Why Pope Gregory I was 'the Great,' conclusion

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, writing from Pope Gregory I the Great is included that tells the faithful, when we serve the needs of others, we are giving them what is theirs, not ours.  He says that more than just doing these merciful works, we are paying a debt of justice (CCC #2446).  This is only one example of the multitude of writings and quotations from Gregory that touch our modern Church documents from The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and Lumen Gentium: the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church to the Sacramentary and the Roman Missal itself.  The great pope lived the above statement from the catechism so thoroughly that he left an impression throughout the Church that is still a central part today.

     One could while away hours reviewing the accomplishments of a never tiring man who did more than most even though he didn’t want the job in the first place.  He would have been quite content left alone to prayer and meditation.   Two of his achievements must be mentioned: the introduction of Christianity to Britain and the development of an organized music for worship.

     The Angles were a Germanic people who, during the 5^th century, extended their reign into the area known now as Great Britain.  They were a pagan people who were well known throughout Europe.  Gregory, who had earlier attempted briefly to make the journey of faith to those distant people, determined to make the effort again.  In order to find a suitable leader for the mission he looked no further than the prior of his own Monastery of St. Andrew, a monk named Augustine.  (Not to be confused with Augustine of Hippo http://www.examiner.com/x-4101-Albuquerque-Catholic-Examiner~y2009m8d27-Conversion-the-story-of-Sts-Ambrose-Monica-and-Augustine-part-1) 

     More than thirty monks joined the mission, and although they lost their nerve and turned back at least once, they did eventually arrive in Kent.  At one point they officially requested permission to return to Rome which Gregory refused. At Kent they were met by King Ethelbert, a pagan himself, but with a Christian wife.  He told Augustine that he appreciated the faith but it had little meaning for him and he would not change what he had so long believed.  However, he permitted the monks to go about their mission without being tortured or killed, and they were free to convert as many as they were able.  Although he didn’t to fully complete the original mission, to establish the Church in England in two provinces with twelve bishops, he did begin a monastery and a church and developed an established leadership in England.  Augustine was likely given a title such as bishop to the English before he left Rome, but in England he became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, a line of Christian primates who have existed ever since.  Along with many of the citizenry, Ethelbert was baptized the same year as Augustine’s arrival and was assisted by the saint in creating the first written laws of the Anglo-Saxons.

     Although establishing the faith in Britain was a major feat of evangelization, it was not the only one that took place during Gregory’s papacy.  Scholars believe he was the first pope who actually maintained contact with all the Catholic Churches in the world.  Much of the European mainland was under control of the Lombards and even when direct communication with churches in those areas was impossible, he would serve their needs by contact through other districts.

     Improvement of the liturgy itself was a major legacy developed by Gregory, including the composition of prayers still used today, but his most successful liturgical endeavor was in the area of sacred music.  Gregory founded a school for the training of church musicians, but will always be linked with the music that bears his name, Gregorian chant.

     There was initially a form of sacred music known as plainchant.  Music developed from that meter became known as Gregorian chant, although it is unclear how much if any of the actual music was composed by the pope.  It is believed by most biographers that he did in fact write some of it, or at least was responsible for its arrangement, and was surely capable of doing so in either case.  It is also certain that his organization of the music brought it more into the center of the liturgy.  Chapter six of The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy is about sacred music, and this Vatican II document recognizes Gregorian chant as being one with Roman liturgy since it began and has earned “pride of place” in the liturgy (CSL 6:116).  This is the music within, where one can picture long lines of monks marching up the center aisle of a giant cathedral, chanting Latin verse as they go, while overhead attendants swing a huge incensor suspended from the distant ceiling.

     Finally, there are the visions and legends.  Aside from the vision of Michael the Archangel that ended the plague, Gregory’s secretary, John the deacon, was said to have seen the Holy Spirit perched on the pope’s shoulder in the form of a dove, when he dictated sermons and documents.  One popular legend is that twelve poor men were invited to dine with Gregory every evening, and on one night a thirteenth showed up.  When the pope asked who he was, the man told him his name was Wonderful, and that he was a poor man who had once been saved by Gregory’s kindness.  He added that the saint would receive all that he asked of God through him.  Gregory apparently believed he was visited by an angel, while others have supposed the guest was even more. 

     A spectacular miracle concerns what is called the Mass of St. Gregory.  A member of the assembly said he did not believe in Christ’s presence at the Mass, and Gregory immediately prayed that divine intervention would show the man a sign of the Lord.  Some say that Christ became visible on the altar along with the elements of his passion while others say, when the pope elevated the host it began to bleed.

     Legends of visions and miracles make wonderful stories, but the real truth of why Pope Gregory I earned the title, ‘the Great,’ is in the lasting mark he made on the Christian Church.  It would take volumes to describe every action or quote every word, and indeed such volumes have been written.  He composed books and music, sermons and treatises that are understandable today.  He opened the church to the whole world and made the walls sing with the joy of Christian worship.  He made that Church an organized establishment of faith, with a sacred liturgy that could be recognized universally.  He was, at the very least, St. Gregory the Great, a pope of his time and for all times.