GREGORY I, Saint, Pope (590-604), sur named "the Great": b. Rome, about 540; d.
there, 12 March 604. Being the son of a wealthy patrician, he naturally embraced a po litical career and was named prxtor of Rome by the Emperor Justin II. The charm of power and terrestrial grandeur seems to have stifled in the soul of the young man the first attractions to the religious life, but he finally heeded the call of grace, sold the goods of his great in heritance and applied the proceeds to the alle viation of the poor and the founding of seven monasteries, six in Sicily and the seventh in Rome, on the present Monte Ccelio in the house wherein he was born. In this monastery he be came a monk of the Benedictine rule and ob served it with such austerity that his health, not delicate, was ruined and his life threatened In the years that followed he always longed for the cloister and the return of those happy days. The Pope soon removed him from his cell to game him one of the seven cardinal deacons (regionarii) and shortly afterward Pelagius II entrusted to him the difficult and honorable charge of apocrisiarius or nuncio to the Em peror Tiberius at Constantinople. Upon the completion of this mission he re-entered his monastery where soon after he was chosen ab bot. The sight of some young Anglo-Saxon: in the slave-market inspired in him the idea of setting sail for England and taking to that peo ple the benefits of Christianity and of civiliza tion. He had already, with the approval of the Pope, left Rome in secret, when a riot con strained Pelagius II to recall by courier the benefactor of the city and the idol of the Roman people. Pelagius died in 590 and the unanimous votes of the senate, the clergy and the people immediately raised Gregory to the pontifical chair. He spared nothing to escape it. But since the Emperor of the East, Maurice, had confirmed the election, the people conducted him in triumph to Saint Peter's and he was consecrated 3 Sept. 590. At this time Italy was the prey of floods, pestilence and famine; the Lombards were plundering with fire and sword; the ecclesiastical province of Milan persisted in schism which the condemnation of the Three Chapters had evoked; the schism of Pho tius and of Michael Cerularius was already casting its shadow; and the civilized world seemed upset to its very foundation. Few popes or rulers have united in an equal meas ure charity and grace with firmness and energy. No Pope perhaps had a more sublime concep tion of his mission or more completely realized that conception. Gregory displayed great zeal for the conversion of heretics, the advancement of monachism and the rigid enforcement of celibacy among the clergy; and there was noth ing in which the Church was concerned that he deemed too small to lie beyond the sphere of his personal interest and action. Although the Patriarch of Constantinople, John the Faster, took the arrogant title of °ecumenical patri arch ° Gregory, though disputing that title, con tented himself humbly with that of °servant of the servants of God." To him is accredited the foundation of the temporal sovereignty of the Holy See and the power of the popes in the Middle Ages, although he never failed to show proper respect for the emperor. The well known work of Gregory is the conversion of that England whose apostle he had failed to be and to which he had sent Augustine, the fu ture Archbishop of Canterbury, together with 40 other monks of Monte Ccelio. He lived to see the complete success of this enterprise. In his last years, Gregory was almost constantly confined to bed by sickness and could scarcely raise up to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice on great feast days. He, who is acknowledged tc have been one of the greatest of all the suc cessors of Saint Peter, died 12 March 604, and the anniversary of his death is celebrated as a duplex feast in the Latin Church. Nothing
proclaims more vividly the genius of Gregory and reflects more faithfully his activity than his 'Registrum epistolarum, a collection of his official correspondence, of which 848 letters in all are extant. From these one gets as it were a birdseye view of the statesman, the talent of the administrator and the indefatigable zeal of the bishop. The best edition of this work is that of Ewald and Hartmann in the 'Monu menta Germania: Historica.' The duties of the sacred ministry is explained in the celebrated 'Liber regube pastoralis,' written about 591 and dedicated to John, Archbishop of Ravenna, who had reproached the Pope with having tried to avoid the supreme dignity by flight. Greg ory justifies himself by the example of 'Saint Gregory of Nazianzus and Saint Chrysostom noting the grandeur and difficulties of the pas toral ministry. The book contains four parts: the first outlines the conditions requisite for the priesthood; the second depicts the life of the true pastor; the third (the largest and most important part) traces the rules of preaching; and the fourth (a single chapter) invites the pastor to enter into himself every day. The book had an extraordinary success, was trans lated into Greek by Anastasius II, Patriarch of Antioch, and into West-Saxon by King Alfred the Great (901). King Alfred's version has been edited by H. Sweet (London 1871) in the 'Publications of the Early English Text Society.' About equally successful were the four books of 'Dialogues,' dating from the years 593-94 and treating of the life and mira cles of the holy persons of Italy, including es pecially Saint Benedict, and the survival of the soul after death. This work was copied and translated and spread throughout the world. Extracts of this work appear in the 'Monu ments Germanise Historica.' Another import ant work was (Expositio in librum Job sive Moralium libri XXXV,' begun during the nun ciature at Constantinople and finished after he became Pope; this involves a threefold plan: a literal or historical explanation, a mystical explanation and a moral explanation. Besides these, Gregory composed 22 homilies on Eze chiel in two books, 40 homilies on the Gospels in two books, the Gregorian Sacramentary, and in all probability eight or nine hymns. Many other works are attributed to him, which are probably spurious. The ancient tradition which reserves to Gregory the honor of having defi nitely fixed the liturgical chant, 'Cantus Gre seems indisputable. (See GREGORIAN CHANT). Gregory is represented in art with a dove above his, head, due to the well-known story of Peter the Deacon that a dove rested on his head when he was composing the homi lies on Ezechiel. The complete works of Greg ory have been reprinted in Migne's 'Patrologia Latina' and translations of selected letters and the book on pastoral care are in the 'Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.' Saint Gregory of Tours, 'Historia Francorum' (Bk. X) ; (Liber Pontifi calis,' (2 vols., ed. L. Duchesne, Paris 1886 92) ; a life of Gregory written by a monk of Whitby (ed., F. A. Gasquet, Westminster 1904) ; lives by Paul the Deacon and John the Deacon; Chevalier, Ulysse, (Bio-Bibliographie) (Paris 1905) ; Dudden, F. H., 'Gregory the Great: His Place in History and in Thought' (2 vols., London 1905); Lau, G. J. Th., 'Gregor I des Grosse' (Leipzig 1845); Barmby, James, 'Gre gorius (51) (in Smith and Wace's Dic tionary of Christian Biography,' Vol II, Lon don 1880) ; Mann, H. K., 'Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages' (Vol. I, London 1902) • Snow, A., 'Saint Gregory the Great: His Work and His Spirit' (London 1892).