We began a new day of our pilgrimage with breakfast and then a walk past the ruins of the Coliseum to the Caelian Hill. Our first stop was a church initially built by Pope Gregory I on his family estates.
On the site now is also a homeless shelter and convent run by the Missionaries of Charity. Walking through the church entrance, you first come into a courtyard.
Gregory converted the family villa into a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew sometime between 575-580 (before his election as Pope in 590.) Notably, St. Augustine of Canterbury served as a prior of this monastery before being sent by Gregory to evangelize the British Isles.
Most records after the year 1000 refer to this church as being dedicated to Gregory. The monastery passed into the hands of Camaldolese monks in 1573 and this order still occupies the monastery. In the early 17th century, the current structure was built.
Who was St. Gregory the Great (590-604), also known as Pope Gregory I? A saint and doctor, one of the Latin Fathers of the Church, he was considered by John Calvin to be the last good pope. A more prolific writer than any of his predecessors, Gregory is the only pope between the fifth and the eleventh centuries whose correspondence and writings have survived in sufficient quantity to form a comprehensive corpus.
His most well-know works are Moralia in Job, Pastoral Care, Dialogues—a four-volume work of collected stories about earlier saints, from which we have our most comprehensive early account of the life of St. Benedict—and over 60 sermons and 800 letters.
Gregory’s mother Silvia and two sisters, Trasilla and Emiliana, are all saints as well. He served as Pope from 590 until his death in 604. He was canonized soon after his death by popular acclaim (which was not unusual in the early Church until the process for canonization was codified many years later.)
Throughout the Middle Ages, he was known as "the Father of Christian Worship" because of his exceptional efforts in revising Roman worship of his day. The mainstream form of Western plainchant, standardized in the late 9th century, was attributed to Pope Gregory I and so took the name of Gregorian chant.
He is most remembered for sending a mission, often called the Gregorian mission, under Augustine of Canterbury, prior of Saint Andrew's, where he had perhaps succeeded Gregory, to evangelize the pagan Anglo-Saxons of Britain. It seems that the pope had never forgotten the Anglo-Saxon slaves whom he had once seen in the Roman Forum and felt compassion for. The mission was successful, and it was from England that missionaries were later sent out to what would become the Netherlands and Germany.
In his official documents, Gregory was the first to make extensive use of the term "Servant of the Servants of God" (servus servorum Dei) as a papal title, thus initiating a practice that was to be followed by most subsequent popes to the present day.
Gregory is known for his extensive administrative system of charitable relief of the poor at Rome.
One tradition which identified Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and the sinful woman who anointed Jesus in Luke as the same person, thus creating the belief that Mary Magdalene had been a prostitute, was originated by Gregory, though it has largely been discredited by subsequent scholarship.
Nevertheless, he is one of only two popes to commonly have the appellation “the great” as a title. Unlike saint and doctor, there is no official process to be designated a great. It is, like his sainthood, a matter of popular acclaim. Based on his reforming, missionary, and charitable work, it is not undeserved.
Grace & peace,
Chris