Pope Gregory I

"Saint Gregory" redirects here. For other uses, see Saint Gregory (disambiguation).
Pope Saint
Gregory I

Pope Gregory dictating the Gregorian chant
Papacy began 3 September 590
Papacy ended 12 March 604
Predecessor Pelagius II
Successor Sabinian
Orders
Consecration 3 September 590
Personal details
Birth name Gregorius Anicius
Born c. 540
Rome, Byzantine Empire
Died 12 March 604(604-03-12) (aged 64)
Rome, Byzantine Empire
Buried St. Peter's Basilica (1606)
Residence Rome
Parents Gordianus & Silvia
Sainthood
Feast day
  • 3 September (Roman Catholic Church)
  • 12 March (Eastern Churches, Anglicanism, Lutheranism)
Venerated in
Attributes
Patronage
Other popes named Gregory

Pope Gregory I (Latin: Gregorius I; c. 540 – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great,[1] was Pope from 3 September 590 to his death in 604. Gregory is well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope.[2] He is also known as St. Gregory the Dialogist in Eastern Christianity because of his Dialogues. For this reason, English translations of Eastern texts will sometimes list him as Gregory "Dialogos" or the Latinized equivalent "Dialogus".

A senator's son and himself the Prefect of Rome at 30, Gregory tried the monastery but soon returned to active public life, ending his life and the century as pope. Although he was the first pope from a monastic background, his prior political experiences may have helped him to be a talented administrator, who successfully established papal supremacy. He was stronger than the emperors of declining Rome, and challenged the power of the Patriarch of Constantinople in the battle between East and West. Gregory regained papal authority in Spain and France, and sent missionaries to England. The realignment of barbarian allegiance to Rome from their Arian Christian alliances shaped medieval Europe. Gregory saw Franks, Lombards, and Visigoths align with Rome in religion.

Throughout the Middle Ages he was known as "the Father of Christian Worship" because of his exceptional efforts in revising the Roman worship of his day.[3] His contributions to the development of the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, still in use in the Byzantine Rite, were so significant that he is generally recognized as its de facto author.

Gregory is a Doctor of the Church and one of the Latin Fathers. He is considered a saint in the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, and some Lutheran churches. Immediately after his death, Gregory was canonized by popular acclaim.[4] The Protestant reformer John Calvin admired Gregory and declared in his Institutes that Gregory was the last good pope.[5] He is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers.[6]

Early life

The exact date of Gregory's birth is uncertain, but is usually estimated to be around the year 540,[7] in the city of Rome. His parents named him Gregorius, which according to Ælfric of Abingdon in An Homily on the Birth-Day of S. Gregory, "... is a Greek Name[sic], which signifies in the Latin Tongue, Vigilantius, that is in English, Watchful...."[8] The medieval writer who provided this etymology[9] did not hesitate to apply it to the life of Gregory. Aelfric states, "He was very diligent in God's Commandments."[10]

Gregory was born into a wealthy patrician Roman family with close connections to the church. His father, Gordianus, who served as a senator and for a time was the Prefect of the City of Rome,[11] also held the position of Regionarius in the church, though nothing further is known about that position. Gregory's mother, Silvia, was well-born, and had a married sister, Pateria, in Sicily. His mother and two paternal aunts are honored by Catholic and Orthodox churches as saints.[11] Gregory's great-great-grandfather had been Pope Felix III,[12] the nominee of the Gothic king, Theodoric.[13] Gregory's election to the throne of St Peter made his family the most distinguished clerical dynasty of the period.[14]

The family owned and resided in a villa suburbana on the Caelian Hill, fronting the same street (now the Via di San Gregorio) as the former palaces of the Roman emperors on the Palatine Hill opposite. The north of the street runs into the Colosseum; the south, the Circus Maximus. In Gregory's day the ancient buildings were in ruins and were privately owned.[15] Villas covered the area. Gregory's family also owned working estates in Sicily[16] and around Rome.[17] Gregory later had portraits done in fresco in their former home on the Caelian and these were described 300 years later by John the Deacon. Gordianus was tall with a long face and light eyes. He wore a beard. Silvia was tall, had a round face, blue eyes and a cheerful look. They had another son whose name and fate are unknown.[18]

