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Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I “Saint Gregory” redirects here. For other uses, see Saint ther is known about that position. Gregory’s mother, Sil- Gregory (disambiguation). via, was well-born and had a married sister, Pateria, in Sicily. His mother and two paternal aunts are honored by Catholic and Orthodox churches as saints.[11] Gre- Pope Gregory I (Latin: Gregorius I; c. 540 – 12 March [12] [1] gory’s great-great-grandfather had been Pope Felix III, 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, [13] was Pope from 3 September 590 to his death in 604. Gre- the nominee of the Gothic king, Theodoric. Gregory’s election to the throne of St Peter made his family the most gory is well known for his writings, which were more pro- [14] lific than those of any of his predecessors as pope.[2] He is distinguished clerical dynasty of the period. also known as St. Gregory the Dialogist in Eastern Or- The family owned and resided in a villa suburbana on thodoxy because of his Dialogues. For this reason, En- the Caelian Hill, fronting the same street, now the Via glish translations of Orthodox texts will sometimes list di San Gregorio, with the former palaces of the Roman him as “Gregory Dialogus”. emperors on the Palatine Hill opposite. The north of Throughout the Middle Ages he was known as “the Father the street runs into the Colosseum; the south, the Circus Maximus. In Gregory’s day the ancient buildings were of Christian Worship” because of his exceptional efforts [15] in revising the Roman worship of his day.[3] His contri- in ruins and were privately owned. Villas covered the area. Gregory’s family also owned working estates in butions to the development of the Divine Liturgy of the [16] [17] Presanctified Gifts, still in use in the Eastern Orthodox Sicily and around Rome. Gregory later had por- Church, were so significant that he is generally recog- traits done in fresco in their former home on the Caelian nized as its de facto author. and these were described 300 years later by John the Dea- con. Gordianus was tall with a long face and light eyes. He was the first of the popes to come from a monastic He wore a beard. Silvia was tall, had a round face, blue background. Gregory is a Doctor of the Church and eyes and a cheerful look. They had another son whose one of the Latin Fathers. He is considered a saint in name and fate are unknown.[18] the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, and some Lutheran churches. Im- Gregory was born into a period of upheaval in Italy. From mediately after his death, Gregory was canonized by pop- 542 the so-called Plague of Justinian swept through the ular acclaim.[4] The Protestant reformer John Calvin ad- provinces of the empire, including Italy. The plague mired Gregory and declared in his Institutes that Gregory caused famine, panic, and sometimes rioting. In some was the last good pope.[5] He is the patron saint of musi- parts of the country, over 1/3 of the population was wiped cians, singers, students, and teachers.[6] out or destroyed, with heavy spiritual and emotional ef- fects on the people of the Empire.[19] Politically, although the Western Roman Empire had long since vanished in favour of the Gothic kings of Italy, during the 540s 1 Early life Italy was gradually retaken from the Goths by Justinian I, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire ruling from The exact date of Gregory’s birth is uncertain, but is usu- Constantinople. As the fighting was mainly in the north, ally estimated to be around the year 540,[7] in the city of the young Gregory probably saw little of it. Totila sacked Rome. His parents named him Gregorius, which accord- and vacated Rome in 546, destroying most of its ancient ing to Aelfric in An Homily on the Birth-Day of S. Gre- population, but in 549 he invited those who were still gory, "... is a Greek Name, which signifies in the Latin alive to return to the empty and ruined streets. It has Tongue Vigilantius, that is in English, Watchful....”[8] been hypothesized that young Gregory and his parents The medieval writers who give this etymology[9] do not retired during that intermission to their Sicilian estates, [20] hesitate to apply it to the life of Gregory. Aelfric, to return in 549. The war was over in Rome by 552, for example, goes on: “He was very diligent in God’s and a subsequent invasion of the Franks was defeated in Commandments.”[10] 554. After that, there was peace in Italy, and the appear- ance of restoration, except that the central government Gregory was born into a wealthy patrician Roman fam- now resided in Constantinople. ily with close connections to the church. His father, Gordianus, who served as a Senator and for a time was Like most young men of his position in Roman soci- the Prefect of the City of Rome,[11] also held the posi- ety, Saint Gregory was well educated, learning grammar, tion of Regionarius in the church, though nothing fur- rhetoric, the sciences, literature, and law, and excelling in 1 2 3 APOCRISIARIATE (579–585) all.