St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor

St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor: 540-604 A.D.

Feast day, September 3

Birth, family, education, and early public office

St. Gregory was born of a wealthy patrician, Gordianus, at a time when the Roman Empire was disintegrating. His family, however, owned large estates in Sicily as well as a magnificent home on the Caelian Hill in Rome. Besides wealth, St. Gregory's family was also known for its piety - having already given to the Church two sixth-century popes - Felix III and Agapitus I.

Amid the turmoil in Rome, Gregory still received a good education. He studied law and prepared to follow his father into public service. Upon reaching thirty years of age, he was appointed as Prefect of Rome, the highest civil office in the city. When his father passed away and his mother then retired to a convent, St. Gregory inherited a vast amount of riches.

Sought a higher calling to serve God

For five years, Gregory served as Prefect of the city. He however decided to abandon his career and devote himself to the service of God. He went to Sicily where he turned the estates of his family into six monasteries. And then he returned to Rome, making his own home into a Benedictine monastery - under the patronage of St. Andrew, and under the spiritual leadership of Valentius. He then lived the life of a monk for three or four years before Pope Pelagius I Iappointed him a deacon in 578 A.D. - forcing St. Gregory to live a more active life outside his monastery. The Pope then sent St. Gregory as ambassador to the emperor's court in Constantinople.

Elected to the papacy

St. Gregory was recalled to Rome around 586 A.D., and returned to his monastery where he was then elected abbot. In 590 A.D., a terrible plague hit Rome, and among its victims was the pope. St. Gregory was immediately and unanimously voted and chosen to be pope. Gregory however tried to run away from the city, but he was forcibly carried to the Basilica of St. Peter, where he was consecrated to the papacy on September 3, 590 A.D. Gregory was about fifty years old at the time and he was the first monk to be elected pope.

Gregory's work as Pope

As the pope, St. Gregory restored ecclesiastical discipline, removed unworthy clerics from office, abolished clerical fees for burials and ordinations, and was prodigious in his charities. He also administered papal properties wisely and justly; ransomed captives from the Lombards; protected Jews from unjust coercion; and fed the victims of a famine. As pope, Gregory also was a writer - writing a work called Regula Pastoralis, which addresses the office of a bishop. This work was an immediate success, and for hundreds of years provided the guidance for the pastoral mission of a bishop.

A missionary work dear to his papacy

Of all his work as pope, nothing was more dear to St. Gregory than the conversion of England. He turned to his own monastery and chose a band of forty monks, under the leadership of the man that was to become St. Augustine of Canterbury. St. Gregory then instructed the monks to purify rather than to destroy pagan temples and customs, and to convert pagan rites and festivals into Christian feasts. Although St. Augustine of Canterbury passed away eight years after this mission to convert England, the work he and the monks began eventually bore fruit.

Last years, sickness and death

Throughout his life, St. Gregory practiced much asceticism. His health was always precarious. And he suffered from gastric disorders, probably because of the excessive fasts he made. During the last years of his life, he was emaciated almost in the likeness of a skeleton. He suffered also from gout and was unable to walk at the time of his death. He died on March 12, 604 A.D. and was buried in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Writings and liturgical works

St. Gregory wrote treatises, notably his Dialogues - a collection of visions, prophecies, miracles, and lives of Italian saints. He also wrote the Liber regulae pastoralis - on the duties of a bishop, plus hundreds of sermons and letters. The custom of saying thirty successive Masses for a dead person goes back to him and bears his name. And not to forget also is the famous Gregorian Chant that is attributed to him.

Doctor of the Church

St. Gregory is the last of the traditional Latin Doctors of the Church. Despite his prestige and status during his lifetime, St. Gregory called himself Servus Servorum Dei - Servant of the Servants of God - a title still retained by his successors to this day, fourteen centuries later. Because of St. Gregory's tireless works and apostolates, he merited the title "The Great". He was one of the two popes who were titled "The Great", the other being St. Leo the Great.

References of this article

• Dictionary of Saints, by John J. Delaney
• The Doctors of the Church vol 1, by John F. Fink
• A Year With the Saints, by Don Bosco Press, Inc.
• Saints for Our Time, by Ransom