Pope Gregory I (the Great)
c. 540 – 604 · Bishop of Rome
Also known as Gregory the Great · Gregorius Magnus
Feast: 3 September (Catholic) · 12 March (Orthodox)
Pope from 590-604 and one of the four traditional Latin Doctors of the Church. Wrote the Moralia in Job, Pastoral Rule, Dialogues, and ~850 letters. Sent the Gregorian mission under Augustine to convert the Anglo-Saxons. Reformed liturgy and chant; deeply indebted to Augustine.
Gregory was a Roman aristocrat who became a monk, then was drafted to be Pope, and during fourteen years in office (590–604) reorganised the Western church for the medieval world. He sent Augustine of Canterbury to convert the Anglo-Saxons, codified the chant that bears his name, wrote the Pastoral Care that every medieval bishop used as a manual, and held Italy together as the Roman state collapsed around him. The reason 'medieval' Christianity has the shape it does is largely his.
Notable works
- ·Pastoral Care (Liber Regulae Pastoralis) · 591
- ·Dialogues · 593
- ·Moralia in Job · 595
Primary sources
- ·Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job
- ·Gregory the Great, Regula Pastoralis
- ·Gregory the Great, Registrum Epistolarum
- ·Bede, Hist. Eccl. 2.1
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