Society of St. Gregory the Great

Pope St. Gregory the Great was the 64th Pope of the Catholic Church. He was a monk, deacon, priest, pastor, papal nuncio, abbot and later pope, saint and Doctor of the Church.

Gregory was born in 540 as a citizen of Rome. By the time he was 30 years old, he had a successful political job as the Prefect of Rome, but decided to leave it for the monastic life. By all accounts, he loved living as a monk, dedicating his life to quiet contemplation of God and trying to make himself fit for Heaven by self-imposed discipline and long periods of fasting. He was called out of his cloistered monastic life by Pope Pelagius II when the Holy Father appointed Gregory as a Deacon of Rome in 579.

As Deacon (a job that was defined very differently than today), he served as an ambassador to the Court of Byzantium in Constantinople. It was a very tumultuous time for Rome, the Church and Gregory. The Lombards, enemies of Rome, were making military advances toward the city. The Church was encouraging political alliances with Tiberius in the Byzantine Court. And Gregory was trying to live a monastic life in a political job to the best of his ability, keeping time for prayers and scriptural study in addition to his duties to the Court. About 6 years later, when his appointment was over, he returned to his monastic life in Rome and soon became abbot of his community.

In this time, he learned of a youth slave trade in England. The practice upset him so much that he set out to convert the Anglo world, getting permission from Pope Pelagius II, he took a handful of fellow monks and set out to convert Britain. It was here that he coined the clever phrase, "They are not Angles, but Angels"; Gregory is one of the patron saints of England.

By the time Gregory was 50 years old, Pelagius died and Gregory was elected as the Pope-- a job he reluctantly accepted. Pope Gregory would reign as pontiff for the next 14 years.

There were a number of different liturgies of the Church at this time with widely variant practices. Gregory is most notably known for sorting through these different liturgies and assembling a standard Mass for Christianity-- Scholars agree that this is the first thing that is fully recognizable as the Holy Mass, incorporating standard rubrics and fixed prayers that are still in use today. Even the style of Chant still used in Catholic liturgies today had its origin with this pope, the style is even still called "Gregorian Chant"!

Pope Gregory also taught and developed the doctrine of Purgatory, helped mould the papacy into a more authoritative office and is known as a great reformer of the Church. He presided over Christianity as it faced threats from the Huns, Goths and Lombards, he drained the papal treasury to ransom prisoners from the Lombards and Franks and gave abundant charity to the sick and poor.

In summing up his legacy, the Catholic Encyclopedia states it nicely:

It is beyond the scope of this notice to attempt any elaborate estimate of the work, influence, and character of Pope Gregory the Great, but some short focusing of the features given above is only just.
First of all, perhaps, it will be best to clear the ground by admitting frankly what Gregory was not. He 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.

When he died on March 12, 604, St. Gregory was immediately canonized by public acclaim.

Pope St. Gregory the Great was the first person to be named "Doctor of the Church", the first monk to be elected to the papacy and the first pope to carry the title of "The Great". He personally founded seven monasteries, was one of the first popes to send missionaries out to foreign lands and gathered unity over lands in Europe to form what would later be called the "Papal States".

He is the patron saint of the papacy, the patron of school children, choirs and educators. He is the patron of a number of countries, of stone masons, of musicians. He is considered the founder of the ancient Mass and is the namesake of the Society of St. Gregory the Great.

St. Gregory the Great, ora pro nobis!