Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Only a handful of Popes ever get named “Great”. Today in the Ordinary Roman calendar is the feast of one of them, Pope Saint Gregory the Great, confessor and doctor of the Church (540 – 604).

Gregory had been born into an ancient and wealthy Roman family. Before he was 30 years old, he had been a Roman Senator and then Prefect of Rome.

He gave up his riches and titles to found a small Benedictine monastery in what had been his house, becoming a humble monk.

It wouldn’t last. He was soon appointed Deacon and sent by Pope Pelagius II to Constantinople as a special ambassador to the Emperor. There he stayed for six years. He is still revered in the east as Saint Gregory the Dialogist.

Upon his return he happily became abbot of his little monastery. Pope Pelagius soon made him his secretary, however, and Gregory returned to the center of Church governance.

The year 589 was one of widespread disaster throughout all the empire. In Italy there was an unprecedented inundation. Farms and houses were carried away by the floods. The Tiber overflowed its banks, destroying numerous buildings, among them the granaries of the Church with all the store of corn.

Pestilence followed on the floods, and Rome became a very city of the dead. Business was at a standstill, and the streets were deserted save for the wagons which bore forth countless corpses for burial in common pits beyond the city walls.

Then, in February, 590, as if to fill the cup of misery to the brim, Pelagius II died. The choice of a successor lay with the clergy and people of Rome, and without any hesitation they elected Gregory, Abbot of St. Andrew’s.

In spite of their unanimity Gregory shrank from the dignity thus offered him. He knew, no doubt, that its acceptance meant a final good-bye to the cloister life he loved, and so he not only refused to accede to the prayers of his fellow citizens but also wrote personally to the Emperor Maurice, begging him with all earnestness not to confirm the election. Germanus, Prefect of the city, suppressed this letter, however, and sent instead of it the formal schedule of the election.

In the interval while awaiting the emperor’s reply the business of the vacant see was transacted by Gregory, in commission with two or three other high officials.

As the plague still continued unabated, Gregory called upon the people to join in a vast sevenfold procession which was to start from each of the seven regions of the city and meet at the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin, all praying the while for pardon and the withdrawal of the pestilence.

This was accordingly done, and the memory of the event is still preserved by the name “Sant’ Angelo” given to the mausoleum of Hadrian from the legend that the Archangel St. Michael was seen upon its summit in the act of sheathing his sword as a sign that the plague was over.

At length, after six months of waiting, came the emperor’s confirmation of Gregory’s election. The saint was terrified at the news and even meditated flight. He was seized, however, carried to the Basilica of St. Peter, and there consecrated pope on 3 September, 590.

Catholic Encyclopedia.

Even after Gregory’s election, it was a dark time for the city and for the Universal Church. It’s no exaggeration to say that Gregory saved both from destruction, the former from the invading Lombards, the latter from … well, from the invading Lombards.

In these days [593 A.D.] the most sage and holy Pope Gregory of Rome, after he had composed many other things for the use of the holy Church, also enited four books of the Life of the Saints. This writing he called a dialogue, which is a conversation of two persons, because he had produced it in discourse with his deacon Peter.

The aforesaid Pope then sent these books to the Queen Theudelinda [of the Lombards], whom he knew to be undoubtedly devoted to the faith of Christ and distinguished in good works.

By means of this queen, too, the Church of God procured much that was serviceable. For the Lombards, when they were still bound in the error of heathenism, seized nearly all the property of the churches, but the king [Agilulf, her husband], moved by her wholesome supplications, not only embraced the Catholic faith, but also bestowed much wealth upon the Church of Christ.

Pope Gregory the Great and the Lombards, Paulus Diaconus.

But let’s not kid ourselves.

Saint Gregory might have been an able administrator, a great theologian, a skilled diplomat, and a voluminous writer.

He might be responsible for the conversion of England.

As Pope, he might have taken for himself the title Servus Servorum Dei (Servant of the Servants of God).

But in the modern age, this all pales before the one thing that he will always be remembered for.

Gregorian chant.

He didn’t invent it. He probably didn’t even standardize it or catalogue it (as the legends say).

How it ended up with his name is anybody’s guess, but I can’t imagine a better and more fitting monument to this great Pope.

Here are the monks of Solesmes Abbey chanting the Mass. Enjoy.