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 Saint Gregory the Great Scott Italy 2766 (2006)  Altarpiece from the Church of St. Zeno by Mantegna Pope St. Gregory I and John the Baptist Scott 1326 (2006) The Feast of Pope Saint Gregory I falls on September 3 on the Liturgical Calendar. Serving as pope from 590 to 604 AD, he, along with Pope St. Leo I (440-461) and sometimes Pope St. Nicholas I (858-867), are referred to as 'the Great'. There are certainly reasons for these designations, but they are popular titles, not an official proclamation by the Catholic Church. In historical context, Gregory I can be considered the last of the popes of the Roman Empire era, or the first of the line of medieval popes. In any event, he is a ‘hinge’ between the two historical eras. Historian David Farmer states: "His care for other Western churches was matched by few popes before his time and contributed to the emergence of the medieval papacy."Gregory termed himself ‘the servant of the servants of God,’ a title retained by popes today. Born around the year 540 as the son of a Roman senator, Gregory would go on to found seven monasteries, six in Sicily and one in Rome. He was selected as one of the seven deacons of Rome and also served as papal ambassador to Byzantium (Constantinople) for six years, and then resumed the life of a monk only to be elected pope in 590. This was at a time when an outbreak of plague, floods, famine, and a Lombard invasion ravaged the region. Gregory negotiated a peace with the Lombards, without reference to the emperor’s exarch in Ravenna. He also appointed governors of Italian towns and managed the estates of the Church (the ‘Patrimony of St. Peter’). With the absence of imperial order and little assistance from Ravenna, Gregory acted as both a civil and religious ruler. Gregory is known as the ‘Apostle of the English,’ because he sent the monk Augustine to Canterbury (to King Aethelberg and Queen Bertha of Kent) beginning in 596. Queen Bertha, a Frankish princess, may have been Christian. This led to the slow reconversion of England in subsequent centuries, which Gregory was to follow and encourage. Another of Gregory’s contributions was to promote the knowledge of the early Fathers of the Church to the newly-converted of Europe (including Origen, Augustine of Hippo, and Ambrose of Milan), as well as his own homilies, letters, and writings. He inspired various liturgical reforms, some of which were completed after his death, and promoted Gregorian Chant and plainsong. Although his monastery did not follow the Benedictine Rule, he wrote a Life of St. Benedict, which is a main source about the founder of Western Monasticism. As evidence of his eloquence, this except from an Easter homily is an example: "There are two lives; one of which we knew, the other we did not know of. The one is mortal, the other immortal; the one linked with human infirmity, the other to incorruption; one is marked for death, the other for resurrection. The Mediator between God and man, the Man Jesus Christ, came, and took upon Himself the one, and revealed to us the other. The one He endured by dying; the other He revealed when He rose from the dead. Had He then foretold to us, who knew His mortal life, the Resurrection of His Body, and had not visibly shown it to us, who would believe in His promises? So, becoming Man, He shows Himself in our flesh; of His own will He suffered death; by His own power He rose from the dead; and by this proof He showed us that which He promises as a reward."Artistic renditions of Pope Gregory I often show a dove over his shoulder (as depicted on the Italian stamp at top of this article). The dove is often used to symbolize the Holy Spirit, from whom Gregory drew inspiration for his writings. Here is another rendition of the pope with a dove:  "Saint Gregory the Great" by Jusepe de Ribera (circa 1614) From Wikimedia Commons, in the Public Domain Gregory suffered from ill health (such as gout) much of his life, and died in 604. He was buried in Old St. Peter’s Basilica, and his tomb was restored in 1606 with the construction of New St. Peter’s. He was acclaimed a saint shortly after his death, and was named as one of the Four Great Doctors of the Western Church, along with St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Jerome, and St. Ambrose as part of the first dedication of Church Doctors by the decree of Pope Boniface VIII in 1298. REFERENCES: |