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.[19] Politically, although the Western Roman Empire had long since vanished in favour 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. As the fighting was mainly in the north, the young Gregory probably saw little of it. Totila sacked and vacated Rome in 546, destroying most of its ancient population, but in 549 he invited those who were still alive to return to the empty and ruined streets. It has been hypothesized that young Gregory and his parents retired during that intermission to their Sicilian estates, to return in 549.[20] The war was over in Rome by 552, and a subsequent invasion of the Franks was defeated in 554. After that, there was peace in Italy, and the appearance of restoration, except that the central government now resided in 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.[11] Gregory of Tours reported that "in grammar, dialectic and rhetoric ... he was second to none...."[21] 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."[21] 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.[11]

The monks of the Monastery of St. Andrew, established by Gregory at the ancestral home on the Caelian, had a portrait of him made after his death, which John the Deacon also saw in the 9th century. He reports the picture of a man who was "rather bald" and had a "tawny" beard like his father's and a face that was intermediate in shape between his mother's and father's. The hair that he had on the sides was long and carefully curled. His nose was "thin and straight" and "slightly aquiline." "His forehead was high." He had thick, "subdivided" lips and a chin "of a comely prominence" and "beautiful hands."[22]

In the modern era, Gregory is often depicted as a man at the border, poised between the Roman and Germanic worlds, between East and West, and above all, perhaps, between the ancient and medieval epochs.[23]

Monastic years

Jerome and Gregory.

On his father's death, Gregory converted his family villa into a monastery dedicated to the apostle Saint Andrew (after his death it was rededicated as San Gregorio Magno al Celio). In his life of contemplation, Gregory concluded that "in that silence of the heart, while we keep watch within through contemplation, we are as if asleep to all things that are without.".[24]

It seems to some that Gregory was not always forgiving, or pleasant for that matter, even in his monastic years. For example, a monk lying on his death bed confessed to stealing three gold pieces. Gregory forced the monk to die friendless and alone, then threw his body and coins on a manure heap to rot with a curse, "Take your money with you to perdition". Gregory believed that punishment of sins can begin, even on one's deathbed.[25] However, this was done to help the monk to repent of his sin, and not out of a misplaced anger. The penance from St Gregory did in fact help him to repent, and afterwards St Gregory offered 30 Masses in his remembrance to assist his soul before the final judgment. The monk later appeared to his brother and said that he has been released and is in Heaven.[26] Eventually, Pope Pelagius II ordained Gregory a deacon and solicited his help in trying to heal the schism of the Three Chapters in northern Italy. However, Italy was not healed until well after Gregory was gone.[27]

Gregory had a deep respect for the monastic life. He viewed being a monk as the 'ardent quest for the vision of our Creator.'[28] His three paternal aunts were nuns renowned for their sanctity. However, after the two eldest died after seeing a vision of their ancestor Pope Felix, the youngest soon abandoned the religious life and married the steward of her estate. Gregory's response to this family scandal was "many are called but few are chosen."[29] Gregory's mother Silvia herself is a saint.

Apocrisiariate (579–585)

Illumination in a 12th-century manuscript of a letter of Gregory's to Saint Leander, bishop of Seville (Bibl. Municipale, MS 2, Dijon).

In 579, Pelagius II chose Gregory as his apocrisiarius (ambassador to the imperial court in Constantinople), a post Gregory would hold until 586.[30] Gregory was part of the Roman delegation (both lay and clerical) that arrived in Constantinople in 578 to ask the emperor for military aid against the Lombards.[31] With the Byzantine military focused on the East, these entreaties proved unsuccessful; in 584, Pelagius II wrote to Gregory as apocrisiarius, detailing the hardships that Rome was experiencing under the Lombards and asking him to ask Emperor Maurice to send a relief force.[31] Maurice, however, had long ago determined to limit his efforts against the Lombards to intrigue and diplomacy, pitting the Franks against them.[31] It soon became obvious to Gregory that the Byzantine emperors were unlikely to send such a force, given their more immediate difficulties with the Persians in the East and the Avars and Slavs to the North.[32]

According to Ekonomou, "if Gregory's principal task was to plead Rome's cause before the emperor, there seems to have been little left for him to do once imperial policy toward Italy became evident. Papal representatives who pressed their claims with excessive vigor could quickly become a nuisance and find themselves excluded from the imperial presence altogether".[32] Gregory had already drawn an imperial rebuke for his lengthy canonical writings on the subject of the legitimacy of John III Scholasticus, who had occupied the Patriarchate of Constantinople for twelve years prior to the return of Eutychius (who had been driven out by Justinian).[32] Gregory turned himself to cultivating connections with the Byzantine elite of the city, where he became extremely popular with the city's upper class, "especially aristocratic women".[32] Ekonomou surmises that "while Gregory may have become spiritual father to a large and important segment of Constantinople's aristocracy, this relationship did not significantly advance the interests of Rome before the emperor".[32] Although the writings of John the Deacon claim that Gregory "labored diligently for the relief of Italy", there is no evidence that his tenure accomplished much towards any of the objectives of Pelagius II.[33]

