Gregory, who came from an aristocratic Roman family and was born in the middle of the sixth century, was educated in the legal and intellectual arts. In addition, he received a strong religious upbringing from his pious family, especially from his mother Silvia, who is also a saint. While Rome was experiencing a noticeable downturn, Gregory had risen to a prominent political position by the time he was thirty years old.

Gregory decided to enter the monastic order during the emergence of the Benedictine order, having previously served as prefect of the ancient imperial capital. But the tremendous career in public life that awaited the new monk was still to come.

Following three years of austere monastic life, the Pope called him to Rome to take up the position of deacon. He was sent from Rome to Constantinople to plead with the emperor for assistance with Rome's municipal issues and to assist in settling theological disputes within the Eastern church. After six years of service as the Papal envoy to the Eastern Church and Empire, he returned to Rome in 586.

In 589, flooding brought about several catastrophes for Rome, and the next year, Pope Pelagius II passed away. Gregory hesitantly accepted his nomination to succeed him as the Bishop of Rome while working as an abbot in a monastery.

Pope Gregory was at first reluctant, but he soon put in great effort to reform and strengthen the Roman liturgy, church discipline, Rome's military and economic stability, and the Church's growing power throughout Western Europe.

Gregory used his political background in Rome and Constantinople as Pope to keep the Catholic Church independent of the many factions vying for control of the former imperial city. He was a former monastery abbot who firmly believed that the Benedictine movement was the cornerstone of the Western Church. He is largely credited for converting England after sending missionaries there.

Pope Gregory saw himself to be the “servant of the servants of God” in carrying out these tasks. Being the first among Rome's bishops to popularize the title "Pope," he invoked Christ's dictum that the greatest among us should be "the last of all and the servant of all."

From the moment of his election, until he died in 604, St. Gregory the Great kept a modest sense of his role as a servant and pastor of souls, even as he set out to solidify Papal power and support the collapsing Roman West.

Other Saints of the Day
Saint Phoebe
Saint Hereswitha
Saint Andrew Dotti
Saint Jerome de Torres
Saint Martin de Hinojosa