Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (540–604)

Biography

On Mount Caelius was the family palace. There Gregory received his first deeply Christian education from his parents, Gordiano and Silvia, who along with his aunts Társila and Emiliana are also in the catalog of saints. He was born at a critical moment, when the fall of Rome was accentuated and a new era began. He is the last of the great Fathers of the West and the first medieval man. His works would be the first spiritual food of the Middle Ages, until Saint Bernard, Sto. Thomas and St. Teresa of Jesus. He studied law and was later appointed prefect of the city. Italy had been devastated by the invasions of the Lombards. Rome was in ruins. In his time the consuls disappear, when Gregory will be called Consul of God. He nourished his intelligence with the writings of the great doctors of the Western Church: Saint Augustine, Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome. He himself would become the fourth most notable representative of the theology of that time. In his own house on Mount Celio, he founded a convent in honor of Saint Andrew, in the style of Saint Benedict's life, and submitted to the community as a simple friar. He intensely studied the Holy Scripture and the life of the monks of the West. He was distinguished by his austerity of life and the intensity of his prayer. That is why he is called a doctor of compunction and contemplation, since he was a complete model in both asceticism and mysticism. Upon the death of the Pope, the clergy and the people elected him Supreme Pontiff, the first Pope being a monk, a style that he introduced into the spirituality and liturgy of his Pontificate. He published the "PASTORAL RULE", which was the code of bishops during the Middle Ages. He renewed the cult and the Liturgy with the famous "SACRAMENTARY". The Holy Mass was enriched with songs, hymns and antiphons, the most famous reform being that of chant, therefore called Gregorian. He published the "ANTIFONARY" and formed a great Schola Cantorum. He gave great importance to the daily homily on the gospel. He shone as a great missionary Pope, as he managed to bring the faith to England, by sending Abbot Augustine of Canterbury with 40 Benedictine friars, to the island, which was still pagan and who later converted Holland and Germany and formed the essence of European Christian culture. More than 800 letters and several important pastoral books of Saint Gregory are preserved, who manifested himself great, not only in his activities, but also in the continuous suffering of arthritis, which he endured for many years with great patience. Along with Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome, he is one of the four fathers of the West. He died on March 12, 604.