Gregory's theological disputes with Patriarch Eutychius would leave a "bitter taste for the theological speculation of the East" with Gregory that continued to influence him well into his own papacy.[34] According to Western sources, Gregory's very public debate with Eutychius culminated in an exchange before Tiberius II where Gregory cited a biblical passage ("Palpate et videte, quia spiritus carnem et ossa non habet, sicut me videtis habere"[35]) in support of the view that Christ was corporeal and palpable after his Resurrection; allegedly as a result of this exchange, Tiberius II ordered Eutychius's writings burned.[34] Ekonomou views this argument, though exaggerated in Western sources, as Gregory's "one achievement of an otherwise fruitless apokrisiariat".[36] In reality, Gregory was forced to rely on Scripture because he could not read the untranslated Greek authoritative works.[36] Gregory left Constantinople for Rome in 585, returning to his monastery on the Caelian Hill.[37] Gregory was elected by acclamation to succeed Pelagius II in 590, when the latter died of the plague spreading through the city.[37] Gregory was approved by an Imperial iussio from Constantinople the following September (as was the norm during the Byzantine Papacy).[37]

Papacy (590–604)

Saint Gregory the Great
Pope, Dialogist, Church Father, Monk and Doctor of the Church
Born c. AD 540
Rome
Died c. AD 604
Rome
Venerated in Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, Lutheranism
Major shrine St. Peter's Basilica
Feast 3 September, 12 March
Major works Dialogues of Gregory I
Papal styles of
Pope Gregory I
Reference style His Holiness
Spoken style Your Holiness
Religious style Holy Father
Posthumous style Saint

Although Gregory was resolved to retire into the monastic lifestyle of contemplation, he was unwillingly forced back into a world that, although he loved, he no longer wanted to be a part of.[38] In texts of all genres, especially those produced in his first year as pope, Gregory bemoaned the burden of office and mourned the loss of the undisturbed life of prayer he had once enjoyed as a monk.[39] When he became Pope in 590, among his first acts was writing a series of letters disavowing any ambition to the throne of Peter and praising the contemplative life of the monks. At that time, for various reasons, the Holy See had not exerted effective leadership in the West since the pontificate of Gelasius I. The episcopacy in Gaul was drawn from the great territorial families, and identified with them: the parochial horizon of Gregory's contemporary, Gregory of Tours, may be considered typical; in Visigothic Spain the bishops had little contact with Rome; in Italy the territories which had de facto fallen under the administration of the papacy were beset by the violent Lombard dukes and the rivalry of the Byzantines in the Exarchate of Ravenna and in the south.

Pope Gregory had strong convictions on missions: "Almighty God places good men in authority that He may impart through them the gifts of His mercy to their subjects. And this we find to be the case with the British over whom you have been appointed to rule, that through the blessings bestowed on you the blessings of heaven might be bestowed on your people also."[40] 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.[41] The mission was successful, and it was from England that missionaries later set out for the Netherlands and Germany. The preaching of the Catholic 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.[42]

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he was declared a saint immediately after his death by "popular acclamation".[1]

In his official documents, Gregory was the first to make extensive use of the term "Servant of the Servants of God" (servus servorum Dei) as a papal title, thus initiating a practice that was to be followed by most subsequent popes.[43]

Works

Liturgical reforms

John the Deacon wrote that Pope Gregory I made a general revision of the liturgy of the Pre-Tridentine Mass, "removing many things, changing a few, adding some". In letters, Gregory remarks that he moved the Pater Noster (Our Father) to immediately after the Roman Canon and immediately before the Fraction. This position is still maintained today in the Roman Liturgy. The pre-Gregorian position is evident in the Ambrosian Rite. Gregory added material to the Hanc Igitur of the Roman Canon and established the nine Kyries (a vestigial remnant of the litany which was originally at that place) at the beginning of Mass. He also reduced the role of deacons in the Roman Liturgy.

