Fishing Boat at Anchor
Anonymous engraver after a picture by William Van de Velde (Younger)

“He [Gregory] never abandoned his religious exercises
even amid the concourse of an earthly palace.
For some of his fellow-monks were so devoted to him
that they accompanied him to the Imperial city,
and he began to maintain a regular religious observance with them.

In this way, as he records,
their example proved an anchor-cable
that held him fast
to the peaceful shore of prayer
while he was tossed
on the restless waves of worldly affairs,
and his studies in their company
enabled him to refresh a mind
distracted by earthly concerns.”

Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People p.99