Feast day: 3 September
Saint Gregory the Great
Sanctus Gregorius Magnus
Roman prefect turned monk and then pope, Gregory fed a starving city, negotiated with the Lombards, reformed the liturgy and chant that bear his name, and sent Augustine of Canterbury to convert the English.
- Born
- c. 540, Rome
- Died
- 12 March 604, Rome
- Canonization
- Acclaimed a saint by the Roman people immediately after his death; venerated as a Doctor of the Church from the eighth century, confirmed with the four great Latin Doctors by Boniface VIII in 1298.
- Religious order
- Benedictine monk
- Country
- Italy
Biography
Prefect and monk
Born of a wealthy senatorial family, Gregory became prefect of Rome about 573. Soon after, he renounced public life, turned his family palace on the Caelian Hill into the monastery of Saint Andrew and founded six more monasteries in Sicily, living as a Benedictine monk. Called back into service as deacon and then papal legate at Constantinople, he learned the workings of the Empire without ever losing his monastic heart.
Pope amid plague and invasion
Elected in 590 against his will while plague ravaged Rome, he organised penitential processions, reorganised the patrimony of the Church to feed the poor month by month, ransomed captives, and treated with the Lombard king Agilulf when no imperial help came. He governed the city in practice, laying the foundation of the medieval papacy, yet signed himself servus servorum Dei, a title popes still use.
Pastor, writer, missionary
His Pastoral Rule became the handbook of bishops for a thousand years; his Moralia on Job and his Homilies shaped medieval preaching. He revised the Roman liturgy and lent his name to Gregorian chant, though the repertory as we have it was compiled later. In 596 he sent the monk Augustine with forty companions to England, a mission that converted the Anglo-Saxons and earned him the title Apostle of the English. Worn out by illness, he died in 604.
Timeline
- c. 540 — Born in Rome
- c. 573 — Prefect of the city of Rome
- c. 575 — Founds the monastery of Saint Andrew on the Caelian
- 579–585 — Papal legate at Constantinople
- 590 — Elected pope during the plague
- 596 — Sends Augustine's mission to England
- 604 — Dies in Rome on 12 March
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
Dove at his ear — The tradition, reported by his biographer Peter the Deacon, that the Holy Spirit dictated his writings.
Papal tiara and cross-staff — His office as Bishop of Rome.
Book of chant — The liturgical and musical reform associated with his name.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Humility that called itself a servant while ruling, practical charity to the hungry, and discretion in guiding souls one by one according to their condition.
Importance in the Church
Gregory turned the papacy into the moral and administrative centre of the West after the collapse of imperial power, gave the Latin Church its pastoral theology and much of its liturgy, and launched the evangelisation of northern Europe.
Quotes
“The art of arts is the government of souls.”
Pastoral Rule, I, 1
“Scripture grows with those who read it.”
Homilies on Ezekiel, I, 7, 8
Writings
Regula Pastoralis — The classic manual on the care of souls, translated into Greek and Old English in his own century.
Moralia in Iob — A vast moral and spiritual commentary on Job.
Dialogues — Includes the earliest life of Saint Benedict; hagiographical in genre.
Letters (Registrum Epistolarum) — More than 850 letters documenting the government of the Church.
Prayers
Collect of Saint Gregory the Great
O God, who care for your people with gentleness and rule them in love, through the intercession of Pope Saint Gregory endow 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 Christ our Lord. Amen.
Collect of 3 September, Roman Missal.
Places
San Gregorio Magno al Celio, Rome — His family home turned monastery, from which the English mission departed.
Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican — Where his relics are venerated.
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)