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Saint Gregory the Great
Saint Gregory the Great

Saint Gregory the Great

Feast Day
Sep 03, 2012
Patronage
Monastic Life
<p>St. Gregory was born in 540, in the city of Rome. Gregory means in Greek, &ldquo;to be diligent in God&rsquo;s Commands&rdquo;.&nbsp; When Gregory was a child, Justinian I, emperor of the Roman Empire ruling from Constantinople, retook Italy from the Goths.&nbsp; The war was short, and was over by 552.&nbsp; Shortly after, in 554 the Western Roman Empire had vanished, in favor of the Kings of Italy.&nbsp; Italy was then united as one country, &ldquo;Rome&rdquo;, and there common language shared was the very last of now known, &ldquo;classical Latin&rdquo;. &nbsp;</p> <p>From 542, the Plague of Justinian swept through the provinces of the empire, including Italy.&nbsp; It caused famine, panic, and rioting.&nbsp; 1/3 of the population was wiped out or destroyed.&nbsp; Totila destroyed Rome in 547, but in 549 he invited those back that were from there, it is believed that Gregory and his parents were among them.&nbsp; Gregory had been born into a wealthy noble Roman family with close connections to the church.&nbsp; Gregory&rsquo;s great-great grandfather had been Pope, Felix III.&nbsp; Gregory&rsquo;s father held a position called the &ldquo;Regionarius&rdquo; in the Roman Church.&nbsp; Gregory was well educated with Grgory of Tours, and was second to none.&nbsp; When his father was alive, he took part in Roman political life, and at one point was &ldquo;Prefect of the Ciy&rdquo;. &nbsp;</p> <p>Gregory had a deep respect for the monastic life, and he viewed being a monk as a quest for the vision of our Creator.&nbsp; He had three paternal aunts that were Nuns, renowned for their sanctity.&nbsp; The eldest, just prior to passing away, had a vision of their ancestor Pope Felix.&nbsp; Gregory concluded in contemplation, that &ldquo;in that silence of the heart, while we keep watch within, through contemplation, we are as if asleep to all things that are without&rdquo;.&nbsp; This is a &ldquo;how&rdquo; you can enter into an interior life with God.&nbsp; Eventually, Pope Pelaguis II ordained him a deacon.&nbsp; He went on to be ordained a Priest. &nbsp;</p> <p>Gregory was eventually resolved to retire into the monastic lifestyle of contemplation, but was forced back into a public Church life, as pope.&nbsp; When he became Pope in 590, among his first acts was writing a series of letters disavowing any ambition of the Throne of Peter, and praising the contemplative life of the Monks.&nbsp; He was credited with re-energizing the Church&rsquo;s missionary work among the non-Christian peoples of northern Europe.&nbsp; He is most famous for sending a mission, often called the Gregorian Mission, to evangelize the pagan Anglo-Saxons of England.&nbsp; The mission was successful, and it was from England that missionaries later set out for the Netherlands and Germany.&nbsp; As Gregory was very Orthodox, the preaching of the Catholic Faith and the elimination of all deviations from it, was a key element in his worldview, and it constituted as one of his major accomplishments, through teachings. &nbsp;</p> <p>He died in 604, at the age of 64, and was declared a saint immediately after his death by &ldquo;Popular Acclamation&rdquo;.&nbsp; In his official documents, he was the first to make extensive use of the term, &ldquo;Servant of the Servants of God&rdquo;, as a Papal title, initiating a practice that has been followed by most popes. &nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Practical Take Away</strong></span></p> <p>St. Pope Gregory the Great came from a long family that worked in the Church, his great-great grandfather was Pope Felix III.&nbsp; Even as a younger man, he worked in the Government in Rome, but was drawn to the monastic life, and became a Monk.&nbsp; Eventually, he too, was called to be Pope &ndash; and he accepted with humble servitude, missing the monastic life.&nbsp; He even started the official Papal slogan, &ldquo;Servant of the Servants of God&rdquo;.&nbsp; He gave up what he wanted out of life, to follow the plan that God had for him, and in doing so, earned a place among the great Saints.&nbsp; What part of what &ldquo;we&rdquo; want, are we willing to give up to follow God?&nbsp; God&rsquo;s plan for each and every one of us, will assure us our place among the great Saints &ndash; don&rsquo;t forget to search out God&rsquo;s calling for our lives.&nbsp; St. Gregory the Great can help us to discern that, if we call upon his intercession to help us out.&nbsp;</p>