#Pope saint Gregory the great

[stjohncapistrano67]

I believe this is a shrine to St. Pope Gregory the Great, in the Vatican.

[tabernacleheart]

When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and did not find the Lord’s body, she thought it had been taken away and so informed the disciples. After they came and saw the tomb, they too believed what Mary had told them, [but] the disciples went back home, [while] Mary wept and remained standing outside the tomb. We should reflect on Mary’s attitude and the great love she felt for Christ; for though the disciples had left the tomb, she remained. She was still seeking the One she had not found, and while she sought she wept; burning with the fire of love, she longed for Him who she thought had been taken away. And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see Him. For perseverance is essential to any good deed, as the voice of truth tells us: Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved. At first she sought but did not find, but when she persevered it happened that she found what she was looking for. When our desires are not satisfied, they grow stronger, and becoming stronger they take hold of their object. Holy desires likewise grow with anticipation, and if they do not grow they are not really desires. Anyone who succeeds in attaining the truth has burned with such a great love.

Pope Saint Gregory the Great

[dorrance30]

Pope Saint Gregory The Great.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (September 3)

St. Gregory the Great, a central figure of the medieval western Church and one of the most admired Popes in history, is commemorated in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Catholic liturgy today, September 3.

Born near the middle of the sixth century into a noble Roman family, Gregory received a classical education in liberal arts and the law.

He also had strong religious formation from his devout family, particularly from his mother Silvia, also a canonized saint.

By the age of 30, Gregory had advanced to high political office in Rome, during what was nevertheless a period of marked decline for the city.

Some time after becoming the prefect of the former imperial capital, Gregory chose to leave the civil administration to become a monk during the rise of the Benedictine order.

In reality, however, the new monk's great career in public life was yet to come.

After three years of strict monastic life, he was called personally by the Pope to assume the office of a deacon in Rome.

From Rome, he was dispatched to Constantinople to seek aid from the emperor for Rome's civic troubles and to aid in resolving the Eastern church's theological controversies.

He returned to Rome in 586, after six years of service as the Papal representative to the eastern Church and empire.

Rome faced a series of disasters caused by flooding in 589, followed by the death of Pope Pelagius II the next year.

Gregory, then serving as abbot in a monastery, reluctantly accepted his election to replace him as the Bishop of Rome.

Despite this initial reluctance, however, Pope Gregory began working tirelessly to reform and solidify the Roman liturgy, the disciplines of the Church, the military and economic security of Rome, and the Church's spreading influence in western Europe.

As Pope, Gregory brought his political experience at Rome and Constantinople to bear in the task of preventing the Catholic Church from becoming subservient to any of the various groups struggling for control of the former imperial capital.

As the former abbot of a monastery, he strongly supported the Benedictine movement as a bedrock of the western Church.

He sent missionaries to England and is given much of the credit for the nation's conversion.

In undertaking these works, Pope Gregory saw himself as the “servant of the servants of God.”

He was the first of the Bishops of Rome to popularize the now-traditional Papal title, which referred to Christ's command that those in the highest position of leadership should be “the last of all and the servant of all.”

Even as he undertook to consolidate Papal power and shore up the crumbling Roman west, St. Gregory the Great maintained a humble sense of his mission as a servant and pastor of souls, from the time of his election until his death in 604.

[maypoleman1]

12th March

St Gregory the Great’s Day

St Gregory the Great with Blond Angle Boys at a Slave Market in Rome (litho). Source: The Story of the British People in Pictures (1936)/ Bridgeman Images

Today is St Gregory the Great’s Day. Gregory was Bishop of Rome (an early Patriarch, or Pope) and put into place much of the organisation and liturgy of what became the Roman Catholic Church in a Western Roman Empire which, by the mid sixth century, was largely in the hands of Germanic successor-kingdoms, few of whom were Catholic. It was in this context that Gregory’s most famous connection with Britain took place. Although Britannia had been long lost to the Empire, the former province remained deeply contested between invading Anglo-Saxons and the native Romano-Britons. Rome itself had returned to imperial rule after Constantinople’s reconquest of much of Italy and it was while strolling past a Roman slave market that the Bishop’s attention was drawn to the sight of half a dozen slave boys, all with bright blonde hair. On enquiring who they were, the auctioneer told Gregory they were ‘Angles’ or ‘Angli’ in Latin - the Angles were one of the tribes invading Britain at the time. Gregory allegedly responded ‘Not Angli but Angeli’, commenting on the boys’ angelic appearance. On hearing the Angles were Germanic pagans, in 597 Gregory sent the great missionary Augustine to the Jutish kingdom of Kent to commence the conversion of the English to Roman Catholic Christianity. The rest, as they say, is history.

