ST GREGORY THE GREAT
PATRON OF THE SCHOOL
His Life and Times
(Based on "Gregs" by Edwards and Glynn)
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ST GREGORY THE GREAT
St Gregory the Great
He is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students and teachers.
St Gregory the Great comes down through the centuries as one of the most illustrious of pontiffs and learned men of the Church. He was born around the year AD 540, the scion of Roman nobility. His father Gordianus was a senator who, although a man of authority and wealth, was later to renounce his worldly goods and dedicate his life to the Church. The saint’s mother was Sylvia, who also consecrated her life to God. The name ‘Gregory’, taken from the Greek, implies a ‘watchman’, as Vigilus or Vigilantius in the Latin.
During his boyhood, Gregory was a diligent scholar, later proceeding to the study of ecclesiastical and Roman law. At the age of thirty-four, he was appointed governor and chief magistrate of Rome by the Emperor Justin II. The panoply associated with his new authority was not of his choosing, yet he could dispense justice with impartiality and, when necessary, severity.
On the death of his father, Gregory was able to endow monasteries out of the estates of Gordianus and, in the city of Rome he founded the monastery of St Andrew, which he was to enter in the year 575.
In a well-known story Gregory was one day walking through the market in Rome when he noticed three golden-haired, fair-complexioned Anglo-Saxon boys exposed for sale as slaves and inquired their nationality. “They are Angles or Angli,” was the reply. Gregory is reputed to have said: “Non Angli, sed angeli” (Not Angles, but angels), for he believed they had angelic faces and ought to be companions with the angels in heaven. Learning that they were pagans, he asked what province they came from. When told that their province was ‘Deira’, he exclaimed “de ira!”, meaning that they would be rescued “from the wrath” [of God] and called to the mercy of Christ. So greatly was Gregory inspired by their beauty and by pity for their ignorance of Christ that he resolved to preach the gospel himself in Britain, their homeland.
In his heart of hearts Gregory was a missionary and, in consequence of this meeting in the Forum of Rome, he was so fixed with desire to convert the pagan Angles to Christianity that he obtained permission from Pope Pelagius II to go in person to Britain with some of his fellow-monks as missionaries. However, when the people of Rome heard about their departure they were greatly incensed at the pope’s act. With angry words they demanded Gregory’s recall, and envoys were at once despatched to bring him back to Rome, if necessary, by force. These men caught up with the small band of missionaries on the third day after their departure, and at once returned with them, Gregory offering no opposition since he had received what appeared to him as a sign from heaven that his enterprise should be abandoned.
Pelagius II sent Gregory as nuncio to the Emperor Tiberius in Constantinople, where he was able to concentrate on his writings. For example, St Leander, the Bishop of Seville, requested the nuncio to write on morals, and the completed output consisted of thirty-five books.
On his recall to Rome, Gregory took up the administration of his monastery in addition to being the Pope’s secretary. On the death of Pelagius in 590, Gregory was chosen to succeed to the See of Peter but was very reluctant to accept on 3rd September, 590.
Gregory became Pope during a difficult period of the Church’s history. Anarchy was rife and he realised there was a desperate need for a missionary apostolate. The oft-repeated story of Gregory and the Anglo-Saxon slaves in the Roman market and his thwarted attempt to visit Britain were the foundations for St Augustine and his band of monks coming to these shores in the spring of 597. Augustine was the prior of the monastery of St Andrew, so, together with others from that community, he landed at Thanet in Kent to lay the foundations of Christianity in these lands.
Augustine met Ethelbert, King of Kent, and converted him to Christianity together with thousands of his subjects. Basing himself at Canterbury, he became the first archbishop there, and was succeeded in turn by several of his companions who had made the arduous journey across Europe with him. In the north of England, Paulinus was busy converting on the instructions of the Pope. At York, Paulinus baptised Edwin, King of Northumbria, with hundreds of his subjects, thus emulating the achievement of Augustine in the south.
During this period of early Christianity in Britain, Gregory was suffering much ill-health and dealing with countless problems of state. In Constantinople, the Emperor Maurice was embarking on a career of self-destruction. Maurice had approved the choice of Gregory as Pope but over the years became estranged from the pontiff.
In 602, the emperor’s sons were murdered in front of their father. Later Maurice, too, met his death, and some three months from the emperor’s murder, his widow and daughters also perished at the hands of the new regime.
For Gregory it was a sad end to his life, learning of the persecution of Maurice and his family, and although he felt obliged to accept the new Emperor, Phocas, he did not condone the tyranny that led to the succession of Phocas to the Byzantine throne.
Just two weeks later, much weakened in body, Gregory entered his last illness and died on 12th March, 604. It was later decreed that all monasteries in this country should honour his memory and a holiday was given up to the time of the Reformation. To this saint people in this country owe much. For Gregory, in sending Augustine and his companions to Britain, ensured there would be Christianity which, in spite of the many vicissitudes, is with us still centuries later.
Feast day
The current Roman Catholic calendar of saints, revised in 1969 as instructed by the Second Vatican Council, celebrates St Gregory the Great on 3rd September, the day of his Episcopal consecration in 590.
Before that, the General Roman Calendar assigned his feast day to 12th March, the day of his death in 604. This date always falls in Lent, during which there are no obligatory memorials. For this reason, his feast day was moved to 3rd September, the day he became Pope.
HYMN TO ST GREGORY THE GREAT
That voice is now by angels heard
Which late to Anglia preached the word;
But Christian folk, as heretofore,
St Gregory’s loving aid implore.
Rich was thy future on thy birth
Smiled the deluding shows of earth;
These didst thou forfeit, Christ’s to be,
And serve thy Master, poor as He.
Yet He delights to honour still
Thy humble servant of His will;
Soon must thou prove, on Peter’s throne,
That Peter’s spirit was thy own.
Praise to the Father, gendered not,
Praise to the Son His love begot;
Spirit of both, as both Divine,
Eternal Majesty be thine.
St Peter Damian (1007-72)
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