“As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.”
Today, September 3, we celebrate the feast day of
Pope Saint Gregory the Great (540-604), one of the most prominent figures in Church history, and along with Saints
Augustine,
Ambrose and
Jerome, one of the four key Doctors of the Western Church. Pope Saint Gregory enacted significant Church reforms, and wrote prolifically from a theological and spiritual position (as opposed to a doctrinal position) about the Holy Spirit, the Gospels, and the faith of the Church. Referred to as “Great” due to his sanctity and his works, Pope Saint Gregory I inspires us to live moral, righteous lives, balanced in thought, word, and deed.
Pope Benedict said in his 2008 General Audience on Saint Gregory:
"[Saint Gregory the Great] proposes his thought through some significant binomials -- know how/do, speak/live, know something/act -- in which he evokes the two aspects of human life which should be complementary, but which often end up by being antithetical. The moral ideal, he comments, consists in achieving always a harmonious integration between word and action, thought and commitment, prayer and dedication to the duties of one's state: This is the road to attain that synthesis thanks to which the divine descends into man and man is raised to identification with God.
Saint Gregory the Great was born at Rome in 540. The son of a Roman senator, Gregory studied law, and was appointed Prefect (Chief Magistrate) of Rome when he was in his early thirties by Emperor Justin the Younger. After holding the position for five years, he resigned, founded six monasteries on his estate, and became a Benedictine monk. After several years, he was ordained a priest, and eventually became one of the Pope’s seven deacons of Rome. Obedient to the Holy Father, he was dispatched as a papal legate to Constantinople, where he served for six years prior to returning to his monastery to live in peace and contemplation. Elected abbot of the monastery, the people of Rome subsequently elevated him to pope, the first monk to hold this divine office.
Pope Saint Gregory’s papacy was marked by discipline and clergy reform. He was direct and firm with those who led congregations, removing the unworthy from office. He enacted reforms regarding payment to clergy, forbidding the acceptance of money for most services and Sacraments. He further looked to extend the charity and reach of the church, emptying the treasury to ransom captives, care for Jews who were being persecuted, and provide aid to the many victims of plague and famine.
Especially concerned with the conversion of England, he sent countless missionaries—including 40 monks from his monastery—to Great Britain. As holy legend tells us, Saint Gregory’s interest in the English was prompted by seeing young Anglo-Saxon captives for sale in a Roman slave market. According to the story, the pope asked who these fair-haired slaves were, and was told they were Angles. Gregory exclaimed in response,
"They are not 'Angles' -- they are angels!" He subsequently doubled his efforts.
Pope Gregory is known for his reform of the liturgy, and his strengthening and deep respect of doctrine. He is credited with revising the Church's traditional chant tones, known as “plain chant,” or Gregorian Chant. While he was responsible for doctrinal and liturgical reform, his writing and preaching style was down-to-earth and easy to understand. Saint Gregory’s skills lie in applying the daily gospel to the needs of his listeners.
Several legendary stories exist in regards to Pope Saint Gregory the Great. For example, while saying Mass one day, Pope Gregory became aware of a disbeliever and began to pray for a sign that would leave no doubt about the real presence of Christ in the Mass. Showing his stigmata and surrounded by instruments of his Passion, Christ materialized before the Pope and the congregation. Similarly, Pope Gregory was visited by Saint Michael the Archangel to announce the end of the plague in Rome.
Most famously, Pope Gregory’s homilies and writings are attributed directly to the Holy Spirit. As legend tells us, when he was dictating his homilies on Ezekiel, a curtain was drawn between his secretary and himself. As, the pope remained silent for long periods at a time, the servant secretly cut a small hole in the curtain and, looking through, saw a dove seated upon Gregory's head with its beak between his lips. When the dove withdrew its beak the holy pontiff would speak and the secretary took down his words; but when he became silent the servant again applied his eye to the hole and saw the dove had replaced its beak between his lips.
The last years of Saint Gregory's life were filled with every kind of suffering. His mind, naturally serious, was filled with despondency and foreboding, and his bodily pains—which he had quietly suffered through for most of his life-- were increased and intensified. His
"sole consolation was the hope that death would come quickly.” He died quietly in 604, and on the same day his body was laid to rest in front of the sacristy of Saint Peter’s Basilica. He was considered a saint immediately following his death, by popular acclamation.
The first pope to refer to himself as “the servant of the servants of God,” Pope Saint Gregory the Great remains one of the most pivotal figures in the expansion and reformation of the Church. His writings, as well as his humility, endurance, and faith, continue to inspire us today.
Selected Quotations of Pope Saint Gregory the Great:
"Perhaps it is not after all so difficult for a man to part with his possessions, but it is certainly most difficult for him to part with himself. To renounce what one has is a minor thing; but to renounce what one is, that is asking a lot."
“The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.”
"When one is pleased about having attained many virtues it is good to reflect on one's own insufficiencies and humble oneself. Instead of considering the good accomplished, it is necessary to consider what one has failed to accomplish."
“If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. Therefore we must always dread the final day, which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a day for conversion. And yet we refuse to cry over the evil we have done! Not only do we not weep for the sins we have committed, we even add to them…. If we are, in fact, now occupied in good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves. We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow. Nobody must rejoice in the security of their own good deeds. As long as we are still experiencing the uncertainties of this life, we do not know what end may follow…we must not trust in our own virtues.”
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