St. Gregory the Great (Sept. 3rd)

This week the General Calendar of Saints is rather empty.  The main person on it, about whom I will write below is:

St. Gregory the Great (Sept 3rd)

Additionally, there are two blesseds remembered in my religious order.  They are:

Bl. Maria Magdalena Starace, OSM (Sept 5th), foundress of the Servite Compassionist Sisters in Castell’al Mare, outside of Naples.  In many ways, she’s like so many other foundresses – Mother Cabrini, Mother McAuley -- across the world of apostolic congregations in the 19th century, serving orphans and the poor.  She serves as my Order’s equivalent. 

Bl. Bonaventure of Forli, OSM (Sept 6th)  who lived in the 1400s, and like many saints and blessed of his time, , was known for his preaching.  Perhaps he could be thought of as a (today) somewhat less renowned Servite contemporary to the still very much famous Franciscan preacher St. Bernardine of Siena, OFM (May 20).

But we’ll focus on St. Gregory the Great (Sept 3rd) instead: 

Why was he called “Great”? 

Well, he lived in a particularly difficult time (from Sept 3, 590 to March 12, 604).  At this time, Italy and Western Europe were truly in chaos.

The Western Roman Empire had collapsed a couple of centuries ago.  Facing first Atilla the Hun, and later the Vandals, St. Leo the Great (Nov. 10th) had become the only serious authority left standing as soon everything else collapsed to barbarian invasion.

By the time of the future St. Gregory the Great, the situation was improving.   The conversion of Clovis I, as the first Christian Frankish King, ruling over a part of the territory had before been known as Gaul and has since come to be known as France, came to be a watershed moment in European history, making possible one of the two greatest actions of the future St. Gregory the Great’s papacy:  The Gregorian Mission, that is, his sending out of his friend, the future St. Augustine of Canterbury, to evangelize the Angles and Saxons of post-Roman Britain.   

The  future St. Gregory the Great had come across slaves with light skin and red hair, in the markets of Rome, and wondered where they had come from.  When he found that they were Anglo-Saxons who had been taken into slavery from what had Roman Britain, he came to be fascinated with the idea of sending a group of missionaries to them.  

After writing the various now Christian Frankish kings along the route to secure safe passage for his friend, the future St. Augustine of Canterbury, the future St. Gregory the Great, literally changed the course of history. 

At the future St. Gregory the Great admonition, the missionaries went to great lengths to respect the still pagan Anglo-Saxons’ culture, changing only that which was absolutely necessary before baptism. 

As a result, the missionaries proved incredibly successful and the whole Christian community gained the beloved Christmas tree – the Anglo-Saxons had a custom, in the winter to bring ever green branches into their homes to remind them of warmer, happier times.  Rather than condemn this “pagan” practice, noting the number of times “trees” appeared in the Scriptures, St. Augustine of Canterbury decided to bless the practice and give it a Christian meaning.

So this then was one of the two greatest legacies of St. Gregory the Great.  The other concerned Liturgy:

First, he is credited for systematizing and also definitively translating the Christian Liturgy from Greek into Latin (the common liturgical language of the Western Church).    

Second, one of his biographers, John the Deacon (c. 872), credits him for collecting “antiphonaries” (short chants) from throughout the Western Christian World.

As such he is by Tradition (perhaps with a non-inconsequential kernel of truth) credited for inspiring what became known as Gregorian Chant.

So Gregory the Great’s papacy became significant on numerous levels, from its missionary work to its systemization of liturgy.

Yet in the midst of this “Greatness,” Gregory worked hard to remain humble.  He repeatedly called his job as Pope to be: “The Servant of the Servants of God.”

And he even warned: "Whoever calls himself universal bishop, or desires this title, is, by his pride, the precursor to the Antichrist."

In our day, it’s a good reminder to not trust someone who wants a position of leadership a little too much.

What a great person he was!

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