Why Was St. Gregory So Great?
A nickname often tells us something about the person to whom it belongs. Sometimes it’s an inside joke between friends or a reference to an achievement. So with a name like “St. Gregory the Great,” one might wonder how such a nickname may have come to be. Who is St. Gregory, and what makes him so great? Moreover, why do Christians, specifically Anglicans, celebrate him 1,400 years after his death? In this article, I hope to address some of these questions about one of the most revered saints in Christian history.
The Story of Gregory the Great
Gregory was born in Rome around 540 AD to a wealthy Christian family that modeled religious devotion for him from an early age. In fact, the church also remembers Gregory’s mother (Silvia) and two of his aunts (Tarsilla and Emiliana) as saints. Despite his family’s affluence, Gregory did not develop a love for money. Instead, he cultivated a deep devotion to God and the Scriptures from a young age.
Sponsored
We know very little about Gregory’s childhood. Tradition, however, tells us that those around him recognized his brilliance early on. He did not seek out the prestige that a man of his status might have expected. He became prefect of Rome at around 30 years old, but withdrew from the public sphere in 574 to pursue monastic life. Following Jesus’ command to the rich young ruler to “sell what you possess and give to the poor” (Matthew 19:21), he eventually converted his family estate into six separate monasteries.
Gregory cherished his life of isolation, poverty, and prayer. However, in 579, he became a deacon by Pope Pelagius II and spent the next decade serving at two posts: one in Constantinople and one in Rome. Even in this office, he remained committed to his monastic vows and rejected a life of luxury. As a deacon, Gregory became known for his deep devotion to the Scriptures, giving profound lectures on them. In 590 AD, he was elected Pope, an office he held until his death in 604 AD.
What Makes Him Great?
Despite battling a chronic illness, Gregory remained committed to both his faith and his office as Bishop of Rome. He spent much of his papacy in conflict with the Lombards, a Germanic group of Arians and pagans who conquered much of Rome and established their own kingdom in the 6th century. In addition to his peace efforts with the Lombards, Gregory’s papacy was characterized by a deep love for the poor, significant liturgical reforms, evangelism, and his prolific writings.
Gregory had a genuine heart for the poor. He instituted reforms to ensure resources from the Holy See went toward providing food and shelter for those in need. Likewise, he frequently taught the value of monastic life and spoke against the clerical abuses and luxurious lives of his peers. He instituted changes to the mass, formalizing and adding uniformity to the church’s liturgy. In many ways, the continuity between Roman Catholic and Anglican liturgies finds its roots in Gregory’s reforms. The Gregorian Chant, while a later development, even bears his name. Some of his most famous writings include his commentary on the book of Job and his Homilies on the Gospels.
The Revitalization of the English Church
Gregory’s love for the poor and zeal for evangelism directly relate to his mission to the British Isles. According to Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Gregory was moved when he saw Anglo-Saxon boys for sale in a Roman market, which led him to send a monk named Augustine to establish a mission in England in 597 AD. Augustine would become the first Archbishop of Canterbury. While Christianity had existed in England for centuries prior to Gregory’s mission, the church was small and scattered, with paganism the dominant faith of the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine’s mission proved successful, converting the English people and uniting the English Church to the Roman Empire. This relationship between the Anglican and Roman churches would continue until the English Reformation.
One of the most fascinating works by Gregory for Anglican audiences is his series of letters to Augustine of Canterbury during his mission to the British Isles. Upon arriving in England, Augustine found that there were some Christians already there, including clergy. These Christians held to Celtic customs, expressed in their liturgy. Augustine wrote to Pope Gregory inquiring what to do about the liturgical differences he encountered. He asked, “Since there is but one faith, why are the uses of churches so different?” Gregory responded by encouraging Augustine to embrace different practices where they please God, saying,
For we ought not to love things for places, but places for things. Wherefore choose from each several Church such things as are pious, religious, and right…
Why Anglicans Remember Gregory
Pope Gregory’s wise instruction to Augustine echoes Christ’s words to his disciples in Mark 9:40, “For the one who is not against us is for us.”
We can see the influence of Gregory the Great on the English church woven deep into the tapestry of the Anglican tradition. Today, Anglicans continue to celebrate unity in the essentials of the faith while encouraging freedom in matters of adiaphora, carrying on the tradition that Gregory so faithfully helped to form.
There are countless reasons that Anglicans honor Gregory the Great. The English Church benefited greatly from his liturgical reforms (which they formally adopted at the Synod of Whitby), his efforts to unify the church, and his passion for saving the lost. While our Anglican heritage goes even deeper than Gregory’s mission, we cannot understate his impact on the development of Anglican thought and practice. For this reason, on March 12, we remember Gregory the Great as a servant to the poor, an agent of Christian unity, an evangelist to the lost, and a friend to the English church.
Collect for Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome and Teacher of the Faith
O God, our heavenly Father, you raised up your faithful servant Gregory the Great to be Bishop and pastor in your Church and to feed your flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit, that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Image: Saint Gregory the Great by José de Ribera, courtesy of Wikipedia. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
What is the ANGELican Church?
The confusion of Anglican and ANGELican goes back to a play-on-words first coined by Pope Gregory the Great, but it carries with it a missionary hope.
Book Review: The White Horse King by Benjamin Merkle
Benjamin Merkle, The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great. Thomas Nelson, 2009. 272 pp. Contrary to what the spicier corners of Roman Catholic Twitter insist, the English Church did not begin in 1534, and Anglicanism did not spring fully formed from the head of Henry VIII like some Tudor Athena. Long before…