Sadly, Gregory’s momentous decision is not particularly, or reverently, remembered. In Lancashire Gregory was known fondly as “Gregory-get-onion”. Apparently this somewhat unflattering term for the Pope stemmed from the fact that today is traditionally the day on which to sow onion seed in order to ensure a bumper crop. That crop will also enable some weather divining. If the onions are thin-skinned, then the forthcoming winter will be mild; thick-skinned and a hard winter beckons.

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT (Pope St. Gregory I) The Architect of the Gregorian Chant Feast Day: September 3

"Blessed Gregory, raised upon the throne of Peter, sought always the beauty of the Lord and lived in celebration of that love." -Entrance Antiphon

One of the greatest Popes and one of the Latin Fathers was born Gregorius Anicius in Rome of a patrician family in 540 AD. His father, Gordianus, a patrician who served as a senator and for a time was the Prefect of the City of Rome, also held the position of Regionarius in the church, though nothing further is known about that position. Gregory's mother, Silvia, was well-born, and had a married sister, Pateria, in Sicily. His mother and two paternal aunts are honored by Catholic and Orthodox churches as saints. Gregory's great-great-grandfather had been Pope Felix III, the nominee of the Gothic king, Theodoric. Gregory's election to the throne of St. Peter made his family the most distinguished clerical dynasty of the period.

At 35, after five years of brilliant service as perfect, he gave up all his possessions and became a monk.

In the year 590, Gregory, at that time as a simple deacon, was elected Pope by popular acclamation to succeed Pope Pelagius II, when the latter died of the plague spreading through the city. Gregory was approved by an Imperial iussio from Constantinople the following September (as was the norm during the Byzantine Papacy). He tried to run away from the city, but was forcibly carried to the Basilica of St. Peter. where he was consecrated. Gregory now began a tireless apostolate that merited for him the title the 'Great'.

He is commonly credited with founding the medieval papacy and so many attribute the beginning of medieval spirituality to him, and is the only pope between the fifth and the eleventh centuries whose correspondence and writings have survived enough to form a comprehensive corpus. This includes: Magna Moralia (Commentary of Job), The Book of Pastoral Rule (Liber Regulae Pastoralis), the Dialogues (a collection of four books), and sermons (including the Homilae in Hiezechielem (Homilies on Ezekiel)).

Gregory was among those who identified Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany, whom, in the Holy Gospel of John (12:1-8), recounts as having anointed Jesus with precious ointment, an event that some interpret as being the same as the anointing of Jesus performed by a woman that Luke (alone among the synoptic Gospels) recounts as sinful.

He faced numerous challenges, including those posed by the Lombards, who sought to control Italy and practiced Arianism, and those posed by the Byzantines, who employed strategies that were designed to protect Ravenna, the administrative center of Byzantine government in Italy, at the expense of Rome. Indeed, both Lombards and Byzantines posed threats: the sedition of imperial soldiers was as troubling as the swords of the Lombards.

He used the proceeds of the collapse of the Roman Empire, he took over the task of protecting the people from the barbarians. He also introduced the so called 'Gregorian Chant' in the Liturgy and sent the first missionaries to evangelize in England.

Despite his prestige, Gregory called himself 'Servus Servorum Dei - Servant of the Servants of God' - a title still retained by his successors.

During a penitential procession, which the pope had called to stop a deadly pestilence, the archangel Michael appeared sheathing his sword on the top of Hadrian's Mausoleum (now Castel Sant' Angelo), signifying the end of God's punishment. In gratitude, a bronze angel was built on the mausoleum, depicting Michael replacing his sword in its scabbard. The Seven Penitential Psalms associated with this procession date from the 12th century and have been incorrectly ascribed to Gregory.

The tradition of the 'Thirty Gregorian Masses' is connected with Justus, one of Gregory's monks, who died without confessing that he had secretly three golden crowns. After offering 30 consecutive Masses for his eternal salvation, Justus appeared to one of the brothers, assuring him that he had been released from all torments.

Gregory felt that he was part of a Christian empire, a 'holy commonwealth' headed by the Byzantine emperor. Ideally, the emperor deferred to the church (though generally he did not), even as the church recognized him as a power ordained by God (for good or evil). Ambivalence dictated discretion: Gregory would execute obnoxious laws (such as Emperor Maurice's prohibition of monastic life for state employees) while simultaneously protesting such laws. He explained this practice in one of his letters: 'I have thus done my duty on both sides. I have obeyed the emperor, and yet have not restrained what ought to be said on God’s behalf.' He often protested Maurice's policies regarding the Lombards and the church, and his dislike of Maurice explains his warm welcome to Phocas, the bloody usurper of the imperial throne, in 602.

