Saint Gregory the Great

Pope, Doctor of the Church
(540-604)

Feast March 12

The exact date of Gregory’s birth is uncertain, but is usually estimated to be around the year 540, in the city of Rome, born into a wealthy patrician family with close connections to the church. His parents named him Gregorius, a Greek Name, which signifies in the Latin Tongue, Vigilantius, that is in English, Watchful….” The medieval writer who provided this etymology did not hesitate to apply it to the life of Gregory. Aelfric states, “He was very diligent in God’s Commandments.”

His father, Gordianus, who served as a senator and for a time was the Prefect of the City of Rome, also held the position of Regionarius in the church, though nothing further is known about that position. Gregory’s mother was well-born in Sicily. His mother and two paternal aunts are honored by Catholic and Orthodox churches as saints; Saint Silva and Saints Tarsilla and Emiliana.

Gregory’s great-great-grandfather had been Pope Felix III. Gregory’s election to the throne of St Peter made his family the most distinguished clerical dynasty of the period.

Gregory was born into a period of upheaval in Italy. From 542 the so-called “Plague of Justinian” swept through the provinces of the empire, including Italy. The plague caused famine, panic, and sometimes rioting. In some parts of the country, over 1/3 of the population was wiped out or destroyed, with heavy spiritual and emotional effects on the people of the Empire. Politically, although the Western Roman Empire had long since vanished in favor of the Gothic kings of Italy, during the 540s Italy was gradually retaken from the Goths by Justinian I, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire ruling from Constantinople.

Like most young men of his position in Roman society, Saint Gregory was well educated, learning grammar, rhetoric, the sciences, literature, and law, and excelling in all. Gregory of Tours reported that “in grammar, dialectic and rhetoric … he was second to none….” He wrote correct Latin but did not read or write Greek. He knew Latin authors, natural science, history, mathematics and music and had such a “fluency with imperial law” that he may have trained in it “as a preparation for a career in public life.” Indeed, he became a government official, advancing quickly in rank to become, like his father, Prefect of Rome, the highest civil office in the city, when only thirty-three years old.

On his father’s death in 574 he gave his great wealth to the poor, turned his house on the Caelian Hill into the monastery which now bears his name, and for several years lived as a perfect monk. His famous exposition of the Book of Job dates from his monastic years.

The Pope drew him from his seclusion in 578 to make him one of the seven deacons of Rome; and for seven years he rendered great service to the Church as what we now call Papal Nuncio to the imperial court at Constantinople. He had been sent there to obtain assistance against the Lombard invasions, but returned with a conviction which was a foundation of his later activity, that no help could any longer be obtained from that court. When he was recalled to Rome he became Abbot of his Monastery, which was named after Saint Andrew at the time.

While still a monk the Saint was struck by the sight of some fair-complexioned boys who were exposed for sale in Rome, and heard with sorrow that they were pagans.” And of what race are they?” he asked. “They are Angles. Worthy indeed to be Angels of God”, said he. He at once obtained permission from the Pope to set out to evangelize the English. With several companion monks he had already made a three-day’ journey when the Pope, ceding to the regrets of the Roman people, sent out messengers to overtake and recall them.

589 was one of widespread disaster throughout all the empire. In Italy there was an unprecedented inundation. Farms and houses were carried away by the floods. The Tiber overflowed its banks, destroying numerous buildings, among them the granaries of the Church with all the store of corn. Pestilence followed on the floods, and Rome became a very city of the dead. Business was at a standstill, and the streets were deserted save for the wagons which bore forth countless corpses for burial in common pits beyond the city walls.

Then, in February, 590, as if to fill the cup of misery to the brim, Pelagius II died. The choice of a successor lay with the clergy and people of Rome, and without any hesitation they elected Gregory, Abbot of St. Andrew’s. In spite of their unanimity Gregory shrank from the dignity thus offered him. He knew, no doubt, that its acceptance meant a final good-bye to the cloister life he loved, and so he not only refused to accede to the prayers of his fellow citizens but also wrote personally to the Emperor Maurice, begging him with all earnestness not to confirm the election.

In the interval while awaiting the emperor’s reply the business of the vacant see was transacted by Gregory, in commission with two or three other high officials. As the plague still continued unabated, Gregory called upon the people to join in a vast sevenfold procession which was to start from each of the seven regions of the city and meet at the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin, all praying the while for pardon and the withdrawal of the pestilence. This was accordingly done, and the memory of the event is still preserved by the name “Sant’ Angelo” given to the mausoleum of Hadrian from the legend that the Archangel St. Michael was seen upon its summit in the act of sheathing his sword as a sign that the plague was over.

When a famine struck Rome in the 590s, Pope Gregory ordered the Church to use its assets to feed the poor. Instead of selling the product of the land, he ordered it shipped to Rome and given away for free. In this way, he saved thousands of people from certain death. Pope Gregory himself refused to eat until his monks returned from their work of handing out food. He also made certain to dine with a dozen poor people at each meal. Because of his great respect for the poor, it was Pope Gregory and the Church that became the most respected –and obeyed force in Rome and across Italy.

He healed schisms, revived discipline, and saved Italy by converting the wild Arian Lombards who were laying it waste; he aided in the conversion of the Spanish and French Goths, who also were Arians. He set in order the Church’s prayers and chant. (The mainstream form of Western plainchant, standardized in the late 9th century, was attributed to Pope Gregory I and so took the name of Gregorian chant.)

He is credited with re-energizing the Church’s missionary work among the non-Christian peoples of northern Europe. He is most famous for sending a mission, often called the Gregorian mission, under Augustine of Canterbury, prior of Saint Andrew’s, where he had perhaps succeeded Gregory, to evangelize the pagan Anglo-Saxons of England. It seems that the pope had never forgotten the English slaves whom he had once seen in the Roman Forum. The mission was successful, and it was from England that missionaries later set out for the Netherlands and Germany. The preaching of non-heretical Christian faith and the elimination of all deviations from it was a key element in Gregory’s worldview, and it constituted one of the major continuing policies of his pontificate.

Henry Hart Milman states: “Saint Gregory was not a man of profound learning, not a philosopher, not a conversationalist, hardly even a theologian in the constructive sense of the term. He was a trained Roman lawyer and administrator, a monk, a missionary, a preacher, above all a physician of souls and a leader of men. His great claim to remembrance lies in the fact that he is the real father of the medieval papacy.”

With regard to things spiritual, he impressed upon the minds of men the fact that the See of Peter was the one supreme, decisive authority in the Catholic Church. Since then the varied populations of Italy looked to the pope for guidance, and Rome as the papal capital continued to be the center of the Christian world.

Fourteen years his pontificate was a perfect model of ecclesiastical rule. Guiding and consoling pastors with innumerable letters, and preaching incessantly, most effectively by his own example. Many of his sermons are still extant and are famous for their constant use of Holy Scripture. His writings are numerous and include fourteen books of his letters.

Saint Gregory I died in 604, worn out by austerities and toils. The Church includes him among her four great Latin doctors, and reveres him as Saint Gregory the Great.
[1]Magnificat, Editions. “Lives of the Saints.” Saint Gregory the Great, Pope, Doctor of the Church. Sanctoral, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2017. <http://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_gregory_the_great.html>

[2]”Pope Gregory I.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Mar. 2017. Web. 11 Mar. 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_I>.

[3]Online, Catholic. “Pope Saint Gregory the Great – Saints & Angels.” Catholic Online. Catholic Online, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2017. <http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=54#fun-facts>.

[4]”Pope St. Gregory I (“the Great”).” CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Gregory the Great. New Advent, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2017. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06780a.htm>.