The first pope with a monastic background

Gregory was born sometime around 540 AD to Gordianus and Silvia (his mother also being a canonized saint, along with two of Gregory’s aunts, Trasilla and Emiliana). He came from a family of wealthy patricians who owned extensive estates in Rome and Sicily. By the age of 30, Gregory had risen to temporal power as prefect of Rome. While somewhat diminished from the height of the Empire’s former glory, prefect was still the highest civil position in the city in the sixth century. Some time in or around 574, Gregory decided to abandon this life of luxury and influence and become a monk.

He lived an austere monastic life for a few years before being reluctantly pressed into public service as one of the seven deacons (regionarii) of Rome and then as ambassador (apocrisiarius) to Emperor Tiberius’ Byzantine Court in Constantinople. He learned a great deal from his time in the East, but remained resolutely a Roman, lamenting the suspicion with which the Byzantine Christians eyed the Westerners and continuing to immerse himself in Latin history and theology whenever possible.

Gregory returned to Rome before the winter of 579, one of the most severe of the period. When the Tiber overflowed and resulted in widespread destruction and disease throughout the Eternal City, Pope Pelagius II was among the many citizens who succumbed to the plague. Gregory was almost immediately elected pope by acclamation to succeed him.

The new pontiff struggled to provide pastoral care under the increasingly invasive assault of the Lombards. Eamon Duffy makes clear the financial acumen which allowed Gregory to care for the citizens of Italy, both Christian and not, during this crisis: “The church was by now the single largest landowner in the West, its property built up from imperial bounty in the Constantinian era, and then from the donations and legacies of great families like Gregory’s own…. This proved the salvation of Rome, for the papacy now took on the Roman state’s traditional role of feeding the people… He closely scrutinized [his assistants’] activities, and endlessly exhorted them to diligence and efficiency, scrupulous honesty, generosity to the poor, and fair dealing with tenants and employees” (Saints and Sinners, 64).

His protection of Rome extended beyond mere practical measures, to those of a more spiritual nature. As a sign of penitence and petition, he encouraged Roman citizens to hold processions throughout the city in honor of the Virgin, the results of which are immortalized in a familiar contemporary Roman landmark. The famed statue of St. Michael the Archangel sheathing his sword atop the mausoleum of Hadrian, now commonly referred to as Castel Sant’Angelo, signifies the vision of the archangel given to Gregory as a sign that the plague’s havoc would soon recede.

While pope, Gregory became a prolific writer. Nearly 900 of his letters and exhortations are still extant. His text “Liber Pastoralis Curae” continues to this day to inform bishops of the unique role and eminence of their office.

Perhaps his most lasting contributions to the ongoing practice of worship in the Catholic Church are his numerous reforms of the Roman Liturgy. These included moving the Lord’s Prayer to be recited before the breaking of the host and the chanting of the Alleluia after the Gradual (or Responsorial Psalm in the Mass of Paul VI) outside of paschal time.

As the first pope with a monastic background, Gregory was devoted to St. Benedict and his Rule for the discipline of life in the monastery. While always upholding the spiritual jurisdiction of particular bishops, Gregory was adamant in fairly adjudicating cases involving squabbles between monks and the leader of their diocese. He also was instrumental in missionary works, sending Augustine of Canterbury to help evangelize England, as well as Christian preachers to Gaul, North Africa and throughout Italy.

While the origins of the term Gregorian chant can be attributed to this great early and liturgically-minded pope, what we know as the Gregorian calendar was in fact named after Gregory XIII, his successor in the chair of Peter almost a millennium later.

Upon his death in 604,Gregory I was canonized by popular acclamation. He is a Doctor of the Church, one of the six Latin Fathers, the middle of three (for now) “Great” popes, and interestingly admired even in John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion as the last holy pope.

As the Catholic Encyclopedia explains, “In art the great pope is usually shown in full pontifical robes with the tiara and double cross. A dove is his special emblem, in allusion to the well-known story recorded by Peter the Deacon (Vita xxviii), who tells that when the pope was dictating his homilies on Ezechiel a veil was drawn between his secretary and himself. As, however, the pope remained silent for long periods at a time, the servant made a hole in the curtain and, looking through, beheld a dove seated upon Gregory’s head with its beak between his lips. When the dove withdrew its beak the holy pontiff spoke 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.”

While perhaps an embellished and pious legend, the recounting of the tale serves to highlight the eloquence and holiness through which the spiritual leader inspired his flock concerning his thoughts on the Scriptures and the church itself.

Michael M. Canaris of Collingswood is a Ph.D. candidate in systematic theology at Fordham.