GREGORIO I, PAPA, summary — Marble slab of the Roman period which tradition holds was used by s. G. for the meal of the poor — Rome, S. Gregorio al Celio, Oratory of S. Barbara.
Giovanni Diacono finally wrote the S. Gregorii Magni vita
(PL 75, 59-242) in Rome between 872 and 873. In all these lives,
there are few elements that do not derive from the works of G.
Information about G. is also found in the Historia Francorum by
Gregorio di Tours, completed in 591; in De viris illustribus by
Isidoro di Siviglia (d. 636); in De virorum illustrium scriptis
by Ildefonso di Toledo (d. 667); and in the Historia gentis Anglorum
by Beda (d. 735).
Literature: there are quite a few monographs on G., but up to
that of Ed. Clauser, St Grégoire le Grand, pope et Docteur
d'Église, Paris 1886–91, they are all of little critical value.
Those worthy of note are C. Wolfsgruber, Gregor der Grosse, Rav-
ensburg 1897; H. Dudden, Gregory the Great, his place in history
and in thought, London 1905; H. Grisar, S. G. Magno, Italian
translation by A. De Santi, Rome 1928 (reprint); P. Batiffol, St Grégoire
le Grand, Paris 1928.
It is not uncommon for the great histories of the Church to contain
sections on G. of considerable importance, as in J. P. Kirsch,
Kirchengeschichte, I, Freiburg in Br. 1930; E. Caspar, Geschichte
des Papattums von den Anfängen bis zur Höhe der Weltherrschaft,
II, Tübingen 1933 (by the same author V. also the study:
Gregor der Grosse, in Meister der Politik, 3 [1923], p. 327 ff.); Fr. X. Seppelt, Das Papattum im Frühmittelalter, Leipzig 1934;
Fliche-Martin-Fruta, V, pp. 19–83. The same may be said of the
general histories: The Cambridge Medieval history, II, Cambridge 1913; A. Fliche,
La chrétienté médiévale, Paris 1929; L. Halphen-Ph. Sagnac,
Peuples et civilisations, V, 2nd ed., there 1930.
The same applies to histories of literature, such as those
of O. Bardenhewer, U. Moricca, and M. Manitius. On G.’s pastoral
activity, particularly in Italy, V. L. Duchesne, Les
écédents d'Italie et l'invasion lombarde, in Mélanges d'archéologie
et d'histoire, 23 (1903), pp. 83–116 and 25 (1905), pp. 365–99;
C. Giuriani, L'italianità nell'opera di G. Magno, Cemo 1934.
On his political activity with the Lombards and the Byzantines V. O.
Bertolini, Roma di fronte a Bisanzio e ai Longobardi, Bologna
1941, pp. 241–59. On his administrative activity V. Fabre, De
patrimonium Romanum Ecclesiae usque ad aetatem Carolinorum,
Lille 1892; R. Aigrain, Le patrimoine de l'Église romaine, in
Fliche-Martin-Fruta, V, pp. 365–75.
On G.’s literary activity V. Moricca,
III, II, Turin 1934, pp. 1363–67; on his liturgical activity V. the
relevant bibliography in B. Altaner, Patrologia, Italian translation
of the 3rd ed., revised by A. Ferrua, Turin 1944, pp. 329–40, note 3.
Benedetto Pesci
V. S. G. IN ART. - From the earliest times (fresco in S. Maria Antiqua in Rome, 8th century), represented in pontifical vestments, from the 12th century onward (fresco at Nonnberg) also with the tiara, s. G. furthermore bears the crozier with a single or double Cross and, as Doctor of the Church, a book.
Since German miniatures of the late 10th century, as well as the Sacramentaries of Ivrea, already depict him with the dove of the Holy Spirit dictating his writings to him, this dove subsequently became his individual attribute. Among isolated representations of the Saint, noteworthy are a painting by Antonello da Messina (ibid., Museo civico), a relief by Luca della Robbia (Florence, Duomo), the statue by Cordier (1602, S. Gregorio al Celio in Rome), and, in German art, the painting by M. Pacher from the altar of the Four Doctors in Munich, where, beside s. G., appears the figure of the emperor Trajan, saved by him from hell; among the other stories of the legend, figurative art chose the deliverance of the monk Giusto from purgatory (relief by G. Capponi, Rome, S. Gregorio al Celio), the supper of the poor (paintings by P. Veronese in Vicenza and by Vasari in Bologna), and the bleeding brandium (painting by A. Sacchi in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, mosaic copy in S. Pietro in Rome). A distinct image was constituted by the so-called Mass of s. G., with the apparition of the wounded Christ upon the altar, represented predominantly by northern artists of the 15th century.
France (where it perhaps originated as a literary work), Germany, England, and also Italy, the legend inspired numerous narratives in verse and prose, from the Vie du pape Grégoire le Grand (early 12th century) to Hartmann von Axe’s poem Gregorius of dem Stein (1150–1220) and the old English romance Sir Degore (13th century). It also achieved extraordinary diffusion in eastern Europe, and descended into the oral tradition of the common people, among whom it is still preserved. In Italy it is found both in the form of a fairy tale and as a narrative song in epic hendecasyllables: the latter derived from an old short poem, an Abruzzese version of which was published by G. Ciccone (v. BIBLICA). The same mythic-fairy-tale motif also gave rise to the « leggenda di Vergogna ». — Vedi tav. LXXXI.