Gregory I, Letter to Abbot Mellitus, Epsitola 76, PL 77: 1215-1216



Intro: Mellitus was about to join St. Augustine of Canterbury

on the mission to England. How to deal with a pagan culture,

and its symbols. Gregory I (590-604) recommends a policy

of acculturation.



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Tell Augustine that he should be no means destroy the temples of the

gods but rather the idols within those temples. Let him, after he has

purified them with holy water, place altars and relics of the saints

in them. For, if those temples are well built, they should be converted

from the worship of demons to the service of the true God. Thus, seeing

that their places of worship are not destroyed, the people will banish

error from their hearts and come to places familiar and dear to them

in acknowledgement and worship of the true God.



Further, since it has been their custom to slaughter oxen in

sacrifice, they should receive some solemnity in exchange. Let them

therefore, on the day of the dedication of their churches, or on the

feast of the martyrs whose relics are preserved in them, build themselves

huts around their one-time temples and celebrate the occasion with

religious feasting. They will sacrifice and eat the animals not any

more as an offering to the devil, but for the glory of God to whom,

as the giver of all things, they will give thanks for having been satiated.

Thus, if they are not deprived of all exterior joys, they will more

easily taste the interior ones. For surely it is impossible to efface

all at once everything from their strong minds, just as, when one

wishes to reach the top of a mountain, he must climb by stages

and step by step, not by leaps and bounds....



Mention this to our brother the bishop, that he may dispose of the matter 

as he sees fit according to the conditions of time and place.