Life of Saint Gregory the Great

1. Saint Gregory, born in the city of Rome by father Gordian and mother Silvia, descended from a senatorial family that was not only famous, but also pious. For his ancestor was Felix, primate of the same apostolic see, a man of great virtue and glory of the Church in Christ 1 . But St. Gregory continued this great work of his ancestors, glorifying it with his noble customs and adorning it with good deeds. In general, not without some extraordinary premonition that he would later become famous openly, such a name was chosen for him. After all, “Gregory” translated from Greek into ours means “a man who is awake or never sleeps.” And in fact he was awake while he lived commendably, firmly holding to the divine injunctions. He also vigilantly cared for the people of the faithful, when, with the help of the abundantly flowing knowledge of Christian dogmas, he opened the way for those who ascended to the heights. 2. St. Gregory was so taught from his adolescence in the liberal arts, that is, grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, that although in his time the study of sciences still flourished in Rome, he was not considered second to anyone in the city. Even at a young age, he was characterized by the desire of a mature husband, namely: to follow the sayings of the ancient fathers and, if he could perceive something worthy by ear, not to consign it to sluggish oblivion, but rather to entrust it to a tenacious memory; and even then he drew with his thirsty heart streams of teaching, which, after the appropriate time had passed, he expounded with mellifluous lips. Thus, in his youth, when his peers usually embark on the path of worldly life, he began to show devotion to God and directed all his desires towards the Fatherland of the highest life. 3. Having spread the grace of turning to Christ for a long time, and then being inspired by the desire of Heavenly things, St. Gregory wished to take off his worldly dress and no longer serve the world, which seemed to him like a snare; many worries of this world began to rise up against him, so that he would linger in the world not only in appearance, but also in thoughts (as he spoke of himself). Finally, when his parents had long since died, St. Gregory gained freedom and was able to manage his own affairs; he discovered what he had previously carried in his mind, and revealed to human eyes what was already before the eyes of God. For he soon gave away everything he had to works of mercy, so that in poverty he could follow Christ, Who Himself became poor for our sake. 4. Having built six monasteries in Sicily, St. Gregory gathered there the brethren who intended to serve Christ. He founded the seventh monastery 2 within the walls of the same city; in it he himself, having joined himself with many brethren, later labored, observing the Rule, under the authority of Abba 3. These monasteries of St. Gregory donated as many donations from his real estate as he could provide for the daily food of their inhabitants. He sold the rest of his property, along with household utensils, and distributed the money to the poor; all those advantages of high origin visible to the world that St. Gregory had, he, through the bounties of Divine grace, turned to the acquisition of the glory of the highest dignity. And the one who used to dress smartly and walk around the city in silk robes and shining stones, then, putting on simple clothes, the beggar served the beggars. 5. For soon, putting aside his worldly attire, he rushed to the monastery and was saved naked from the shipwreck of this world. There he began to strive in grace of such great perfection that even at the very beginning he could be considered among the perfect. He was characterized by such great abstinence in food, vigil in prayers, zeal in fasting that he was barely alive due to a weak stomach. Later he suffered constant bodily infirmities; Most of all, he was oppressed by the burden that doctors in Greek call “syn-copi” - “fainting”; Due to the inconvenience of this disease, he was so tormented by pain in his insides that, deprived of life by frequent attacks of difficulty breathing, at certain moments he almost approached death. 6. How he stayed in the monastery and what kind of life he led with commendable zeal, we can conclude from his own words, with which he, weeping, addressed his deacon Peter: “My unfortunate soul, oppressed by the wound of my current occupation, remembers how I once stayed in the monastery, how it left far below everything mortal, rose above everything transitory, did not have the habit of thinking about anything other than Heavenly, that, while still restrained by the body, she left the prison of the flesh in the contemplation of God that his soul loved death itself, which is a punishment for almost everyone, as if it were an entrance into Eternal Life and a reward for work. And now, because of my pastoral ministry, my soul has to endure the affairs of worldly people; leaving the glorious beauty of her silence, she is defiled by the dust of earthly deeds. And so I think about what I