The story of the pope referred to as the Apostle to the English

Pope Gregory I, referred to as Gregory the Great, was one of the vital vital popes, and his positive legacy continues to be felt today – not least in Britain. This is the story … 

Who was Pope Gregory?

Gregorius Anicius, son of Gordianus was born about AD 540 in Rome, and was consecrated as pope on 3 September 590, when he became Pope Gregory. He is understood for his administrative skills, writings, contributions to music and liturgy and his missionary drive. He called himself in Latin ”Servus Servorum Dei” (often translated into English as “Servant of the Servants of God”), which continues to be utilized by Popes today, in official papal documents.

Gregorian Chants

Pope Gregory is credited with revising the liturgy and developing a type of plainchant or plainsong. This is a style of liturgical music where often monks sang in unison in harmony without musical accompaniment. This style of chanting is the earliest known type of written music within the West. Today it’s referred to as Gregorian Chanting in his honour, and might still be heard in Orthodox churches and Catholic monasteries. In recent years there was a revival of interest in it, for instance the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain recorded an album called “Chant”, which was released by Angel Records in 1994, and went double platinum. You can hearken to it on YouTube. 

Pastoral Care

Around the yr AD 590, Pope Gregory wrote a book called in Latin Liber Regulae Pastoralis (often translated because the “Book of Pastoral Care” in English) which became a manual for bishops and priests across Europe, and later in England, which influenced how they understood their roles. Alfred the Great translated it, or had it translated for him, into Anglo-Saxon for all of the bishops. Alfred the Great‘s translation into Anglo-Saxon, which is usually called Early English, is kept on the Bodleian Library in Oxford. It is the oldest surviving book written in English. It is so vital that in May 2011, it was added to the UK’s Memory of the World Register, a part of UNESCO.

Evangelisation missions

Pope Gregory saw the Church as “Catholic” within the sense of universal and worked to spread Christianity beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. He sent missionaries to Gaul, Lombard Italy, Spain, Africa. He also sent missionaries to England because after the autumn of the Roman Empire much of southern and eastern Britain had reverted back to paganism under the English. The Venerable Bede, who’s recognised as a distinguished historian, recorded the story in his “Ecclesiastical History of the English People”.

Mission to England

The story goes that before he became the Pope, Gregory was a monk in Rome. One day he was walking through the slave market when he encountered some male slaves which, unlike the others, were fair-skinned and fair-haired, and he asked where they’d come from. The slave trader told him that they were Angles. Gregory thought to himself “Non Angli, sed angeli” (often translated into English as “Not Angles, but angels!”) and noted that it was a pity that they weren’t Christians. It is alleged that he desired to go to England himself as a missionary, however the then Pope (probably Pelagius II), didn’t let him leave Rome. Later when Gregory himself became Pope he sent St Augustine and a delegation of forty monks on his behalf. St Augustine is commonly referred to as St Augustine of Canterbury to avoid confusion with St Augustine of Hippo.

The mission to England began in 597 AD, after they went to Kent, which is now a county but was then a kingdom. They met Queen Bertha, a Frankish princess who was already a Christian – and who had perhaps invited them. As a part of Bertha’s marriage agreement, King Aethelbert permitted her to bring a chaplain, and have a chapel, which St Augustine used. In fact, her church – now called St Martin’s – is the oldest Christian church in England still in use. 

After the conversion of the king, after which his kingdom, Canterbury became the bottom for the evangelisation of England. The site of that first church is now occupied by Canterbury Cathedral, and St Augustine is referred to as the primary Archbishop of Canterbury, which stays the premier bishopric within the Church of England. One of the opposite monks who accompanied St Augustine was St Paulinus who helped to convert the Northumbrians and have become the primary Bishop of York, being the second centre of the Church in England, after Canterbury.

Legacy

Pope Gregory died on 12 March 604 AD and he was soon venerated as a saint, although he has never been formally canonised. In 1298, he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Boniface VIII due to his vital writings. Pope Gregory is taken into account one in every of the Early Church Fathers, and is one in every of only three popes to officially be called “the Great”, the opposite two being Pope Leo I (Leo the Great), and Pope Nicolas I (Nicholas the Great).

The Church of England

Pope Gregory’s decision to evangelise England laid the inspiration for the English Church (called “Ecclesia Anglicana” in Latin) as an element of Christendom. Later when this separated from papal authority under Henry VIII it became the Church of England, however the Latin term Anglicana continues to be utilized in the adjective Anglican (from the Latin word for English from the word for Angle). Pope Gregory is usually referred to as the Apostle of the English, although he never set foot in England, due to his role within the conversion of the English people, although the title can also be sometimes given to St Augustine himself. The Anglican Communion is now a serious worldwide family of churches.

Commemoration

Pope Gregory is commemorated on different days in numerous traditions. Pope Gregory predates the Great Schism which split the Christian world into Catholic within the West and Orthodox within the East, so he can also be remembered within the Orthodox world, which uses 12 March, the anniversary of his death in 604 AD. In Slovenia, St Gregory’s Day (Gregorjevo) has a special significance as a celebration of spring and love. The tradition is that individuals launch miniature boats on rivers, that are called gregorčki. St Gregory’s Day often falls in Lent so in 1969, the Roman Catholic Church modified the day of commemoration to three September, the anniversary of his papal consecration in 590 AD, which is known as the Feast Day of Saint Gregory the Great. This is the date also utilized by most Anglican churches in the event that they remember him.

The collect for St Gregory’s Day is: “Merciful Father, who selected your bishop Gregory to be a servant of the servants of God: grant that, like him, we may ever long to serve you by proclaiming your gospel to the nations, and will ever rejoice to sing your praises; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who’s alive and reigns with you, within the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.”