Ecumenical Commemoration
Bishop of Rome, Missionary, & Doctor of the Church
March 12 · d. 604
Gregory the Great was the most important Bishop of Rome of the early medieval period — a man who shaped the papacy, the liturgy, pastoral theology, and the course of Western monasticism more profoundly than any pope between Leo I and the High Middle Ages. A Roman patrician who became a Benedictine monk and then was elected pope against his will, he governed the Church through plague, famine, and Lombard invasion with extraordinary administrative skill and pastoral concern. He sent Augustine to evangelize the English, reformed the Roman liturgy, wrote the Pastoral Rule that became the standard handbook for bishops for a millennium, and composed the Moralia in Job, the longest biblical commentary of the patristic era.
Gregory became venerated as a saint almost immediately after his death. His own writings—particularly the Dialogues—shaped hagiographic tradition of medieval West. Later vitae elaborate on his virtues, his miracles (particularly miraculous knowledge and spiritual visions), and his role as a model bishop and spiritual leader.
Gregory was born around 540 into one of the great Roman senatorial families. He served as Prefect of Rome — the city's chief civil official — before converting his family palace on the Caelian Hill into a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew and entering the monastic life around 574.
His contemplative retirement was short-lived. Pope Pelagius II appointed him one of the seven deacons of Rome and then sent him as apocrisiarius (papal ambassador) to Constantinople, where he served from 579 to 585. On his return, he resumed monastic life until Pelagius died during a plague in 590 and the clergy and people of Rome elected Gregory pope by acclamation.
Gregory accepted reluctantly — he genuinely mourned the loss of his monastic quiet — but governed with formidable energy. Rome was besieged by the Lombards, and Gregory effectively assumed civil as well as ecclesiastical authority, negotiating with the invaders, organizing food distribution, ransoming captives, and administering the vast papal estates across Italy and beyond.
His pastoral writings were enormously influential. The Regula Pastoralis (Pastoral Rule) described the duties and dangers of the episcopal office with such insight that Alfred the Great translated it into English and Charlemagne required every bishop to own a copy. His Dialogues, which included the only surviving biography of St. Benedict, popularized the Benedictine tradition throughout Europe. His Moralia in Job, a massive allegorical and moral commentary, was the most widely read biblical commentary of the Middle Ages.
Gregory's decision to send Augustine and forty monks to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons in 596 was perhaps his most consequential act. He also reformed the Roman liturgy — though the extent of his role in what later became known as 'Gregorian chant' is debated — and maintained an enormous correspondence (over 850 letters survive) that reveals a mind of relentless practicality and pastoral warmth.
He died on March 12, 604, calling himself 'servant of the servants of God' — a title popes still use.
Almighty God, you gave your servant Gregory the Great special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth revealed in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.