Sacramentaries directly influenced by Gregorian reforms are referred to as Sacrementaria Gregoriana. Roman and other Western liturgies since this era have a number of prayers that change to reflect the feast or liturgical season; these variations are visible in the collects and prefaces as well as in the Roman Canon itself.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches, Gregory is credited as the primary influence in constructing the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, a fully separate form of the Liturgy adapted to the needs of the season of Great Lent.

Gregorian chant

Main article: Gregorian chant

The mainstream form of Western plainchant, standardized in the late 9th century,[44] was attributed to Pope Gregory I and so took the name of Gregorian chant. The earliest such attribution is in John the Deacon's 873 biography of Gregory, almost three centuries after the Pope's death, and the chant that bears his name "is the result of the fusion of Roman and Frankish elements which took place in the Franco-German empire under Pepin, Charlemagne and their successors".[45]

Writings

Saint Gregory the Great by José de Ribera

Gregory is commonly credited with founding the medieval papacy and so many attribute the beginning of medieval spirituality to him.[46] Gregory is the only Pope between the fifth and the eleventh centuries whose correspondence and writings have survived enough to form a comprehensive corpus. Some of his writings are:

Opinions of the writings of Gregory vary. "His character strikes us as an ambiguous and enigmatic one," Cantor observed. "On the one hand he was an able and determined administrator, a skilled and clever diplomat, a leader of the greatest sophistication and vision; but on the other hand, he appears in his writings as a superstitious and credulous monk, hostile to learning, crudely limited as a theologian, and excessively devoted to saints, miracles, and relics".[51]

Gregory wrote over 850 letters in the last 13 years of his life (590–604) that give us an accurate picture of his work.[52] A truly autobiographical presentation is nearly impossible for Gregory. The development of his mind and personality remains purely speculative in nature.[53]

Controversy with Eutychius

In Constantinople, Gregory took issue with the aged Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople, who had recently published a treatise, now lost, on the General Resurrection. Eutychius maintained that the resurrected body "will be more subtle than air, and no longer palpable".[54] Gregory opposed with the palpability of the risen Christ in Luke 24:39. As the dispute could not be settled, the Byzantine emperor, Tiberius II Constantine, undertook to arbitrate. He decided in favor of palpability and ordered Eutychius' book to be burned. Shortly after both Gregory and Eutychius became ill; Gregory recovered, but Eutychius died on 5 April 582, at age 70. On his deathbed Eutychius recanted impalpability and Gregory dropped the matter. Tiberius also died a few months after Eutychius.

Identification of three figures in the Gospels

Gregory was among those who identified Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany, whom John 12:1-8 recounts as having anointed Jesus with precious ointment, an event that some interpret as being the same as the anointing of Jesus performed by a woman that Luke (alone among the synoptic Gospels) recounts as sinful.[55] Preaching on the passage in the Gospel of Luke, Gregory remarked: "This woman, whom Luke calls a sinner[56] and John calls Mary,[57] I think is the Mary from whom Mark reports[58] that seven demons were cast out."[59] Today Biblical scholars distinguish the three figures, but they are all still popularly identified.[60]

Iconography

Gregory and his Dove, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Ms 389

In art Gregory is usually shown in full pontifical robes with the tiara and double cross, despite his actual habit of dress. Earlier depictions are more likely to show a monastic tonsure and plainer dress. Orthodox icons traditionally show St. Gregory vested as a bishop holding a Gospel Book and blessing with his right hand. It is recorded that he permitted his depiction with a square halo, then used for the living.[61] A dove is his attribute, from the well-known story recorded by his friend Peter the Deacon,[62] who tells that when the pope was dictating his homilies on Ezechiel a curtain was drawn between his secretary and himself. As, however, the pope remained silent for long periods at a time, the servant made a hole in the curtain and, looking through, beheld a dove seated upon Gregory's head with its beak between his lips. When the dove withdrew its beak the pope spoke and the secretary took down his words; but when he became silent the servant again applied his eye to the hole and saw the dove had replaced its beak between his lips.[63]

This scene is shown as a version of the traditional Evangelist portrait (where the Evangelists' symbols are also sometimes shown dictating) from the tenth century onwards. An early example is the dedication miniature from the an eleventh-century manuscript of St. Gregory's Moralia in Job.[64] The miniature shows the scribe, Bebo of Seeon Abbey, presenting the manuscript to the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry II. In the upper left the author is seen writing the text under divine inspiration. Usually the dove is shown whispering in Gregory's ear for a clearer composition.