[11] Gregory of Tours reported that “in grammar, di- to stealing three gold pieces. Gregory forced the monk to alectic and rhetoric ... he was second to none....”[21] He die friendless and alone, then threw his body and coins on wrote correct Latin but did not read or write Greek. He a manure heap to rot with a curse, “Take your money with knew Latin authors, natural science, history, mathemat- you to perdition”. Gregory believed that punishment of ics and music and had such a “fluency with imperial law” sins can begin, even on one’s deathbed.[25] However, this that he may have trained in it “as a preparation for a ca- was done to help the monk to repent of his sin, and not out reer in public life.”[21] Indeed, he became a government of a misplaced anger. The penance from St Gregory did official, advancing quickly in rank to become, like his fa- in fact help him to repent, and afterwards St Gregory of- ther, Prefect of Rome, the highest civil office in the city, fered 30 Masses in his remembrance to assist his soul be- when only thirty-three years old.[11] fore the final judgment. He later appeared to his brother and said that he has been released and is in Heaven.[26] The monks of the Monastery of St. Andrew, established by Gregory at the ancestral home on the Caelian, had a Eventually, Pope Pelagius II ordained him a deacon and solicited his help in trying to heal the schism of the Three portrait of him made after his death, which John the Dea- Chapters in northern Italy. However, Italy was not healed con also saw in the 9th century. He reports the picture of [27] a man who was “rather bald” and had a “tawny” beard until well after Gregory was gone. like his father’s and a face that was intermediate in shape Gregory had a deep respect for the monastic life. He between his mother’s and father’s. The hair that he had viewed being a monk as the 'ardent quest for the vision on the sides was long and carefully curled. His nose was of our Creator.'[28] His three paternal aunts were nuns “thin and straight” and “slightly aquiline.” “His forehead renowned for their sanctity. However, after the two el- was high.” He had thick, “subdivided” lips and a chin “of dest passed away after seeing a vision of their ancestor a comely prominence” and “beautiful hands.”[22] Pope Felix, the youngest soon abandoned the religious In the modern era, Gregory is often depicted as a man life and married the steward of her estate. Gregory’s re- sponse to this family scandal was “many are called but at the border, poised between the Roman and Germanic [29] worlds, between East and West, and above all, perhaps, few are chosen.” Gregory’s mother Silvia herself is a between the ancient and medieval epochs.[23] saint. 2 Monastic years 3 Apocrisiariate (579–585) Jerome and Gregory. On his father’s death, Gregory converted his family villa into a monastery dedicated to the apostle Saint Andrew (after his death it was rededicated as San Gregorio Magno al Celio). In his life of contemplation, Gregory concluded that “in that silence of the heart, while we keep watch within through contemplation, we are as if asleep to all things that are without.”.[24] It seems to some that Gregory was not always forgiving, Illumination in a 12th-century manuscript of a letter of Gregory’s or pleasant for that matter, even in his monastic years. to Saint Leander, bishop of Seville (Bibl. Municipale, MS 2, For example, a monk lying on his death bed confessed Dijon). 3 In 579, Pelagius II chose Gregory as his apocrisiarius works.[36] Gregory left Constantinople for Rome in 585, (ambassador to the imperial court in Constantinople), a returning to his monastery on the Caelian Hill.[37] Gre- post Gregory would hold until 586.[30] Gregory was part gory was elected by acclamation to succeed Pelagius II in of the Roman delegation (both lay and clerical) that ar- 590, when the latter died of the plague spreading through rived in Constantinople in 578 to ask the emperor for the city.[37] Gregory was approved by an Imperial iussio military aid against the Lombards.[31] With the Byzan- from Constantinople the following September (as was the tine military focused on the East, these entreaties proved norm during the Byzantine Papacy).[37] unsuccessful; in 584, Pelagius II wrote to Gregory as apocrisiarius, detailing the hardships that Rome was ex- periencing under the Lombards and asking him to ask Emperor Maurice to send a relief force.[31] Maurice, 4 Papacy (590–604) however, had long ago determined to limit his efforts against the Lombards to intrigue and diplomacy, pitting the Franks against them.[31] It soon became obvious to Although Gregory was resolved to retire into the monas- Gregory that the Byzantine emperors were unlikely to tic lifestyle of contemplation, he was unwillingly forced send such a force, given their more immediate difficul- back into a world that, although he loved, he no longer [38] ties with the Persians in the East and the Avars and Slavs wanted to be a part of.
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