Naomh An Lae - Saint Of The Day

St Gregory the Great (540-604) monk and pope

Gregory
was probably the most influential pope of the first millenium. Both a
contemplative and a man of action, he established the papal states and
sent missionaries to England. Along with Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome,
he is one of the four Fathers of the Western Church.

Early life 

Gregory was born in Rome in 540, the
son of a Roman senator. He received a good education and served as an
administrator in the city as his father had also done. When his father
died in 573 he made over his estates to the Church and had seven
monasteries founded mostly in Sicily. He turned the family house on the
Coelian Hill in Rome into a monastery and spent four years there in
intense asceticism and prayer before becoming a deacon and priest.

Papal legate in Constantinople

Pope Pelagius II
(579-590) sent Gregory as papal legate to the court of the emperor at
Constantinople. On his return after six years he became abbot of the
monastery on the Coelian Hill. Three years later a flood caused the
Tiber to burst its banks destroying the city's grain stores and an
outbreak of the plague. Gregory organised practical help and following
this, was elected pope in 590.

Papal states and peace initiatives

Through
estates owned by the papacy he secured the Roman food supply, thus
unwittingly starting the idea of the papal states. He made peace with
the Lombards, who were Arians, and with the Visigoths in Spain.

Missionaries to England

Gregory sent Augustine
and missionaries to England. The story is that he was so impressed by
the blond beauty of Anglo-Saxon slaves he saw for sale in the Roman
forum that he had them liberated so they could be trained as missionary
monks. Hence the famous saying: non Angli, sed angeli.

Liturgy and writings 

Keenly interested in the
liturgy, Gregory composed presidential prayers (the Gregorian
Sacramentary) and oversaw musical development (Gregorian chant - see
image). He also wrote extensively: his Dialogues record the life of St Benedict and in his Moralia in Job he gives a literal, allegorical and moral exposition of the text to promote Christian ethical teaching.

Influence and papal power 

Gregory was probably
the most influential pope of the first millennium. Only two other popes,
both saints, are called "the Great" - Leo I (440-461) and Nicholas I
(858-867). He saw himself as the leader of a Christian society, "God's
consul", as the epitaph on his tombstone says. But he was also the one
who first applied to himself as pope the title borrowed from St
Augustine, "the servant of the servants of God".