Gregory the Great -- Pope and Doctor

Gregory was born around 540 in Rome. Gregory's family was very wealthy and owned estates on the island of Sicily which provided income.

Gregory was the Prefect of Rome before he was thirty years old.  After five years in office, he resigned, founded six monasteries on his Sicilian estate and became a Benedictine monk in his own home in Rome. Ordained a priest, he became one the Pope’s seven deacons and also served six years in the East as Papal Nuncio in Constantinople.

He was recalled to become Abbot and at the age of fifty was elected Pope by the clergy and the people of Rome. Pope Saint Gregory I, also known as the Great, was the Pope of the Catholic Church between 590 and 604 AD. He removed unworthy priests from office, forbade the taking of money for many services, emptied the papal treasury to ransom prisoners of the Lombards, and to care for persecuted Jews and the victims of plagues and famine.

He was very concerned about the conversion of England, sending forty monks from his own monastery. He is known for his reform of the liturgy and for strengthening respect for doctrine.

Whether he was largely responsible for the revision of the “Gregorian” chant is disputed. An Anglican historian has written: “It is impossible to conceive what would have been the confusion, the lawlessness, the chaotic state of the Middle Ages without the medieval papacy; and of the medieval papacy, the real father is Gregory the Great.”

His book, Pastoral Care, on the duties and qualities of a bishop, was read for centuries after his death. He describes bishops mainly as physicians whose main duties were preaching and the enforcement of discipline. In his own down to earth preaching, Gregory was skilled at applying the daily Gospel to the needs of his listeners. Called “the Great”, Gregory has been given a place with Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome as one of the four key Doctors of the Western Church.