Here’s a little list:
Twelve Things I Like About St Gregory the Great
- He was a Benedictine monk. I’m a Benedictine oblate and the monk in me will always hanker for the cell, the cloister and the bell.
- He was a scholar. You got to love a Pope who is brainy.
- He got things done. He didn’t just sit around.
- He was a liturgist.
- Gregory’s great great grandfather was Pope Felix III – So he had a married clergy link!
- He came from a wealthy, noble Roman family. Those noble aristocratic Catholic families…gotta love ’em
- He was bald. That’s a good sign.
- His mother and two aunts were venerated as saints. You know what they say…”Grace runs in families”
- He was a writer: the biography of St Benedict, Liber Pastoralis (Rules for Pastors) a commentary on Job, revision of the Liturgy.
- He was a musician. Gregorian chant is named for him and he one of the patron saints of musicians.
- He liked puns…Remember the old “not Angles but Angels” line?
- He sent Augustine to convert the English…Without him Mrs Longenecker would probably be a Druid.