theology.

Date and time: Thursday 16 May at 19:00. 

Venue: Room 207, Department of Classics and Archaeology, Archaeology Farmhouse

Abstract

The lecture investigates the replies given by Pope Gregory the Great to Bishop Augustine of Canterbury, c.600. The answers given by Gregory denote a certain dependence on Levitical laws on ritual purity, although at the same time, a great deal of pragmatism is shown by the Pope. The latter's deep insights on human nature are to be appreciated. The magnanimous advice Gregory gives in the text is based on natural law, enlightened by divine revelation, and wisely adapted with open-mindedness, clarity and pastoral solicitude. The letter is normally found as the 37th in volume 8 of Gregory the Great's Registrum epistularum. Other collections place it elsewhere.