Gregory I

Life

Gregory was born into an aristocratic Roman family. As a young man he reportedly served as prefect of the city of Rome, its chief civil administrator. He later gave up public office and became a monk, converting his family's estate on the Caelian Hill in Rome into the Monastery of St. Andrew. Pope Pelagius II sent him to Constantinople (modern Istanbul) as papal envoy, and he remained there for several years. When plague struck Rome in 590 and Pelagius II died, Gregory was elected to succeed him. He died in Rome in 604.

Ministry and Achievements

• Administration and relief: During a period of Lombard invasions and recurring famine, he used church property to distribute grain and feed the people of Rome. He also negotiated directly with the invaders and is credited with initiating the process by which the papacy came to assume secular administrative responsibilities.
• Missions: In 596 he sent the monk Augustine (Augustine of Canterbury) and his companions to the Anglo-Saxons of England. This mission is regarded as the beginning of the English church. This Augustine should not be confused with Augustine, bishop of Hippo.
• Writings: His principal works include the Moralia in Job, a commentary on the Book of Job; the Pastoral Rule (Regula Pastoralis), which addresses the qualifications of pastors and the method of preaching; the Dialogues, a collection of stories about Italian saints; and homilies on the Gospels and on Ezekiel.
• Titles: He called himself "servant of the servants of God." He opposed the use of the title "Ecumenical Patriarch" by the patriarch of Constantinople.
• He systematized a list of seven sins rooted in pride, which greatly influenced medieval moral instruction.

Veneration and Influence

The Catholic Church venerates him as a saint. In the late thirteenth century he was numbered, together with Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine, among the four great Doctors of the Western Church. The Orthodox Church also honors him as a saint under the name Gregory the Dialogist.

Gregorian chant bears his name, although many scholars today hold that the chant was compiled at a later date rather than composed by Gregory himself. The Pastoral Rule is cited as a classic of pastoral theology.

In Korean Protestantism, Gregory is treated chiefly in courses on church history and liturgics, where Gregorian chant is presented as the starting point of the history of Western church music.

The Gregorian calendar in use today was instituted by Gregory XIII in the sixteenth century and has no connection with Gregory I.

Assessment

The Catholic Church esteems him highly as a pope who laid the foundations of the medieval church and as a model shepherd. Within Protestantism, assessments are mixed. He is criticized because, through works such as the Dialogues, belief in purgatory, Masses for the dead, and the veneration of saints and relics spread widely in the Western Church. On the other hand, Reformers such as John Calvin pointed to his rejection of the title of universal chief bishop as grounds for refuting later claims of papal authority. His emphasis on pastoral care and preaching tends to be viewed favorably across denominational lines.