am enduring, I also think about what I have given up; and when I realize what I have lost, my burden becomes heavier. And now I am rocked by the currents of the boundless sea, and the gusts of a strong storm shake the boat of my mind, and when I again remember my former life, as if turning my gaze to the stern, I sigh at the sight of the shore; and, what’s even harder, when the mighty streams carry me, confused, I can hardly see the harbor that I left” 4. He was in the habit of saying this about himself, not boasting of his progress in virtues, but rather bemoaning their decline; for he was afraid that this was constantly happening to him on account of his pastoral ministry. But although he spoke of himself in this way, striving for great humility, it befits us to believe that he did not lose anything from his monastic perfection due to his pastoral service, on the contrary, he gained more from the labors of converting many to Christ than he had from the contemplative lifestyle. 7. The following story will testify to how this holy man served as a deacon, and then ascended to the pinnacle of primacy. The Roman primate, who then headed the Church, saw how St. Gregory grows in virtues, separated him from the monastery, elevated him to ministry, giving him a church title, and appointed him to help himself as the seventh deacon; a little later, the pope sent him to Constantinople as apocrisiary 5 to conduct correspondence between the Churches. He, although he lived in an earthly palace, did not abandon the intention of heavenly life. For many monks followed him from the monastery, united with him by brotherly love. All this happened according to the Divine will; so that by their example, like an anchor rope, he would be kept on the peaceful shore of prayer, and when he would waver under the continuous onslaught of the affairs of this world, he would resort to their community, as if to a reliably protected harbor, after the cycles and shocks of earthly affairs. And although this service exhausted St. Gregory, forcibly separated from the monastic contemplative life, by the intensity of his affairs, the breath of daily repentance inspired him among them through diligent discussion of the books he had read. So, thanks to the advice of the brethren, St. Gregory was not only protected from earthly temptations, but his soul was more and more excited by the exercises of heavenly life (...) 10. Some time after the venerable Deacon Gregory returned to Rome 6, due to a great flood, the Tiber River overflowed its banks and overflowed so much that its water rushed into the city walls and occupied a large space in it, so that it overturned the walls of most of the old houses. Because of such great fury of the waters, the granaries of the Church were destroyed, in which several thousand modii of wheat perished. Then many snakes, together with a huge dragon, like a warship, descended into the sea along the bed of this river; but the animals, suffocated among the salty waves of the stormy sea, were thrown ashore. A misfortune immediately followed, which is called the “bubonic plague”; and in the middle of the eleventh month, the best of all fell to what we read in the book of the prophet Ezekiel: “Begin at my sanctuary” [Ezekiel 9:6]. The disease struck Pope Pelagius, and he died without delay. After his death, such a great pestilence began among the people that the inhabitants died everywhere, and many houses in the City were left empty. But since the Church of God could not exist without a ruler, all the people chose Blessed Gregory, although he resisted with all his might. Eagerly trying to avoid this high position, he loudly shouted that he was not at all worthy of such an honor; of course, he was afraid that worldly fame, which he had previously renounced, might somehow sneak up on him unnoticed under the guise of church service. Therefore it happened that St. Gregory sent a message to the Emperor Mauritius, 8 whose son he received from the holy font, urgently asking and begging in many requests that the Emperor would never give the people consent to exalt him, Gregory, with the glory of such an honor. But the prefect of the city, named Herman, was expecting his envoy in advance; Seizing him and tearing up the letter, Herman sent the emperor the consent expressed by the people. Mauritius, thanking God, commanded St. Gregory, out of friendship with him, then still a deacon, accepted, as the people wished, the place of honor shown to him and, having issued an order, immediately ordered him to be elevated to the see. 11. When St. Gregory remained to receive the blessing for the ministry and the pestilence was still devastating the people, he spoke a word to the people about the need to bring repentance, as follows: “It is fitting, beloved brethren, that the punishment of God, the coming of which we should have feared, we should fear now that we bear this punishment. May suffering open for us the door of turning to God, and may the very torment that we endure crush the hardness of our hearts. As was also predicted by the eyewitness prophet: “the sword reaches the