Gregory died in Rome on March 12, 604 AD at the age of 63 or 64, and was immediately canonized as a saint by popular acclamation. He was one of the two Popes in history who were titled 'The Great', and is proclaimed Doctor of the Church in 1298.

[justana0kguy]

2023 FEBRUARY 20 Monday

"He counsels us to be untiring in our prayers, and yet He says: "For Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him" (Mt 6:8). And so He questions that we may ask Him, He questions to rouse our hearts to prayer."

~ Saint Gregory the Great Homilies on the Gospel, no 2 (Migne) ; PL 76, 1081(trans. ©Cistercian Fathers series, alt.)

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Gregory the Great 

Doctor of the Church

540-604

Feast Day: September 3 (New), March 12 (Trad)

Patronage: teachers, students, musicians, singers and England

St. Gregory the Great was Pope from 590 to 604 and is known for his contributions to the Liturgy of the Mass. He built 6 monasteries in Sicily and founded a seventh in his home in Rome. He is one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church and the first monk to become Pope. Despite his bodily ails and the frightful times he lived in, it has been said that no teacher of equal eminence has arisen in the Church.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[myremnantarmy]

𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟑, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐆𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐥

Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

Lk 4:31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee.

He taught them on the sabbath,

and they were astonished at his teaching

because he spoke with authority.

In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon,

and he cried out in a loud voice,

"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are–the Holy One of God!"

Jesus rebuked him and said, "Be quiet! Come out of him!"

Then the demon threw the man down in front of them

and came out of him without doing him any harm.

They were all amazed and said to one another,

"What is there about his word?

For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,

and they come out."

And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 23 July – Saint Romula of Rome (Died c580) Virgin, Recluse, Ascetic Romula lived with St Redempta as a Recluse near the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome. Redempta had been trained as a Nun by St Herundo in Palestine. These three formed a small community in Rome and they earned the praise of the Pope, St Gregory I the Great. Romula became ill and was paralysed for the last years of her life.

(via Saint of the Day – 23 July – Saint Romula of Rome (Died c580) Virgin – AnaStpaul)

[whencyclopedia]

Saint Boniface

Saint Boniface (or in Dutch the Heilige Bonifatius) is one of the most famous saints in the Netherlands. His real name was Wynfreth and he lived from 672 until 754 CE. Pope Gregory II, who ruled from 715 to 731 CE, was at that time struggling with pagan Germanic tribes and, keen to convert them, Wynfreth offered Gregory the perfect opportunity to achieve this goal, the Christianization of Europe. After he received the name Boniface on the 5th of May 719 CE, which means 'he who does good', he served as a missionary in the first half of the 8th century and helped reorganize the church in Germany and the Frankish kingdom.

Early life

Boniface was born in southern England in the Essex region, probably near Exeter, and presumably Crediton. Descended from a noble family, from his earliest years he showed great ability and received a religious education. His parents intended him for secular pursuits, but, the young Wynfreth was inspired with higher ideals by missionary monks who visited his home. Consequently, he was, according to Celtic and Anglo-Saxon tradition, taken in at the monastery of Adescancastre. Such children as these were known as pueri oblate and in the monastery the children learned to read and write and became familiar with Roman civilisation. Even at this early age the young Wynfreth was both intelligent and eager to learn.

Continue reading...

[stjohncapistrano67]

A post renaissance era Catholic religious art image of Pope St. Gregory the Great. The artist is listed under the image.

[tabernacleheart]

On the first Easter, Our Lord appeared to all His Apostles— except Thomas, that is. Thomas was simply “not with them” at the time, and ever since then he has been remembered as the Apostle who disclaimed the Resurrection. Closer inspection, however, softens our perception of “Doubting Thomas.” While all the Apostles were hidden behind locked doors— even John, who heard the pulse of the Sacred Heart, and Peter, who received the keys of heaven and earth— Thomas alone was out and about in the city. We don’t know why he was absent— it was possibly just a simple and necessary errand: obtaining food for the group, communicating with their families, or some other “mundane” task. Perhaps reluctant discussion had led to his being chosen as the errand-goer—perhaps he volunteered. Whatever the case may be, Thomas must have been forced to conquer his own fear to leave that secure Upper Room— and that, ultimately, was exactly what Our Lord wanted of him. Our Lord knew that we Christians who have never seen and touched Him as the Apostles did would need proof of the Resurrection. So, to help us, He willed that Thomas not be present at His first visit. Before we could doubt, Thomas doubted, and his doubt was healed by touching the sacred Wounds of his Resurrected Lord. As Pope St. Gregory the Great says: "His clemency acted in this wonderful way so that, through the doubting disciple touching the wounds in his Master’s body, our own wounds of incredulity might be healed."

