Saint Gregory the Great (540-604)

“Don’t be anxious about what you have, but about what you are!” – St. Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) Father & Doctor of the Church

Imagine, fourteen hundred years after death, boasting a best best-selling CD! Yet outside the Church and within, Gregorian ” chant is enjoying a renaissance. Still, the timeless sacred music that bears his name is but part of Gregory s legacy. Renouncing civic service for monastic life, Gregory s administrative and diplomatic skills prompted continual summons from the cloister.

Papal ambassador and advisor, he was eventually elected pope himself, renowned as a wise steward of the Church s material possessions, generous benefactor of the poor, sponsor of missionaries, and promotor of monasticism. His liturgical enrichment of the Church endures not only in Gregorian chant, but in eloquent homilies still gracing the Liturgy of the Hours, the Gregorian Canon ” (Eucharistic Prayer I), and his spiritual classic, Pastoral Care , once presented to new bishops at ordination.

Of countless impressive papal titles titles Supreme Pontiff, Vicar of Christ, Successor of Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles Apostles the title still so cherished that it heads official documents is the one Gregory coined to describe his papal ideal: Servant of the Servants of God. Together with being designated the Great,” a fitting epitaph. — Peter Scagnelli