The imaginative and anachronistic example at the top of this article is from the studio of Carlo Saraceni or by a close follower, ca. 1610. From the Giustiniani collection, the painting is conserved in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome.[65] The face of Gregory is a caricature of the features described by John the Deacon (mentioned under his early life above): total baldness, outthrust chin, beak-like nose, where John had described partial baldness, a mildly protruding chin, slightly aquiline nose and strikingly good looks. In this picture also Gregory has his monastic back on the world, which the real Gregory, despite his reclusive intent, was seldom allowed to have.

The Mass of St Gregory, by Robert Campin, 15th century

The late medieval subject of the Mass of St Gregory shows a version of a 7th-century story that was elaborated in later hagiography. Gregory is shown saying Mass when Christ as the Man of Sorrows appears on the altar. The subject was most common in the 15th and 16th centuries, and reflected growing emphasis on the Real Presence, and after the Protestant Reformation was an assertion of the doctrine against Protestant theology.[66]

Alms

Alms in Christianity is defined by passages of the New Testament such as Matthew 19:21, which commands "...go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor ... and come and follow me." A donation on the other hand is a gift to some sort of enterprise, profit or non-profit.

On the one hand the alms of St. Gregory are to be distinguished from his donations, but on the other he probably saw no such distinction. The church had no interest in secular profit and as pope Gregory did his utmost to encourage that high standard among church personnel. Apart from maintaining its facilities and supporting its personnel the church gave most of the donations it received as alms.

Gregory is known for his administrative system of charitable relief of the poor at Rome. They were predominantly refugees from the incursions of the Lombards. The philosophy under which he devised this system is that the wealth belonged to the poor and the church was only its steward. He received lavish donations from the wealthy families of Rome, who, following his own example, were eager to expiate to God for their sins. He gave alms equally as lavishly both individually and en masse. He wrote in letters:[67]

"I have frequently charged you ... to act as my representative ... to relieve the poor in their distress ...."
"... I hold the office of steward to the property of the poor ...."
Pope Gregory, the Great.

The church received donations of many different kinds of property: consumables such as food and clothing; investment property: real estate and works of art; and capital goods, or revenue-generating property, such as the Sicilian latifundia, or agricultural estates, staffed and operated by slaves, donated by Gregory and his family. The church already had a system for circulating the consumables to the poor: associated with each parish was a diaconium or office of the deacon. He was given a building from which the poor could at any time apply for assistance.[68][69]

The state in which Gregory became pope in 590 was a ruined one. The Lombards held the better part of Italy. Their predations had brought the economy to a standstill. They camped nearly at the gates of Rome. The city was packed with refugees from all walks of life, who lived in the streets and had few of the necessities of life. The seat of government was far from Rome in Constantinople, which appeared unable to undertake the relief of Italy. The pope had sent emissaries, including Gregory, asking for assistance, to no avail.

In 590, Gregory could wait for Constantinople no longer. He organized the resources of the church into an administration for general relief. In doing so he evidenced a talent for and intuitive understanding of the principles of accounting, which was not to be invented for centuries. The church already had basic accounting documents: every expense was recorded in journals called regesta, "lists" of amounts, recipients and circumstances. Revenue was recorded in polyptici, "books". Many of these polyptici were ledgers recording the operating expenses of the church and the assets, the patrimonia. A central papal administration, the notarii, under a chief, the primicerius notariorum, kept the ledgers and issued brevia patrimonii, or lists of property for which each rector was responsible.[70]

Gregory began by aggressively requiring his churchmen to seek out and relieve needy persons and reprimanded them if they did not. In a letter to a subordinate in Sicily he wrote: "I asked you most of all to take care of the poor. And if you knew of people in poverty, you should have pointed them out ... I desire that you give the woman, Pateria, forty solidi for the children's shoes and forty bushels of grain ...."[71] Soon he was replacing administrators who would not cooperate with those who would and at the same time adding more in a build-up to a great plan that he had in mind. He understood that expenses must be matched by income. To pay for his increased expenses he liquidated the investment property and paid the expenses in cash according to a budget recorded in the polyptici. The churchmen were paid four times a year and also personally given a golden coin for their trouble.[72]

