Gregory I (the Great)

    (c. 540–604)

   Pope, Theologian and Saint.

   Gregory was born in Rome and was educated as a lawyer. He was ordained Deacon by Pope Benedict I and was elected Pope in 590. At that period the city of Rome was under threat from the Lombards. Gregory was unable to persuade the imperial forces to defend the city so he sent his own troops. His administrative arrangements were an important stage in the foundation of the Papal States. In the religious sphere, he insisted that the See of Peter had universal jurisdiction and he did not hesitate to reverse a decision of the Patriarch of Constantinople. He asserted his control over the Frankish Church and he placed the Spanish Church under the care of his friend Bishop Leander. He sent St augustine of canterbury on his mission to convert Britain and he rebuked the African Bishops’ complacency over the Donatist schism. Gregory is also regarded as one of the four great doctors of the Roman Church and his theological works include the Liber Regulae Pastoralis, which became a standard guide for bishops, the Dialogi ( a mystical life of St Benedict), homilies on the Gospels, expositions of various books of the Bible and many letters. He was a dedicated promoter of monasticism; he encouraged the veneration of relics and he made some changes in the liturgy. Much of the Sacramentary which bears his name, however, is later. Gregory was the dominant figure of the late sixth-century Church. He did much to establish the Papacy as the supreme ecclesiastical power and he was canonised immediately after his death.

   J. Richards, Consul of God (1980);

   C. Shaw, Gregory the Great (1991).