GREGORIO I. PAPA, saint — S. G. Magno frees a soul from Purgatory. Marble antependium by Luigi da Milano (1470) — Rome, church of S. Gregorio al Celio.
and profound, a pure conscience, thus bringing together
the qualities of the true Roman. His pontificate was a true
providence for the Church and for Italy. Christianity
in the West had only just emerged from the chaos of
barbarian disorganization: Gaul, then united in the
faith of the Catholic Franks, was struggling amid
difficulties of every kind; Spain witnessed the con-
version of the Visigoths only in the first years of G.’s
pontificate; England was still immersed
in the darkness of
superstition and er-
ror. Italy, moreover,
invaded by the Arian
Lombards and inade-
quately protected
by the Catholic By-
zantines, was in a
state of profound po-
litical and religious
disorder. The only
force capable of
acting amid such
varied and dispa-
rate tendencies, armed
against one another
with the aim of de-
stroying each other,
was the Church, an
element of balance
and moral modera-
tion. G. inaugurated
the medieval work
of this force of civil
and religious produc-
tion and regeneration.
With his eminently practical spirit, he immediately
had a clear vision of the duties and rights of the
papacy. He was neither a theologian, nor a philosopher,
nor a man of letters in the true sense of the word. He
was a master of discipline, a monk, an apostle, a pro-
found expert in Roman law, endowed with uncommon
organizational abilities.
A master of discipline for the people, clergy, and
bishops, he laid down the laws and established the foundations of preaching,
which he regarded as the episcopate’s first duty. A
monk of strict and austere habits, he was a vigilant
guardian of the clergy’s moral life, correcting its abuses
and restoring it to a more exact observance of the pre-
cepts and counsels of the Gospel. As an apostle, he
brought the provinces on the borders of the ancient
Empire into the light of the Gospel, combating the
remnants of paganism and heresies. As an organizer,
he saved Rome from famine, improvised himself as an
army commander, and negotiated truces. As an
administrator, he reorganized the complex manage-
ment of the «patrimonium S. Petri», determining
the administrative hierarchy, eliminating abuses,
and restoring justice.
The position of preeminence he acquired for the
papacy in the world and the reorganization of the
Church’s vast patrimony, together with his spirit of initiative
in the face of circumstances, created the immediate
preparation for the establishment of the temporal
dominion of the popes.
As a writer, G. stands out for the practical tendency
that was effective not only in shaping the purely prac-
tical direction of scholasticism, but also throughout
the life and progress of the Church during the Middle
Ages. His dogmatic importance is rather pedagogical,
in that he adapted traditional doctrine to the average
intelligence of his time and of the peoples, particularly
the doctrine of s. Agostino.
In liturgical activity he appears as a re-
organizer of the heritage of the past, upon which he
imprinted the mark of his character.
G. is one of the four Doctors of the Western
Church. His feast is celebrated on 12 March.
PL 77-79. For the Dialogues V. Fed. by U. Mo-
ricca in the collection Fonti per la Storia
d'Italia, Scrittori del
sec. VI, Rome 1924. The
oldest Vita of G. is
that of the Liber Pontificalis,
ed. Duchesne, I,
p. 312; ed. Mommsen,
pp. 161-62. The Vita
Gregorii I, written by
the monk of Whitby, already
reported by P. Ewald
(Die älteste Biographie
Gregori I., in Historische
Aufsätze dem An-
deschen an G. Waitz ge-
widmt, Hannover 1886,
pp. 17-54), and published
by A. Gasquet, A life
of pope Gregory the
Great, Westminster
1904, dates from the first
decade of the 8th century.
Around 787, Paoli Diacono wrote the
Vita s. Gregorii Magni,
published by H. Grisar, in Zeitschrift
für Kathol. Theologie,
11 (1887), pp. 102-72.
(Int. Anderson)