Although the Church has never officially designated a Pope as “the Great,” three canonized popes have acquired that title by popular acclamation. (With the recent death and canonization of St. Pope John Paul II, we may be seeing a fourth.) Today we celebrate the memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great.
Gregory was born to a wealthy Roman family and received a classical education. He was raised in a devout and holy Christian family. His mother, Sylvia, was honored as a saint. Later, he became the prefect of Rome. During the Lombard invasion in 571, he cared for the numerous refugees who flooded the city.
After his parents died, Gregory became very wealthy, inheriting his parents’ estate in Rome and six Sicilian estates. But in 574, three Benedictine-monk friends persuaded him to abandon the world and enter religious life. Gregory became a Benedictine monk and turned his parents’ home into a monastery, naming it St. Andrew’s. He sold his other estates and used the money to found monasteries and give relief to the poor. Because of his outstanding abilities, he was recruited for papal service, first as one of Pope Pelagius II’s deacons (578) and then as the papal nuncio to the Byzantine court (579–85). Afterwards, he returned to his monastery, becoming the abbot of St. Andrew’s.
On September 3, 590, he was elected and consecrated pope. His pontificate was marked by greatness: He restored clerical discipline and removed unworthy bishops and priests from office. He protected the Jews from persecution. He fed those who suffered from famine and ransomed those captured by barbarians. He negotiated peace treaties with the barbarian invaders, converting many of them. He sponsored many missionaries, including St. Augustine of Canterbury, whom he sent to England; St. Columban, who evangelized the Franks; and St. Leander, who converted the Spanish Visigoths who were still Arians (i.e., they denied the divinity of Jesus).
Gregory was also a great teacher. In his Liber Regulae Pastoralis, he described the duties of bishops, and this work remains necessary spiritual reading for any bishop. He recorded the lives of many saints in his Dialogues. Many of his sermons and letters are extant. He revitalized the Mass and is credited with instituting what is commonly called "Gregorian chant." The practice of offering thirty successive Masses upon the death of a person ("Gregorian Masses") also bears his name.
Gregory is credited with being the founder of the medieval papacy. Despite his many accomplishments and abilities, he was a humble man. He took as his official title "Servant of the Servants of God," the official title of the pope to this day. He is a Doctor of the Church and is considered the last of the Western Church Fathers.