For the Feast of St Gregory the Great
Born into the Roman nobility about the year 540, Gregory belonged to the old classical world that was passing away. The splendour of his native city had been dimmed considerably by the incursions of barbarians from the north. It was almost one hundred years since Pope Leo the Great had resisted Attila (451)[1]. The Goths, however, were not as compliant and Theodoric their leader had set up his Ostrogothic kingdom in 493. Just thirteen years before Gregory’s birth, the brilliant Justinian[2] succeeded as emperor in Constantinople and, as a consequence of his high intellectual acumen and masterful administrative skills, won back Italy for the empire, codified the Roman Law and for thirty-eight years reorganized his vast dominions. When Gregory was three, Benedict died, and when thirteen, the Fifth Ecumenical Council was convened at Constantinople.
Set against this background, the young and brilliant Gregory chose to assume a role in the government of this society and by 573 he was Prefect of Rome. As soon as he was able, however, he abandoned public life and all its concomitant worldly honours, to convert his house on the Coelian into a monastery and to become a monk within its walls. Understandably, not long after, he was sought out by the reigning pope, Benedict I, and made an archdeacon to assist with ecclesiastical administration. Pope Pelagius II, sent him to Constantinople, appointing him nuncio[3] of the Holy See from 579 until 585. There, numbered among many friends, he could count two emperors, Tiberias II and Maurice; two patriarchs, Eutychius and Leander (who afterwards would lead the restoration of the Church in Spain); and several members of the imperial family.
On his return to Rome in 585, Gregory presided as abbot over the monastery of St Andrew until 590. In that year, much to his astonishment, the Roman clergy chose him for pope on the death of Pelagius. It is noteworthy that he resisted this election and even sent envoys to the Emperor Maurice begging him to withhold his consent to the consecration.[4] In the interim, a terrible plague broke out in Rome and it fell to Gregory to organize public penance and a great procession of intercession and reparation through the city for divine intervention. The figure of St Michael the Archangel sheathing his sword of destruction atop Hadrian’s Tomb, now called Castel Sant’Angelo as a consequence, commemorates this event, as does the hymn, Regina Coeli.
Mention of a hymn and the monument gives some idea of the extent of the legacy Pope Gregory left us. The Church’s plainsong music is named after him; as is the Gregorian Sacramentary, a repository of liturgical codification.[5] His programme for reform of the clergy deserves rediscovery, not least his insistence on the necessity and dignity of clerical celibacy. Equally relevant to the present day and a touch more homely is the story of his encounter with a company of flaxen haired Anglo-Saxons for sale in the slave market of the Roman Forum. In the language of the story the Angles were to become angels and the subjects of King Ella were to sing Alleluia.[6] Accordingly, Augustine, the prior of Gregory’s former monastery, was sent as leader of a complete Roman colony of monks to the kingdom of Kent in the spring of 597. The work of consolidating the faith in Britain and expanding its administration from Canterbury had begun.
St Gregory’s genius was a unique ability to make a synthesis in clear and engaging language of the central truths of the faith not so much as ends in themselves but as the means of “an ascent to God who draws man to Himself”. The mysticism of Gregory may be best described as the simple, practical and eminently pastoral apprehension of seeing God in his self-revealing Word, in his Incarnation, in his Paschal Mystery, and in his communication with the Christian soul which is ever in search of penetrating His ineffable reality.
A preference for contemplation could not blind him to the circumstances of ordinary faithful and how their spiritual needs would be properly served by those charged with their care. His insightful administrative abilities allowed him not only to exercise an exemplary papal rule, but also to provide us with the legacy of the Regula Pastoralis[7] among other great works. No previous work treated pastoral life in the same way, identified the “art of arts” in the government of souls, explored the motives of one accepting office and warned of the roots of self-delusion.
Gregory laments the worldliness of many bishops, their “abuse of power, desire for profit, hunger for praise and weakness for gossip”.[8] His own experience and meditation on the role of the episcopate enabled him to set a course for universal pastoral care that was grounded in the preached Word of God and the salvation of souls. It is not insignificant that the Regula Pastoralis together with the Canons of Law were placed into the hands of bishops at their consecration during the Carolingian era. If only that custom had survived!
Writing to Leander, now bishop of Seville, he indicated the principle that in the unity of the faith, diversity of liturgical practice is in no way harmful to the Church. Augustine of Canterbury also. was advised to choose from each tradition whether Roman or Gallican whatever is pious, religious and orthodox.[9] If only the present incumbent of the Roman See had consulted his sixth century predecessor before trying to suppress his form of the sacred liturgy.
By 604, Gregory’s life had run its course. In the last years he strove to establish a lasting peace with the Lombards but to no avail. His beloved Rome was in the grip of famine, and the general populace, those to whom he had dedicated his life, turned on him at the end, making him a scapegoat for all their miseries. However, lack of enduring success in the secular sphere was eclipsed by the synthesis he achieved in the spiritual order. This would be his lasting work. All expressions of the Church’s life, encompassing the liturgy, the established doctrines, the riches of the Scriptures and the teachings of both Eastern and Western Fathers were drawn together and made easily digestible for those who would follow. His death brought to a close the Patristic Period and marked the threshold of a new era which came to be known as the Middle Ages.
[1] The Visigoths took Rome under Alaric in 410 but they were only passing invaders. Toulouse became the centre of Gothic power after 416.
[2] Died 565 AD.
[3] Apocrisiarios (άποχριςιαριος)
[4] Although the popes were primates of the Catholic Church they were also subjects of the Roman Empire. The Christian Roman empire, the Sancta Respublica, following the Constantinian settlement, saw Gregory and other popes of the imperial period as willing subjects. The duty of the secular ruler was to protect the Church and preserve the unity of the faith. See Richards, J. (1980) Consul of God, London.
[5] Vatican Council II prescribed the maintenance of Gregorian plainsong with “pride of place” in the liturgy!
[6] See: The Whitby Life, anon. circa 704 AD. “He (Gregory) received them and asked what race they belonged to. They answered, ‘the people we belong to are called Angles’. ‘Angels of God,’ he replied. Then he asked further, ‘What is the name of the king of that people?’ They said, ‘Aelli,’ whereupon he said: ‘Alleluia, God’s praise must be heard there.’ Then he asked the name of their own tribe to which they answered, ‘Deira’, and he replied, ‘They shall flee from (de) the wrath (ira) of God to the faith’.” The story is also recorded in Bede, Ecclesiastical History, 731, both drawing on the common oral tradition in Britain.
[7] Pastoral Care. See Davis, H, (Trans.) (1978). Ancient Christian Writers, No. 11, New York.
[8] Homiliae in Evangelium, i;17.
[9] Letters 1:43; & Bede, op. cit. 1,27.