Money, however, was no substitute for food in a city that was on the brink of famine. Even the wealthy were going hungry in their villas. The church now owned between 1,300 and 1,800 square miles (3,400 and 4,700 km2) of revenue-generating farmland divided into large sections called patrimonia. It produced goods of all kinds, which were sold, but Gregory intervened and had the goods shipped to Rome for distribution in the diaconia. He gave orders to step up production, set quotas and put an administrative structure in place to carry it out. At the bottom was the rusticus who produced the goods. Some rustici were or owned slaves. He turned over part of his produce to a conductor from whom he leased the land. The latter reported to an actionarius, the latter to a defensor and the latter to a rector. Grain, wine, cheese, meat, fish and oil began to arrive at Rome in large quantities, where it was given away for nothing as alms.[73]

Distributions to qualified persons were monthly. However, a certain proportion of the population lived in the streets or were too ill or infirm to pick up their monthly food supply. To them Gregory sent out a small army of charitable persons, mainly monks, every morning with prepared food. It is said that he would not dine until the indigent were fed. When he did dine he shared the family table, which he had saved (and which still exists), with 12 indigent guests. To the needy living in wealthy homes he sent meals he had cooked with his own hands as gifts to spare them the indignity of receiving charity. Hearing of the death of an indigent in a back room he was depressed for days, entertaining for a time the conceit that he had failed in his duty and was a murderer.[72]

These and other good deeds and charitable frame of mind completely won the hearts and minds of the Roman people. They now looked to the papacy for government, ignoring the rump state at Constantinople, which had only disrespect for Gregory, calling him a fool for his pacifist dealings with the Lombards. The office of urban prefect went without candidates. From the time of Gregory the Great to the rise of Italian nationalism the papacy was most influential in ruling Italy.

Famous quotes and anecdotes

19th century mosaic in Westminster Cathedral, Non Angli sed Angeli

Memorials

Lives

In Britain, appreciation for Gregory remained strong even after his death, with him being called Gregorius noster ("our Gregory") by the British.[85] It was in Britain, at a monastery in Whitby, that the first full length life of Gregory was written, in c. 713.[86] Appreciation of Gregory in Rome and Italy itself, however, did not come until later. The first vita of Gregory written in Italy was not produced until John the Deacon in the 9th century.

Monuments

Tomb of St. Gregory at St. Peter's, Rome

The namesake church of San Gregorio al Celio (largely rebuilt from the original edifices during the 17th and 18th centuries) remembers his work. One of the three oratories annexed, the oratory of St. Silvia, is said to lie over the tomb of Gregory's mother.

In England, Gregory, along with Augustine of Canterbury, is revered as the apostle of the land and the source of the nation's conversion.[87]

Music

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi composed a piece named St. Gregory the Great (San Gregorio Magno) that features as the fourth and final part of his Church Windows (Vetrate di Chiesa) works, written in 1925.

Feast day

The current General Roman Calendar, revised in 1969 as instructed by the Second Vatican Council,[88] celebrates St. Gregory the Great on 3 September. Before that, it assigned his feast day to 12 March, the day of his death in 604. This day always falls within Lent, during which there are no obligatory memorials. For this reason his feast day was moved to 3 September, the day of his episcopal consecration in 590.[89]

The Eastern Orthodox Church[note 1] continue to commemorate St. Gregory on 12 March which is during Great Lent, the only time when the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, which names Saint Gregory as its author, is used.

Other Churches also honour Saint Gregory: the Church of England and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod on 3 September, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church in the United States on 12 March.

A traditional procession is held in Żejtun, Malta, in honour of Saint Gregory (San Girgor) on Easter Wednesday, which most often falls in April, the range of possible dates being 25 March to 28 April. The feast day of St. Gregory also serves as a commemorative day for the former pupils of Downside School, the so-called Old Gregorians. Traditionally, the OG ties are worn by all of the society's members on this day.

