Apostle of the Sacred Liturgy

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). His feast, originally celebrated on the day of his death on March 12, is one of several moved from Lent to other parts of the year during the 1970 calendar reform¹.

In the past, I’ve discussed Saint Gregory’s life, but today I’d like to post an excerpt from Dom Guéranger’s essay on him, found in his monumental work, The Liturgical Year. I’ve added some paragraph breaks to make it easier to read online.

Among all the pastors whom our Lord Jesus Christ has placed, as His vicegerents over the universal Church, there is not one whose merits and renown have surpassed those of the holy Pope, whose feast we keep to-day. His name is Gregory, which signifies watchfulness….

In recounting the glories of this illustrious Pontiff, it is but natural we should begin with his zeal for the services of the Church.

The Roman liturgy, which owes to him some of its finest hymns, may be considered as his work, at least in this sense, that it is he who collected together and classified the prayers and rites drawn up by his predecessors, and reduced them to the form in which we now have them².

He collected also the ancient chants of the Church, and arranged them in accordance with the rules and requirements of the divine Service. Hence it is, that our sacred music, which gives such solemnity to the liturgy, and inspires the soul with respect and devotion during the celebration of the great mysteries of our faith, is known as the Gregorian chant. …

During the fourteen years that this holy Pope held the place of Peter, he was the object of the admiration of the Christian world, both in the east and in the west. His profound learning, his talent for administration, his position, all tended to make him beloved and respected.

But who could describe the virtue of his great soul?

That contempt for the world and its riches, which led him to seek obscurity in the cloister; that humility, which made him flee the honours of the papacy and hide himself in a cave, where, at length, he was miraculously discovered, and God Himself put into his hands the keys of heaven, which he was evidently worthy to hold, because he feared the responsibility; that zeal for the whole flock, of which he considered himself not the master, but the servant, so much so indeed that he assumed the title, which the Popes have ever since retained, of “servant of the servants of God”…

May you have all the joy of the feast!

O God, who care for your people with gentleness
and rule them in love,
through the intercession of Pope Saint Gregory,
endow, we pray, with a spirit of wisdom
those to whom you have given authority to govern,
that the flourishing of a holy flock
may become the eternal joy of the shepherds.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

1. The date of September 3 was chosen for the (moved) feast because that was the day he was crowned Pope.
2. The form of the Mass as set out by Saint Gregory was substantially unchanged from the turn of the seventh century until 1970.