CatholicSaints.Info

Also known as

• Gregory I
• Gregory Dialogos
• Gregory the Dialogist
• Father of the Fathers
• Gregorius I Magnus

Memorial

• 3 September (primary, based on his ascension to the papacy)
• 12 March (in Rome, Italy at his grave in Saint Peter’s Basilica; some Protestant and Orthodox calendars)
• 25 January (translation of relics to the Jesuit church of São Roque in Lisbon, Portugal)
• 21 August (Ordinary Form, 1962 missal)
• 26 March (translation of relics to Gaul)
• 11 July (translation of relics to Soissons, France)
• 20 July (translation of relics to Cluny)
• 4 September (Paulines)
• 22 September (translation of relics to Melun)
• 13 March (Armenian calendar)
• 19 March on some calendars
• 30 March on some calendars
• 2 September on some calendars
• 15 October on some calendars

Profile

Son of Gordianus, a Roman regionarius, and Saint Silvia of Rome. Nephew of Saint Emiliana and Saint Tarsilla. Great-grandson of Pope Saint Felix III. Educated by the finest teachers in Rome, Italy. Prefect of Rome for a year, then he sold his possessions, turned his home into a Benedictine monastery, and used his money to build six monasteries in Sicily and one in Rome. Benedictine monk. Upon seeing English children being sold in the Roman Forum, he became a missionary to England.

Elected 64th Pope by unanimous acclamation on 3 September 590, the first monk to be chosen. Sent Saint Augustine of Canterbury and a company of monks to evangelize England, and other missionaries to France, Spain, and Africa. Collected the melodies and plain chant so associated with him that they are now known as Gregorian Chants. One of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church. Wrote seminal works on the Mass and Divine Office, several of them dictated to his secretary, Saint Peter the Deacon.

Born

• c.540 at Rome, Italy

Papal Ascension

• 3 September 590

Died

• 12 March 604 at Rome, Italy of natural causes

Canonized

• Pre-Congregation

Patronage

• against gout
• against plague
• choir boys
• choristers
• educators
• masons
• musicians
• papacy
• Popes
• scholars
• schoolchildren
• singers
• stone masons
• stonecutters
• students
• teachers
• England
• West Indies
• Legazpi, Philippines, diocese of
• Order of Knights of Saint Gregory
• Kercem, Malta
• locations in Italy
  • Consiglio di Rumo
  • Manduria
  • Montone
  • San Gregorio nelle Alpi
  • Savoulx
  • Valdobbiadene

Representation

• crozier
• dove
• pope working on sheet music
• pope writing
• tiara

Readings

The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist. – Saint Gregory the Great

If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. Therefore we must always dread the final day, which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a day for conversion. And yet we refuse to cry over the evil we have done! Not only do we not weep for the sins we have committed, we even add to them…. If we are, in fact, now occupied in good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves. We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow. Nobody must rejoice in the security of their own good deeds. As long as we are still experiencing the uncertainties of this life, we do not know what end may follow…we must not trust in our own virtues. – Saint Gregory the Great, from Be Friends of God

MLA Citation

• “Pope Saint Gregory the Great“. CatholicSaints.Info. 6 April 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <>