49 Facts About Saint Gregory

Saint Gregory is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregorian mission, to convert the then largely pagan Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.

Roman senator's son and himself the prefect of Rome at 30, Saint Gregory lived in a monastery he established on his family estate before becoming a papal ambassador and then pope.

Saint Gregory saw Franks, Lombards, and Visigoths align with Rome in religion.

Saint Gregory combated the Donatist heresy, popular particularly in North Africa at the time.

Saint Gregory is one of the Latin Fathers and a Doctor of the Church.

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Saint Gregory is considered a saint in the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, various Lutheran denominations, and other Protestant denominations.

Saint Gregory is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers.

Saint Gregory was born around 540 in Rome, then recently reconquered by the Eastern Roman Empire from the Ostrogoths.

Saint Gregory was born into a wealthy noble Roman family with close connections to the church.

Saint Gregory's mother, Silvia, was well-born, and had a married sister, Pateria, in Sicily.

Saint Gregory's great-great-grandfather had been Pope Felix III, the nominee of the Gothic king, Theodoric.

Saint Gregory's family owned working estates in Sicily and around Rome.

Saint Gregory later had portraits done in fresco in their former home on the Caelian and these were described 300 years later by John the Deacon.

Saint Gregory was born into a period of upheaval in Italy.

On his father's death, Saint Gregory converted his family villa into a monastery dedicated to Andrew the Apostle.

Saint Gregory had a deep respect for the monastic life and particularly the vow of poverty.

However, in time, after the monk's death, Saint Gregory had 30 Masses offered for the man to assist his soul before the final judgment.

Saint Gregory was part of the Roman delegation that arrived in Constantinople in 578 to ask the emperor for military aid against the Lombards.

Saint Gregory had already drawn an imperial rebuke for his lengthy canonical writings on the subject of the legitimacy of John III Scholasticus, who had occupied the Patriarchate of Constantinople for twelve years prior to the return of Eutychius.

Saint Gregory turned to cultivating connections with the Byzantine elite of the city, where he became extremely popular with the city's upper class, "especially aristocratic women".

In reality, Saint Gregory was forced to rely on Scripture because he could not read the untranslated Greek authoritative works.

Saint Gregory left Constantinople for Rome in 585, returning to his monastery on the Caelian Hill.

Saint Gregory was elected by acclamation to succeed Pelagius II in 590, when the latter died of the plague spreading through the city.

In Constantinople, Saint Gregory took issue with the aged Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople, who had recently published a treatise, now lost, on the General Resurrection.

Saint Gregory opposed with the palpability of the risen Christ in Luke 24:39.

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Saint Gregory decided in favor of palpability and ordered Eutychius' book to be burned.

Saint Gregory was more inclined to remain retired into the monastic lifestyle of contemplation.

In texts of all genres, especially those produced in his first year as pope, Saint Gregory bemoaned the burden of office and mourned the loss of the undisturbed life ofprayer he had once enjoyed as a monk.

Saint Gregory is known for his extensive administrative system of charitable relief of the poor at Rome.

Saint Gregory received lavish donations from the wealthy families of Rome, who, following his own example, were eager, by doing so, to expiate their sins.

Saint Gregory gave alms equally as lavishly both individually and en masse.

Saint Gregory was given a building from which the poor could apply for assistance at any time.

Saint Gregory organized the resources of the church into an administration for general relief.

Saint Gregory began by aggressively requiring his churchmen to seek out and relieve needy persons and reprimanded them if they did not.

Saint Gregory understood that expenses must be matched by income.

Saint Gregory gave orders to step up production, set quotas and put an administrative structure in place to carry it out.

Saint Gregory turned over part of his produce to a conductor from whom he leased the land.

John the Deacon wrote that Pope Saint Gregory I made a general revision of the liturgy of the Pre-Tridentine Mass, "removing many things, changing a few, adding some".

Saint Gregory added material to the Hanc Igitur of the Roman Canon and established the nine Kyries at the beginning of Mass.

Saint Gregory is commonly credited with founding the medieval papacy and so many attribute the beginning of medieval spirituality to him.

Saint Gregory is the only pope between the fifth and the eleventh centuries whose correspondence and writings have survived enough to form a comprehensive corpus.

Saint Gregory wrote over 850 letters in the last 13 years of his life that give us an accurate picture of his work.

Orthodox icons traditionally show St Saint Gregory vested as a bishop holding a Gospel Book and blessing with his right hand.

The face of Saint Gregory is a caricature of the features described by John the Deacon: total baldness, outthrust chin, beak-like nose, whereas John had described partial baldness, a mildly protruding chin, slightly aquiline nose and strikingly good looks.

Saint Gregory is shown saying Mass when Christ as the Man of Sorrows appears on the altar.

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In Britain, appreciation for Saint Gregory remained strong even after his death, with him being called Gregorius noster by the British.

The first vita of Saint Gregory written in Italy was not produced until Johannes Hymonides in the 9th century.

One of the three oratories annexed, the oratory of Saint Silvia, is said to lie over the tomb of Gregory's mother.

The feast day of Saint Gregory serves as a commemorative day for the former pupils of Downside School, called Old Gregorians.