Here’s a little list:

Twelve Things I Like About St Gregory the Great

  1. 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.
  2. He was a scholar. You got to love a Pope who is brainy.
  3. He got things done. He didn’t just sit around.
  4. He was a liturgist.
  5. Gregory’s great great grandfather was Pope Felix III – So he had a married clergy link!
  6. He came from a wealthy, noble Roman family. Those noble aristocratic Catholic families…gotta love ’em
  7. He was bald. That’s a good sign.
  8. His mother and two aunts were venerated as saints. You know what they say…”Grace runs in families”
  9. He was a writer: the biography of St Benedict, Liber Pastoralis (Rules for Pastors) a commentary on Job, revision of the Liturgy.
  10. He was a musician. Gregorian chant is named for him and he one of the patron saints of musicians.
  11. He liked puns…Remember the old “not Angles but Angels” line?
  12. He sent Augustine to convert the English…Without him Mrs Longenecker would probably be a Druid.