See also

References

  1. 1 2  Huddleston, Gilbert (1909). "Pope St. Gregory I ("the Great")". Catholic Encyclopedia 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Gregory had come to be known as 'the Great' by the late ninth century, a title which is still applied to him. See John Moorhead, Gregory the Great, (Routledge, 2005), p1
  2. ↑ Ekonomou, 2007, p. 22.
  3. ↑ Christian Life and Worship (Dissertations in European Economic History), 1948, 1979, Gerald Ellard (1894–1963), Arno Press, ISBN 0-405-10819-2 ISBN 9780405108198, p. 125.
  4. ↑ F.L. Cross, ed. (2005). "Gregory I". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press.
  5. ↑ F.L. Cross, ed. (1515). "Institutes of the Christian Religion Book IV". Institutes of the Christian Religion Book IV. New York: Oxford University Press.
  6. ↑ "St. Gregory the Great". Web site of Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
  7. ↑ Gregory mentions in Dialogue 3.2 that he was alive when Totila attempted to murder Carbonius, Bishop of Populonia, probably in 546. In a letter of 598 (Register, Book 9, Letter 1) he rebukes Bishop Januarius of Cagliari, Sardinia, excusing himself for not observing 1 Timothy 5.1, which cautions against rebuking elders. Timothy 5.9 defines elderly women to be 60 and over, which would probably apply to all. Gregory appears not to consider himself an elder, limiting his birth to no earlier than 539, but 540 is the typical selection. Dudden (1905), page 3, notes 1–3. The presumption of 540 has continued in modern times - see for example Richards, Jeffrey (1980). Consul of God. London: Routledge & Keatland Paul.
  8. ↑ Ælfric (1709). An English-Saxon Homily on the Birth-day of St. Gregory: Anciently Used in the English-Saxon Church, Giving an Account of the Conversion of the English from Paganism to Christianity. Translated by Elstob, Elizabeth. London: W. Bowyer. p. 4.
  9. ↑ The translator goes on to state that "Paulus Diaconus, who first writ the life of St. Gregory, and is followed by all the after Writers on that subject, observes that 'ex Greco eloquio in nostra lingua ... vigilator, seu vigilans sonat." However, Paul the deacon is too late for the first vita, or life.
  10. ↑ The name is Biblical, derived from New Testament contexts: grēgorein is a present, continuous aspect, meaning to be watchful of forsaking Christ. It is derived from a more ancient perfect, egrēgora, "roused from sleep", of egeirein, "to awaken someone." Thayer, Joseph Henry (1962). Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament being Grimm's Wilke's Clavis Novi Testamenti Translated Revised and Enlarged. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Thornton, pp 163-8
  12. ↑ Whether III or IV depends on whether Antipope Felix II is to be considered pope.
  13. ↑ Dudden (1905), page 4.
  14. ↑ Richards
  15. ↑ Dudden (1905), pages 11–15.
  16. ↑ Dudden (1905), pages 106–107.
  17. ↑ Richards (1980), page 25.
  18. ↑ Dudden (1905), pages 7–8.
  19. ↑ Markus pg 4–5
  20. ↑ Dudden (1905), pages 36–37.
  21. 1 2 Richards (1980), page 26.
  22. ↑ Richards (1980), page 44.
  23. ↑ Leyser pg 132
  24. ↑ Cavadini pg 155
  25. ↑ Straw pg 47
  26. ↑ Pronechen, Joseph. "Interview with Susan Tassone". Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  27. ↑ Gregory the great and his world pg 3
  28. ↑ Markus- pg 69
  29. ↑ Consul of God, Richards. Pg 26
  30. ↑ Ekonomou, 2007, p. 8.
  31. 1 2 3 Ekonomou, 2007, p. 9.
  32. 1 2 3 4 5 Ekonomou, 2007, p. 10.
  33. ↑ Ekonomou, 2007, pp. 10–11.
  34. 1 2 Ekonomou, 2007, p. 11.
  35. ↑ Luke 24:39 - "touch me, and look; a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see that I have."
  36. 1 2 Ekonomou, 2007, p. 12.
  37. 1 2 3 Ekonomou, 2007, p. 13.
  38. ↑ Straw pg 25
  39. ↑ Cavadini pg 39
  40. ↑ Dudden pg 124
  41. ↑ Dudden pg 99
  42. 1 2 Richards pg 228
  43. ↑  "Servus servorum Dei". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
  44. ↑ Kenneth Levy, Gregorian Chant and the Carolingians(Princeton University Press 1998 ISBN 9780691017334), p. 7
  45. ↑ Gregory Murray, Gregorian Chant According to the Manuscripts (L. J. Cary & Co. 1963), pp. 3-4
  46. ↑ Straw pg 4
  47. 1 2 RA Markus, Gregory the Great and his World, (Cambridge: CUP, 1997), p15
  48. ↑
  49. ↑ "A Papyrus Puzzle and Some Purple Parchment". British Museum. 12 February 2014. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  50. ↑ Ambrosini, Maria Luisa; Mary Willis (1996). The Secret Archives of the Vatican. Barnes & Noble Publishing. pp. 63–64. ISBN 9780760701256.
  51. ↑ Cantor (1993) page 157.
  52. ↑ R.A. Markus "Gregory the Great and his world" pg I