soul” [Jer 4, 10]. And so, in reality, the whole people are struck by the power of heavenly wrath and devastated by sudden deaths. It is not relaxation that precedes death, but death itself, as you see, precedes the time of weakness. A person stricken with illness is taken away by death before he turns to tears of repentance. So, think about how someone who did not have time to mourn what they did will appear before the eyes of the Terrible Judge. The inhabitants of the City are not saved partly, but perish all together, the houses remain empty; parents see their sons buried, and their heirs precede them in death. So, let each of us seek protection in repentant lament while there is still time to weep before the blow is struck. Let us call before the eyes of the mind everything that we have done wrong; and what we have done wrong, we will punish with tears. Let us precede the face of God in confession and, as the prophet exhorts: “Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God” [Lamentations 3:41]. Lifting our hearts and hands to the Lord means pairing the fervor of our prayer with the merits of good deeds. Of course, He will give firm hope to our fear, Who through the mouth of the prophet proclaimed: “... I do not want the death of the sinner, but that the sinner should turn from his way and live” [EzeZZ, 11]. Let no one despair of the unprecedented nature of his sins. For the three-day repentance erased the old sins of the Ninevites; and the thief, having turned to Christ, received the reward of Life even during the death sentence itself. Let us therefore change our hearts and expect that we have already received what we ask for; after all, the Judge is quickly inclined to plead if the soul is corrected from its sinfulness. Since we are threatened by a sword of such great danger, let us indulge in bitter sobs. For that bitterness, which is usually unpleasant to people, is pleasing to the Judge of Truth, for the good and merciful Lord wants to be asked in His prayers who deserves how much, but He does not want to be angry. This is actually said through the mouth of the Psalmist: “...call on Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me” [Ps 49:15]. So, the Lord testifies of Himself that He desires to have compassion on those who call upon Him, Who exhorts that He be called upon in prayer. Therefore, beloved brethren, having broken our hearts and corrected our affairs, at the dawn of the fourth day, counting from today, having dedicated the litany of the Seven-shaped 9, let us turn to tears, so that the Terrible Judge, who decided to punish us with our sins, would refrain from the sentence of future condemnation.” We considered it necessary to include this admonition of Blessed Gregory in our work in order to show with what perfection he began his preaching. 12. When on the appointed day, according to the order of Blessed Gregory, in the presence of a great multitude of clergy, monks and laity of both sexes and different ages, a prayer was made to the Lord, the pestilence was so rampant, according to the judgment of God, that in one hour, while the people raised the voice of petition to the Lord, eighty people, falling to the ground, gave up the ghost. But the great saint did not stop preaching to the people so that they would not stop praying until, by Divine mercy, the plague itself stopped. (...) 16. When, fearing the swords of the Lombards, many people from all over Italy flocked to the city of Rome, St. Gregory tirelessly cared for everyone and, together with the bread of the Word, served them as food for their bodies. His soul was so compelled by his love of mercy that he hurried to prevent not only the needs of those who were with him, but, moreover, also expended the power of his generosity on those living far away; for he even sent to Mount Sinai to the servants of God living there what was useful to them. After all, some other primates worked on the construction of churches and decorated them with silver and gold, St. Gregory was zealously engaged in this matter and, as if abandoning it, devoted himself entirely to the profit of souls, and no matter how much money he had, he tried diligently to spend it, distributing it to the poor, so that “his righteousness would endure forever, his horn would ascend to glory” [Ps 112:9], so that he could say along with blessed Job: “The ear that heard me blessed me; it, seeing, praised me because I saved a crying sufferer and a helpless orphan. The blessing of the perishing one came to me, and I brought joy to the widow’s heart. I clothed myself with righteousness, and my judgment clothed me like a mantle that faded away. I was the eyes of the blind and the feet of the lame; I was a father to the poor, and I examined the litigation, which I did not know, carefully. I broke the jaws of the wicked and plucked from his teeth the stolen goods” [Job 29, 11–17]. And a little later: “Did I refuse the needy their request and did I weary the eyes of the widow? Am I the only one who ate my morsel, and did not the orphan also eat from it? For from childhood he grew up with me as with a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided a widow” [Job 31, 16–18]. 