Wisdom of Saints: St Gregory the Great

The Feast of Gregory the Great, Doctor, Bishop of Rome, 604

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Gregory, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lent

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St Gregory the Great, also known as St Gregory the Dialogist due to his Dialogues, was the Bishop of Rome in the late 6th century, and played an important role in reconnecting the English Church with the rest of the Western Catholic Church, along with his role in preserving Christianity in Rome itself.

St Gregory was born in Rome around 540 AD to a wealthy and politically influential family. His father, Gordianus, was a Christian and a Roman senator. In his later life, Gordianus would renounce his secular life and become a deacon in Rome. Due to his family’s wealth, St Gregory was afforded a high quality education and in 574, despite being in his mid-thirties, St Gregory was appointed the Prefect of Rome by Emperor Justin the Younger.

His political career was cut short by the death of his father. St Gregory renounced his own political career and began founding a number of monasteries. Six were founded throughout Sicily, and finally in 575 he founded a seventh in Rome itself in his own home, where he took up the monastic habit himself. By 579, he became the personal representative of the Bishop of Rome to the Patriarch of Constantinople where he spent six years. He then returned home only for the Pope to die shortly after his return in 590, and St Gregory was himself elected Pope and installed as the Bishop of Rome.

St Gregory, of many of the Bishops of Rome, was most clearly empowered by the Holy Spirit with the gift of Administration. As pope, he many many revisions to the life of the Western Church, standardizing the liturgy and musical styles with the plainchant which takes its common name of Gregorian Chant from him. He also famously sent St Augustine of Canterbury to Kent on his missionary journey, something St Gregory himself had wanted to do earlier in his life. When St Augustine arrived in 597, he would report back to St Gregory of the existence of the English Church, to which St Gregory famously replied to give the English Church their liberty in local customs (at a time when throughout Western Christendom St Gregory was enforcing uniformity in the liturgy) and to continue to proclaim the Gospel.

The Roman Empire was in significant decline by the time St Gregory became Bishop of Rome, and like several other Popes, he found himself wielding significant political as well as religious authority—with the Pope’s secular political authority helping to increase and solidify his religious authority over time. He defended Rome against various foreign invasions and also co-ordinated relief for Rome in times of plague and famine.

St Gregory the Great was a great writer and theologian, and indeed is counted as one of the four great doctors of the Western Church, along St Augustine of Hippo, St Jerome and St Ambrose of Milan. His lifetime does present an interesting transition point in the life of the Western Church as well, in that St Gregory worked exclusively in Latin. Prior to his lifetime, Greek had remained common in Rome and the West, and was included as an integral part of any form of quality education. Despite the fact that he was emissary to the Bishop of Constantinople for six years, though, there is no clear evidence that St Gregory spoke Greek, and if he did then like St Augustine he refused to use it whenever possible. It is unlikely that St Gregory himself was the reason for the abandonment of Greek in the West, but it does mark his lifetime as an important transition point and point of divergence between the Catholic Church in the East and in the West.

One of Gregory’s famous works is Liber Regulæ Pastoralis (The Book of Pastoral Rule) which provides advice and instruction to priests. It contains a number of eloquent comments on the importance of the role of priests as examples, pastors and shepherds of the faithful. He begins by noting that qualifications are required to become a priest, and that it is not a vocation open to everyone: “No one presumes to teach an art till he has first, with intent meditation, learnt it.  What rashness is it, then, for the unskilful to assume pastoral authority, since the government of souls is the art of arts!” He continues by asserting that even those who are prepared through learning and instruction must still, by example, set forth their teaching before they are truly prepared to be priests:

There are some also who investigate spiritual precepts with cunning care, but what they penetrate with their understanding they trample on in their lives:  all at once they teach the things which not by practice but by study they have learnt; and what in words they preach by their manners they impugn.

He continues on, promoting the humility of priests as necessary for their office. He himself was quite humble and greatly respected the importance of showing humility when in position of authority, to avoid falling into the sin of pride.

In addition to his many theological works, many of his letters remain in existence, including his correpondence with the Eastern Patriarchs. Of particular note is one of his letters to Eulogius, the Bishop and Greek Patriarch of Alexandria from 581 to 608 AD. In his letter, St Gregory writes:

Your Blessedness has also been careful to declare that you do not now make use of proud titles, which have sprung from a root of vanity, in writing to certain persons, and you address me saying, “As you have commanded.” This word, “command,” I beg you to remove from my hearing, since I know who I am, and who you are. For in position you are my brethren, in character my fathers. I did not, then, command, but was desirous of indicating what seemed to be profitable.

St Gregory here seems to be declaring his equality with the Patriarch of Alexandria, something which the Bishop of Rome in the future would deny, when claiming universal jurisdiction over all Christendom. When the Patriarch responded to a previous comment of St Gregory saying St Gregory had commanded him to say something, St Gregory responds that he in no way meant the Patriarch to understand his comments as anything more than a suggestion for he considers them equal. St Gregory makes this even more explicit as he continues in his response, commenting on the fact that in his last letter, Eulogius had addressed St Gregory as the Universal Pope:

But I beg your most sweet Holiness to do this no more, since what is given to another beyond what reason demands is subtracted from yourself. For as for me, I do not seek to be prospered by words but by my conduct. Nor do I regard that as an honour whereby I know that my brethren lose their honour. For my honour is the honour of the universal Church: my honour is the solid vigour of my brethren. Then am I truly honoured when the honour due to all and each is not denied them. For if your Holiness calls me Universal Pope, you deny that you are yourself what you call me universally. But far be this from us. Away with words that inflate vanity and wound charity.

Here he specifically rejects the idea of the universality of his jurisdiction, and indeed continues to affirm equality with the Patriarch of Alexandria. These comments were consistent with comments he had made previously in his correspondence both with Eulogius and also with the Patriarch of Antioch, where St Gregory had recognized the fact that St Peter the Apostle had directly founded the See of Antioch, and ascribed his leadership to the See of Alexandria through St Mark the Evangelist whose Gospel was written on behalf of St Peter, when he remarks in the closing of one of his letters to Eulogius, “We have received with the kindliness wherewith it was sent the blessing of Saint Mark the Evangelist, nay, it may be said more truly, of Saint Peter the Apostle.”

St Gregory’s impact was great, but perhaps his most important contribution is a reminder that even, or especially, priests ought to shy from vanity and pride, and focus instead on holiness of living as an example to their people by which they may learn.