We encounter great saints and Fathers of our Church in every place and in every era. Western Christianity, before it separated from the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ and deviated from the true faith, raised up great saints and Fathers, equal to the Fathers of the East. One of them is the saint Gregory I, the Dialogus, Pope of RomeLet us clarify that by the beginning of the 11th In the 16th century, when the papacy had not broken away from the Church and fallen into heresy, numerous saintly popes emerged, who brighten our hagiographies.
Saint Gregory was born in Rome around 540 and lived during the reign of the emperor Justinian (527-565). His father's name was Gordianus and his mother SylviaHis wealthy parents ensured that he received a great education. He became a great lawyer.
In 570 he was appointed praetor of Rome by Justinian, but not for long, because after the death of his parents he distributed his property to the poor and founded many monasteries. He converted his house in Rome into a monastery, dedicated to the Apostle Andrew, where he lived a highly ascetic life and the study of the Holy Bible and the Fathers. In 579 he went to Constantinople, where he met the emperor's sister Mauritius (582-602), God creator and with the patrician Narcissus, with whom he corresponded. In 586 he was ordained a deacon and served as an advisor to the pope. Pelagius B΄. But in 590 Pelagius died and the clergy and people of Rome demanded that Gregory ascend to the episcopal throne of Rome. But Gregory was reluctant, feeling the burden of the episcopal office, because, humble as he was, he considered himself incapable. The Bishop of Ravenna John forced him to accept the people's demand. He emerged as Pope Gregory I after writing a wonderful treatise on the qualifications of a bishop.
He had to face great problems. Let us not forget that at that time the Western Roman state had essentially been destroyed by the barbarians and that the bishop of Rome, as Patriarch of the West, had also been entrusted with political and social responsibilities for the sake of the faithful of the West. A terrible epidemic was decimating the populations of Italy. An unprecedented flood of the Tiber had destroyed the grain of Rome. The barbarian Lombards had taken over most of Italy.
He organized a pioneering network of charity, where he prevented famine and confronted the plague. Thousands of poor people found food, clothing, shelter and care in the numerous institutions. He channeled the income from church estates to the people and at the same time made sure to have large donations from the rich for this purpose. Even in his diocese, a multitude of needy people were fed.
At the same time, he organized a gigantic mission for the Christianization of Northern Europe. He sent a group of forty monks to England to enlighten the Anglo-Saxons. He also contributed effectively to the lifting of the schism of the bishops of Liguria, Istria and Venice, who did not accept the decisions of the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553). Saint Gregory, with his wisdom, prudence and genuine ecclesiastical tradition, managed to convince them that the decision to condemn the so-called "Three Chapters" it was not a compromise with
the heretical Monophysites, as the schismatic bishops claimed, but it expressed the Orthodox faith.
Although Saint Gregory was deeply committed to the power of Constantinople, it was unable to offer substantial assistance to the Romans of the West, because at that time it was engaged in continuous wars with the Persians, Their Avars, Their Slavs and Mauritians. Thus he was forced to take the political initiative himself, agreeing with the Lombards to secure peace by paying tribute. This was unfortunately the beginning of the popes' turn to the barbarian rulers of the West and the creation of the later "papal primacy" and the transformation of the pope into a secular ruler. The big problem arose when the popes of Rome turned to the barbarians Franks for help, and thus they progressively took over the Patriarchate of the West, culminating in its capture by a pope of Frankish origin (1009) and its secession from the Church in 1054. It should be noted that the Franks were heretics, who imposed their heresies, such as the filioque, created grace, etc., on the Western Church, after the expulsion of the Orthodox. These heresies, along with many others that have accumulated over the centuries, exist to this day in the papacy and prevent us from considering it a Church, but a religious community.
Saint Gregory never exercised any kind of primacy in the Church, because he was humble and committed to the primordial tradition of the Church, like the other holy popes before the secession of the Patriarchate of the West. On the contrary, he vigorously defended the rights of the ancient Patriarchates, which had been established by the Ecumenical Councils. He denied the title of "ecumenical pope", which was recommended to him by the Patriarch of Alexandria Eulogius (579-607) and preferred the title "servant of God"He strongly opposed the decision of the Patriarch of Constantinople, John the Faster (582-595), to receive from the Synod of 587 the title of "Ecumenical Patriarch", who certainly did not have administrative authority over the entire Church, but was and is a title of honor, as bishop of the capital of the world.
Saint Gregory died peacefully in 604, he was declared a saint and great for the holiness of his life and his great contribution to the Church. His memory is celebrated on March 12. He was named Dialogue because he wrote theological works in a dialogical form.
We believe that the figure of Saint Gregory and his work are the resounding response to modern papacy, which promotes the anti-Christian. "primacy" authority throughout the Church and also to those who seek the creation "Vatican" in the Orthodox space!