The Catholic Company

[thedavekim]

St Gregory the Great (Pope Gregory I); one of the Latin Fathers and Doctor of the Church; patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINT OF THE DAY (September 3)

St. Gregory the Great, a central figure of the medieval western Church and one of the most admired Popes in history, is commemorated in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Catholic liturgy today, September 3.

Born near the middle of the sixth century into a noble Roman family, Gregory received a classical education in liberal arts and the law.

He also had strong religious formation from his devout family, particularly from his mother, Silvia, also a canonized saint.

By around age 30, Gregory had advanced to high political office in Rome, during what was nevertheless a period of marked decline for the city.

Some time after becoming the prefect of the former imperial capital, Gregory chose to leave the civil administration to become a monk during the rise of the Benedictine order.

In reality, however, the new monk's great career in public life was yet to come.

After three years of strict monastic life, he was called personally by the Pope to assume the office of a deacon in Rome.

From Rome, he was dispatched to Constantinople to seek aid from the emperor for Rome's civic troubles and to aid in resolving the Eastern church's theological controversies.

He returned to Rome in 586, after six years of service as the Papal representative to the eastern Church and empire.

Rome faced a series of disasters caused by flooding in 589, followed by the death of Pope Pelagius II the next year.

Gregory, then serving as abbot in a monastery, reluctantly accepted his election to replace him as the Bishop of Rome.

Despite this initial reluctance, however, Pope Gregory began working tirelessly to reform and solidify the Roman liturgy, the disciplines of the Church, the military and economic security of Rome, and the Church's spreading influence in western Europe.

As pope, Gregory brought his political experience at Rome and Constantinople to bear in the task of preventing the Catholic Church from becoming subservient to any of the various groups struggling for control of the former imperial capital.

As the former abbot of a monastery, he strongly supported the Benedictine movement as a bedrock of the western Church.

He sent missionaries to England and was given much of the credit for the nation's conversion.

In undertaking these works, Pope Gregory saw himself as the “servant of the servants of God.”

He was the first of the Bishops of Rome to popularize the now-traditional Papal title, which referred to Christ's command that those in the highest position of leadership should be “the last of all and the servant of all.”

Even as he undertook to consolidate Papal power and shore up the crumbling Roman west, St. Gregory the Great maintained a humble sense of his mission as a servant and pastor of souls, from the time of his election until his death in 604.

[cellabella-illuminates]

Happy April, everyone!

St. Catherine of Siena's feast day is April 29th - if you have anyone in your life who is a fan of this Doctor of the Church, you could gift them this print on her feast day because I finally put them in my shop!

About my illustration and print as well as a little about St. Catherine of Siena:

This is a 5” x 7”  limited edition giclée print (ten editions) on Epson Somerset Velvet - 255 gsm, certified archival paper. Each print is signed, titled, and numbered. Also, the halo on each print is hand-painted with gold gouache, giving each print a unique reflective quality. Shipping and archival picture-framing tips are included.

St. Catherine of Siena, a third-order Dominican from the 14th century, is one of the first female saints named a Doctor of the Church; patron saint of Europe, Italy, journalists, mediators, and people ridiculed for their faith.

In this image, Saint Catherine is standing between Italy and France (Italy is behind her and France is in front of her). She is holding a crucifix in her right hand, as well as a pink rose and a lily, symbols of love and purity. She is extending her left hand toward the border of France (and the viewer) calling the Pope back to Rome. 

This is referencing the time during which the Pope had left Rome for the French city of Avignon, which had resulted in a crisis within the Church called the Great Schism of the West, in which multiple men backed by different kings claimed the papacy. Through her letters, Catherine persuaded Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome from France, persuading also other rulers to recognize the true pope. In addition to calling the Pope back to Rome, she was essential for diplomatic missions to negotiate a peace with Florence. St. Catherine had a gift for telling men to get off their asses and bringing peace. In my illustration, she is reaching out to the viewer, looking directly at them, reminding them of the same thing: get up and do what the Lord has called you to do.

On her head is a crown of thorns, symbolizing a vision she had five years before her death in which Christ offered her a golden crown, symbolizing earthly riches, or a crown of thorns, symbolizing the glory of heaven through suffering in this life (St. Catherine chose the latter). She is also shown with the stigmata on her hands, which she also received in a mystical vision five years before her death.