17. The works of piety and righteousness of Pope Gregory also include the fact that he made the people of England partakers of eternal freedom with the help of preachers, sending them there, and delivered them from the teeth of the eternal enemy. And indeed, since St. Gregory was truly faithful to our God, always ascended to heaven for the sake of His generous gifts, while this saint worked very hard with ardent zeal, gathering the souls of the faithful one by one, the good Lord granted him to convert the entire people of the Angles. The reason for such an appeal, which, it seems, occurred by inspiration from above, was the following. One day, when merchants arrived in Rome, a lot of goods were collected in the Roman Forum, and many people flocked there to buy; St. Gregory, before, of course, receiving the rank of primate, walked through the forum. Among other things, he saw boys put up for sale, white in body, beautiful in face and having unusually shining hair. Seeing them, St. Gregory asked to be told from which region or land they were brought. The answer was that from the island of Britain, all the inhabitants of which are distinguished by such beauty. St. Gregory again asked the question whether the islanders were Christians or whether they were still in the shackles of pagan errors. He was told that they were pagans. And he, heaving a heavy sigh from the depths of his soul, said: “Alas, how sad that the creator of darkness possesses people with such a bright face and such a beautiful appearance hides a bad soul and devoid of eternal joys!” So, St. Gregory again asked what the name of this people was. He was told that they were called Angles. And St. Gregory said: “Good, for they have angelic faces, and it is fitting for such to be fellow angels in heaven! What is the name of the region itself from which they were brought?” He was told that the inhabitants of this area are called Deirs. And St. Gregory said: “Okay, “deir” means “delivered from the wrath of God and called to the mercy of Christ.” He asked, “What is the name of the king of this region?” They told him that his name was Alle. And St. Gregory, hinting at the name of the ruler, said: “It is fitting to sing praises to God the Creator in those parts.” 18. Having come to the primate of the Roman Apostolic See, St. Gregory began to ask the pope to send several preachers of the Word to Britain for the people of England, through whom they would turn to Christ, assuring that he himself was ready to fulfill this, with God’s help, if, however, the apostolic pope was pleased with what would be done. At first the primate did not give him consent to this, then, defeated by the persistent pleas of St. Gregory, agreed. St. Gregory hid his departure from his fellow citizens (for if they had known, they would never have come to an agreement with him) and, as quickly as he could, set off on his journey 10. 19. Meanwhile, this matter came to the attention of the people. By unanimous consent, all the townspeople, and the inhabitants of the suburbs, and those who, having heard about this, could come across them, divided into three parts and in a terrible voice cried out to the Apostolic Pelagius, who was heading to the Church of St. Peter: “Hey, Apostolic, what have you done? St. Peter was insulted, Rome was destroyed, Gregory was expelled rather than released.” Terribly worried about these cries and very afraid of the people, the primate with the greatest haste sent for St. Gregory with a firm prohibition to leave Rome again. 20. Before the messengers caught up with St. Gregory, three days have already passed. And about six o'clock in a certain meadow, as is the custom among travelers, some of the companions of St. Gregory was resting, others were near him or doing some necessary business, the holy man himself sat and read; A grasshopper appeared near him and, jumping onto the page that he was skimming with his eyes, sat down there. Seeing him, Blessed Gregory decided to meekly remain in the place where the camp stood, and, rejoicing, repeated his name to his companions in different ways, as if interpreting it: “The grasshopper, one might say, binds us with chains,” and added: “Know that we are not allowed to continue our path further. But get up, load the horses, so that we can hurry, as far as we are allowed, to where we are going.” While they were chatting with each other about this and questioning each other, the apostolic envoys appeared on lathered and completely tired horses. With great speed they extended the St. Message delivered to Gregory. Having read it, the holy man said: “So it happened, companions, as I predicted, we are immediately returning to Rome.” (...) 