  53. ↑ Gregory the great and his world. pg. 2
  54. ↑ Smith, William; Henry Wace (1880). A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines: Being a Continuation of 'The Dictionary of the Bible': VolumeII Eaba – Hermocrates. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. p. 415. The dictionary account is apparently based on Bede, Book II, Chapter 1, who used the expression "...impalpable, of finer texture than wind and air."
  55. ↑ Luke 7:36-50;Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9
  56. ↑ Luke 7:37
  57. ↑ John 12:3
  58. ↑ Mark 16:9
  59. ↑ "Hanc vero quam Lucas peccatricem mulierem, Ioannes Mariam nominat, illam esse Mariam credimus de qua Marcus septem daemonia eiecta fuisse testatur" (Patrologia Latina 76:1239)
  60. ↑ Ingrid Maisch, Mary Magdalene: The Image of a Woman through the Centuries (Liturgical Press 1988 ISBN 9780814624715), chapter 10
  61. ↑ Gietmann, G. (1911). "The Catholic Encyclopedia" XI. New York: Robert Appleton Company. |contribution= ignored (help)
  62. ↑ Peter the Deacon, Vita, xxviii
  63. ↑ Catholic Encyclopedia article – see links, below.
  64. ↑ Bamberg State Library, Msc.Bibl.84
  65. ↑ Saraceni, Carlo; Emil Kren; Daniel Marx (1996). "St. Gregory the Great". Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  66. ↑ Rubin, Miri, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture, pp. 120–122, 308–310, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-43805-5, ISBN 978-0-521-43805-6 Google books
  67. ↑ Dudden (1905) page 316.
  68. ↑ Later these deacons became cardinals and from the oratories attached to the buildings grew churches.
  69. ↑ Smith, William; Samuel Cheetham (1875). A dictionary of Christian antiquities: Comprising the History, Institutions, and Antiquities of the Christian Church, from the Time of the Apostles to the Age of Charlemagne. J. Murray. pp. 549 under diaconia.
  70. ↑ Mann, Horace Kinder; Johannes Hollnsteiner (1914). The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages: Volume X. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd. p. 322.
  71. ↑ Ambrosini & Willis (1996) pages 66–67.
  72. 1 2 Dudden (1905) pages 248–249.
  73. ↑ Deanesly, Margaret (1969). A History of the Medieval Church, 590–1500. London, New York: Routledge. pp. 22–24. ISBN 9780415039598.
  74. ↑ Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, II.i. http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/bede/bede2.shtml
  75. 1 2 Hunt, William (1906). The Political History of England. Longmans, Green. p. 115.
  76. ↑ The earliest life written a generation earlier than Bede at Whitby relates the same story but in it the English are merely visitors to Rome questioned by Gregory (see Holloway, who translates from the manuscript kept at St. Gallen). The earlier story is not necessarily the more accurate, as Gregory is known to have instructed presbyter Candidus in Gaul by letter to buy young English slaves for placement in monasteries. These were intended for missionary work in England: Ambrosini & Willis (1996) page 71.
  77. ↑ Benedict I or Pelagius II.
  78. ↑ Dudden pg 317
  79. ↑ Homilies on Ezekiel Book 1.11.6. For the text in manuscript see Codices Electronici Sangalienses: Codex 211, page 193 column 1, line 5 (External links below.)
  80. ↑ Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book I section 27 part II. Bede is translated in Bede (1999). McClure, Judith, ed. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People: The Greater Chronicle ; Bede's Letter to Egbert. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192838667.
  81. ↑ Gregory the Great. The Letters of Gregory the Great. Trans. John R. C. Martyn. 3 vols. (2004). Book VI, Epistle XII.
  82. ↑ Richards pg 232
  83. ↑ Pope Gregory I, Moralia, sive Expositio in Job, published by Nicolaus Kessler Basel, 1496.
  84. ↑ Theories of Art: From Plato to Winckelmann
  85. ↑ Champ, Judith (2000). The English Pilgrimage to Rome: A Dwelling for the Soul. Gracewing Publishing. pp. ix. ISBN 9780852443736.
  86. ↑ A monk or nun at Whitby A.D. 713 (1997–2008). Holloway, Julia Bolton, ed. "The Earliest Life of St. Gregory the great". Julia Bolton Holloway. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
  87. ↑ Richards pg 260
  88. ↑ Sacrosanctum Concilium, 108–111
  89. ↑ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), pp. 100 and 118

Notes

  1. ↑ and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite

Bibliography

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Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Pelagius II		 Pope
590–604 		Succeeded by
Sabinian
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