He was born to a patrician Roman family (father, Gordianus, and mother, Silvia) and pursued a secular political career which climaxed in the position of Urban Prefect before he entered a monastery. About fifteen years later he became pope.
Gregory's chief acts as Pope include his role in the schism of the Three Chapters, and sending Augustine of Canterbury to convert the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. He is also known in the East as a tireless worker for communication and understanding between East and West. He is also credited with increasing the power of the papacy. Before his pontificate the Pope was regarded as the foremost among other high-ranking ecclesiasts, but without any jurisdiction outside his own diocese.
Commentary on Job, frequently known even in English-language histories by its Latin title, Moralia in Job.
The Rule for Pastors
Some 850 letters have survived from his Papal Register of letters. This collection serves as an invaluable primary source for these years.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Gregory is credited with devising the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts. It is celebrated on certain nights during Great Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The Gregorian Chant, a religious musical style of the Middle Ages, is named for Pope Gregory. While he is not known to have written any chants himself—the majority of chants written during this time were published anonymously—his influence in the church caused the style to be named after him.
Gregory, however, unfortunately allowed himself to be imposed upon by a plausible adventurer called Hero, or Maximus, who came to Constantinople from Alexandria in the guise (long hair, white robe, and staff) of a Cynic, and professed to be a convert to Christianity, and an ardent admirer of Gregory's sermons.
Gregory's claims to rank as one of the greatest theologians of the early Church are based, apart from his reputation among his contemporaries, and the verdict of history in his regard, chiefly on the five great "Theological Discourses" which he delivered at Constantinople in the course of the year 380.
Gregory, in reply to the contention that the Divinity of the Spirit is not expressed in Scripture, quotes and comments on several passages which teach the doctrine by implication, adding that the full manifestation of this great truth was intended to be gradual, following on the revelation of the Divinity of the Son.
Gregory's father was Gordianus, a wealthy patrician, probably of the famous gens Amicia, who owned large estates in Sicily and a mansion on the Caelian Hill in Rome, the ruins of which, apparently in a wonderful state of preservation, still await excavation beneath the Church of St. Andrew and St. Gregory.
Gregory's mind and memory were both exceptionally receptive, and it is to the effect produced on him by these disasters that we must attribute the tinge of sadness which pervades his writings and especially his clear expectation of a speedy end to the world.
Gregory at once took the surprising step of appointing a tribune on his own authority to take command of the city (Epp., II, xxxiv), and, when no notice of this strong action was taken by the imperial authorities, the pope conceived the idea of himself arranging a separate peace with the Lombards (Epp., II, xlv).
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