22. It is unnecessary to ask whether this man of such great merit shone with miracles; after all, there is no doubt and it is clearer than day that for one who, among his merits, had signs of higher powers, it was not difficult for him, through the bounties of Christ, to be worthy, on occasion, to add other miraculous deeds to them. And in order not to deprive those who with the Jews are trying to achieve visible signs to show holiness, and in order to give useful instruction to those who strive for the examples of the saints to elevate and ignite the examples of the saints, I think I should tell about some miracles that through St. The Lord determined to reveal and demonstrate Gregory to excite and strengthen our sluggish spirit and (as they say) rather to expose wickedness than ignorance. 23. There lived in Rome a certain high-born mother of a family who, out of zeal for piety and devotion to God, used to make liturgical breads and bring them to the church on the Lord’s Day, both according to church custom and because of her close friendship with the primate, to offer them to him. One day, when she took her turn to receive Communion from the hands of the apostolic vicar and the primate held out a piece of the Lord’s Flesh to her lips, saying: “May the body of our Lord Jesus Christ be for your benefit for the remission of all sins and for eternal life,” she smiled. Seeing this, the husband of the Lord kept her from Holy Communion, placed the particle separately on the altar and entrusted it to the deacon for storage until all the faithful had received communion. When did St. The sacrament was completed, Blessed Gregory asked this woman: “I ask you, tell me, what appeared in your heart when you laughed, getting ready to receive communion?” And she answered: “I found out that it was a piece of the liturgical bread that I made with my own hands and brought to you; and when I thought that you called it the Body of the Lord, I smiled.” Then the holy primate of the Lord preached a sermon about this to the people and exhorted those present to humbly pray to the Lord, so that in order to strengthen the faith of this woman, He would show the carnal eyes what the unbelief of this woman should have been seen with the eyes of the mind and the [firmness] of faith. And when the prayer was performed, St. Gregory rose from prayer together with the people and this woman, everyone looked with bated breath at the altar, the saint pulled back the material curtain to see the heavenly spectacle and, while everyone present and the woman herself looked carefully, he found [on the throne] a piece of the ring finger bleeding, and said to this woman: “Behold, learn the Truth, Which now indisputably testifies: “My flesh verily there is food, and My Blood verily is drink” [John 6:55]. Our Creator, foreseeing our weakness, by the power with which He created everything from nothing, by the action of the Holy Spirit created His own body from the flesh of the Ever-Virgin, and through Catholic prayer, through the sanctification of His Spirit, converted bread and wine mixed with water, which retained their own form, into His Flesh and Blood for our redemption.” And then St. Gregory commanded all those present to implore the Divine [authority] so that the changed [St. The communion] took on its previous form, for [this was necessary] so that the woman could receive it, which was done. And the above-mentioned woman, greatly strengthened in piety and faith, was sanctified by the Sacrament of the Lord. And those who saw this grew in ardent divine love and catholic faith. (...) 25. There lived in Rome a certain man who, despite the fact that he had a family and a very large estate, was in great need of piety and was no less rich in vices than in property. When he stopped liking his wife, he made himself a divorce, contrary to the instructions of our Savior. This matter could not hide from Blessed Gregory, for both the significance of the evil and the nobility of the persons easily betrayed themselves. Blessed Gregory, either with many gentle admonitions or with the horrors of God's terrible Judgment, often tried diligently, moreover, relentlessly to convince this man to take back his wife, betrothed to him in grace, with whom he had the opportunity to part only in the event of death or by mutual consent. However, this man, incurably defeated by the devil’s stubbornness, despised the admonitions of the holy man. Blessed Gregory, by apostolic authority, excommunicated him from the Church before he came to his senses. Very reluctantly bearing this excommunication and adding sins to sins, out of revenge he gave a lot of money to two wise men so that they would use the most powerful spells of their art against the holy vicar of the apostles. Once, when Blessed Gregory, as usual, went to a procession of the cross, the Magi, who did not know him by sight, asked, standing at a distance opposite the procession, to be shown him. They were told that this is the one who, due to his primate dignity, rides alone on horseback in front of everyone, and a line of church men follows him. Seeing Saint Gregory, they immediately began, using their spells, to disturb his horse with an attack of demons. Blessed Gregory, calling on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and making the sign of the cross, immediately scared the demons away from the horse; when, realizing that there were the culprits of this matter, I saw them, these