LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Saint Gregory the Great, Bishop

   Only two Popes, St. Leo the First and St. Gregory the First, have been given the popular title of “the Great.”  Both served in difficult times of the barbarian invasions of Italy. St. Gregory  also knew the horrors of “plague, pestilence, and famine.”  He was born of a patrician family about 540 and became Prefect of Rome in 573.  Shortly thereafter he retired to a monastic life in a community which he founded in his ancestral home in Rome.  Pope Pelagius the Second made him Ambassador to Constantinople in 579, where he learned much about the larger affairs of the Church.  Not long after his return home, Pope Pelagius died of the plague and in 590, St. Gregory was elected as his successor.

  St. Gregory’s pontificate was one of strenuous activity.  He organized the defense of Rome against the attacks of the Lombards, and fed its populace from papal granaries in Sicily.  In this as in other matters, he administered “the patrimony of St. Peter” with energy and efficiency.  His ordering of the Church’s liturgy and chant has molded the spirituality of the Western Church up to the present day.  Though unoriginal in theology, his writings provided succeeding generations with basic texts, especially his book “Pastoral Care” which is a classic work about  the work of priestly ministry.

  In the midst of all his cares and duties, St. Gregory prepared and fostered the evangelizing mission to the Anglo-Saxons under St. Augustine and other monks from his own monastery.  The great English historian and saint, the Venerable Bede, justly called St. Gregory “the Apostle of the English.”  St. Gregory died on March 12, 604 and was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica.  His life was a true witness to the title he assumed for the papal office: “Servant of the servants of God.”

[From “Lesser Feasts and Fasts” – A.T.K.Z.+]

A Collect for the Feast of Saint Gregory the Great

  Almighty and merciful God, you raised up Gregory of Rome to be a servant of the servants of God, and inspired him to send missionaries to preach the Gospel to the English people:  Preserve in your Church the Catholic and Apostolic faith they taught, that,

aided by his prayers, your people, being fruitful in every good work, may receive the crown of glory that never fades away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

This page last modified on Friday, April 11, 2008 09:40 PM