![[Pope Saint Gregory the Great]](http://saints.sqpn.com/wp-content/gallery/pope-saint-gregory-the-great/pope-saint-gregory-the-great-01.jpg "158kb jpg detail of 'The Ecstasy of Saint Gregory the Great', Pieter Pauwel Rubens, 1608, oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble, France")
Also known as
- Gregory I
- Gregory Dialogos
- Gregory the Dialogist
- Father of the Fathers
Profile
Son of Gordianus, a Roman regionarius, and Saint Silvia of Rome. Nephew of Saint Emiliana and Saint Tarsilla. Great-grandson of Pope Saint Felix III. Educated by the finest teachers in Rome, Italy. Prefect of Rome for a year, then he sold his possessions, turned his home into a Benedictine monastery, and used his money to build six monasteries in Sicily and one in Rome. Benedictine monk. Upon seeing English children being sold in the Roman Forum, he became a missionary to England.
Elected 64th Pope by unanimous acclamation on 3 September 590, the first monk to be chosen. Sent Saint Augustine of Canterbury and a company of monks to evangelize England, and other missionaries to France, Spain, and Africa. Collected the melodies and plain chant so associated with him that they are now known as Gregorian Chants. One of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church. Wrote seminal works on the Mass and Divine Office, several of them dictated to his secretary, Saint Peter the Deacon.
Born
Papal Ascension
- against gout
- against plague
- choir boys
- educators
- England
- Kercem, Malta
- Legazpi, Philippines, diocese of
- masons
- Montone, Italy
- musicians
- papacy
- Popes
- San Gregorio nelle Alpi, Italy
- schoolchildren
- singers
- stone masons
- stonecutters
- students
- teachers
- West Indies
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Additional Information
- Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
- Catholic Encyclopedia, by G Roger Huddleston
- Catholic Online, by Terry Matz
- Christ’s Faithful People
- Christian Biographies, by James Keifer
- Earliest Life of Saint Gregory the Great, by a monk or nun of Whitby
- Ecole Glossary, by Karen Rae Keck
- From the Housetops, by Sister Catherine Goddard Clark, M.I.C.M.
- Iucunda Sane: On Pope Saint Gregory the Great, by Pope Saint Pius X
- Golden Legend, by Jacobus de Voragine
- Katherine Rabenstein
- Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
- Lives of the Saints, by John J Crawley
- Monastery of Christ in the Desert
- New Catholic Dictionary
- Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
- Saints to Remember, by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Works
Readings
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. - Saint Gregory the Great
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. - Saint Gregory the Great, from Be Friends of God
MLA Citation
- “Pope Saint Gregory the Great“. Saints.SQPN.com. 11 April 2013. Web. 20 June 2013. <>