same demons reached the blinded magi, and they fell backwards. Therefore, the man of the Lord realized that this was done by their deceit. When he ordered the Magi to be brought to him, he questioned them and they related the progress of the matter. The blessed primate answered them: “You, who are trying to return to your usual depravity, must remain blind and sightless forever. But in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the action of blessed Peter, be free from demonic attack.” Having freed themselves from demons, they immediately believed in God and washed themselves in the Source of Salvation; Condemned to permanent blindness, they, by order of Blessed Gregory, ate from church alms. 26. A certain tyrant, with almost unbearable mercilessness, inflicted many oppressions on the world of the holy Roman Church and cruelly devastated her possessions and estates belonging to her. The blessed primate reproached him for this through intermediaries, but the tyrant was inflamed with even greater madness, so that he came to ruin the City. As he approached, Blessed Gregory came out to him for negotiations and experienced that by the will of God such power was inherent in his words that the tyrant with humble devotion obeyed the pious vicar of the apostles and immediately solemnly promised that he would submit and be a devoted slave of the Holy Roman Church. Afterwards, he, being exhausted and almost dying, urgently asked for the prayers of the venerable pope, so that, for his part, he could use the time that the Lord would generously give him before his death for repentance; and for a more complete recovery, he tried to eat the foods that he was fed; obeying the commands of [the blessed husband], he recovered and spent the rest of his life more piously. 27. When one day this perfect and dear clergyman was passing through the Forum of Trajan, which, as everyone knows, is wonderfully decorated with buildings, he contemplated the signs of mercy of the emperor, among which he learned about the following memorable event, namely: when this ruler of the world, surrounded by a formation of warriors, set out on a campaign, on the way he met an elderly widow, exhausted by old age, as well as by suffering and poverty. She, crying, turned to him with the following words: “Fair Lord Trajan, here are people who have just killed my only son, the support of my old age and all my consolation; Wanting to take my life along with him, they did not deign me with any explanation of what they had done. Trajan said to her in a hurry, because the matter required it: “When I return, tell me, and I will restore justice for you.” Then the widow said: “Sir, what will I do if you do not return?” At these words, Trajan stopped and ordered the perpetrators to be brought to him. When they suggested to him to speed up the matter, he did not take a single step from that place until he completely freed the widow from paying taxes prescribed by law for the sake of what had happened; and, bowing to mercy only by the requests of general prayer and the crying of those who repented of their deeds, who were defeated not so much by his power as by requests and meekness, he freed the guilty from the praetor's chains. Struck by the nobility of this act, the venerable primate began, with tears and sighs, to ponder within himself the following words of the prophets and the Gospel: “You, Lord, said: “Defend the orphan, stand up for the widow. Then come, and let us reason together” [Isaiah 1:17–18]. And in another place: “If you forgive people their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you” [Matthew 6:14]. Without forgetting this saying, I, an unworthy sinner, in the name of Thy glory and Thy surest promise for the sake of the action of this pious man, humbly implore Thee for mercy.” Arriving at the tomb of Blessed Peter, Saint Gregory prayed there for a long time and cried and, as if overcome by sleep, came into rapture of spirit and in revelation learned that his prayer had been heard, but that he deserved censure and that he should not dare to ask such in the future about anyone who died without Holy Baptism. Although some, by reason of less perfect faith and curiosity, and many of those who believe the truth, which does not falsely say, “what is impossible to men, or seems so, is easy to the Lord,” might inquire about this, the interpretation is useful, yet it seems to us more prudent to honor the judgment in this act of Divine Mercy and Power and not to refute it to anyone. 28. After the death of St. Gregory we learned from a faithful and pious man, who, by virtue of his piety and usefulness, was closest to our most holy father, that while this chosen vessel and abode of the Holy Spirit was interpreting the last vision of the prophet Ezekiel, he drew an opaque veil between himself and this lifter of the veil and at times remained silent for a long time. This servant pierced the curtain with a stylus and, observing what was happening through the hole, saw a dove whiter than snow sitting above the head of the saint and holding its beak for a long time attached to the lips of this man; when the beak moved away from the mouth of the saint. Gregory, the holy primate began to speak and the scribe drew letters on wax with a stylus. When the instrument of the Holy Spirit fell silent, his servant another time put his eye to the hole and saw St. Gregory, as if in prayer, with his hands and eyes raised to the sky, and the beak of a dove, as usual, closed his mouth. The Holy Spirit revealed this to the holy primate, and he became very sad and, under pain of punishment, forbade with his apostolic authority the minister who learned about the miracle he had performed, not to tell it to anyone in any way during his lifetime. Until then, the minister kept this miracle a secret, but after the death of his holy primate, prompted by the ill will of certain people who were harming his blessed husband, in the heat of his objections, he told something about the heavenly secrets he had previously hidden, as he had reliably seen it all. 29. When the often-mentioned venerable primate departed to the Lord, not only in the city of Rome, but also in all surrounding regions, a terrible famine spread excessively, and the one who succeeded Saint Gregory on the throne opened the granaries of the Church to the slanderers, and closed them for those whom Blessed Gregory ordered to support with assistance in monasteries, hospice houses, diaconias or inns; and all of them, prompted by need and hunger to disturb the ears of the vicar of the apostles, said: “Sir, vicar of the apostles, may your holiness not allow those whom our father, your predecessor Saint Gregory, has tried to care for until now, to perish from hunger.” He, enduring the noise of their cries with annoyance, answered: “If Gregory cared about supporting all people for the sake of his praise and glory, we cannot feed everyone.” After he had repeated these words many times in response to people shouting at him, Saint Gregory appeared to him three times in a vision and three times he affectionately reproached him for his stinginess and for depriving [people of help], and for the need of the unfortunate, admonished and reproached him. The successor of Saint Gregory did not incline his heart to mercy, and did not keep his mouth from ill will, and did not extend his hand to generosity. Therefore, having appeared to him for the fourth time, blessed Gregory terribly denounced him and threateningly struck him on the head; oppressed by this disease, he died a short time later. Here is a short story about the life and deeds of Blessed Gregory. However, as long as the revolution of this world takes place, his meritorious merits will always increase, for, without a doubt, added to his glory is the fact that the city of Rome, as it seems, stands unshakable by the common prayers of the holy apostles and St. Gregory, that the newly established Church of the Angles is constantly growing with new discoveries, that, thanks to his teaching, many people throughout the world, having removed themselves from sins, have turned to the mercy of Christ, that some good people, inflamed by his advice, seek and desire a heavenly fatherland. After this blessed primate, being on the throne, ruled the Roman and Apostolic Church with glory for thirty years, six months and ten days, freed from this life, he was transferred to the eternal throne of the Heavenly Kingdom. He is buried in the Church of the Blessed Apostle Peter in front of the sanctuary, on the fourth day of the Ides of March 11, in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, God who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. St. Gregory belonged to the ancient patrician family of Anitsii and Manliev. This family gave Rome two emperors - Petronius Maximus (455) and Olybrius (472), Pope St. Felix III (483–492) and St. Agapit (535–536), philosopher and theologian Boethius (480–524/5). Three aunts of St. Gregory became nuns. His father, Gordian, was a senator, but ended his days in the rank of deacon. Piety of the Mother of St. Gregory, Sylvia, was also well known (her memory is March 12/25). Monastery of St. ap. Andrew on the Caelian Hill in Rome. The first abbot was Valention, and St. Gregory entered under his command as a simple monk. Slightly modified quote from the "Conversations" of St. Gregory (S. Gregorii paraae Dialogorum libri IV // Patrologiae Latinae cursus completus. 77, 152. Further PL). Apocrisiary - envoy or representative of the bishop at the court of the emperor. His duties included representing the Church of his province in the capital, conveying messages from his superiors to the emperor and forwarding him the emperor’s replies. In 579, Pope Pelagius II (579–590) ordained St. Gregory as a deacon and sent him as an apocrisiary to Constantinople (579–586). Returning to Rome, St. Gregory became rector of the monastery of St. ap. Andrew, founded by him on the Caelian Hill. One modius equals 8.704 liters. Emperor Mauritius (582–602). Chapters 17 and 18 are based on information taken from Chapter 1, Chapter 2 of the book “Ecclesiastical History of England” by the Venerable Bede, which tells about St. Gregory the Great.