Pope Saint Gregory the Great -- The Pope of the Twilight and the Dawn

Master of the Older Prayerbook of Maximilian, Saint Gregory
the Great
From the Breviary of Eleanor of Portugal
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1495-1505
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 52, fol. 385v

O God, who care for your people with gentleness and rule them in love, through the intercession of Pope Saint Gregory, endow, we pray, with a spirit of wisdom those to whom you have given authority to govern, that the flourishing of a holy flock may become the eternal joy of the shepherds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Mass for September 3^rd.

Very few people in history have been given the distinction of the title “the Great”.  Most of them have been soldiers or the rulers of great empires of the past.  Among them are:  Cyrus the Great, Ramses the Great, Alexander the Great, Constantine the Great, Charlemagne (Charles the Great), Alfred the Great, Catherine the Great.  They are the men and women who have ruled the Persian, the Egyptian, the Hellenistic, the Roman, the Carolingian and the Russian Empires or, in the case of Alfred the Great, the first of a line of English kings (and queens) over a thousand years long.   And then there are two popes*:  Saint Leo the Great and Saint Gregory the Great, whose feast day is celebrated on September 3.  I have written about Saint Leo the Great previously.  But today I would like to introduce you to Saint Gregory.

 

Gregory the Great lived at the time in which the great day of one era was slowly fading into sunset and another era was dawning.  He was a man who was very much a product of a world that was passing away, the world we now call the Late Antique, and he was in part a creator of the world we call the Early Middle Ages.  His influence reaches even to the present day.  And that influence is broad.  The Europe we have known and its offshoots in the Americas and elsewhere are part of his legacy.

Aristocrat

Gregory was born about 540 into a senatorial Roman family.  That is a strange thing to say when you realize that the Rome of his birth was a Rome that had ceased to be the center of the world over one hundred years before his arrival.  It had ceased to be Roman, if by using that term we think of classical, Imperial Rome, and for almost that hundred years it had been under the control of the Ostrogoths, one of the tribes of Germanic invaders who had destroyed the Western Roman Empire.  However, during Gregory’s childhood the Eastern Roman Empire had recovered part of the Italian peninsula, including the old capital city, so the old forms of life were still at least nominally in place. 

Saint Gregory the Great
From the Mont-Saint-Michel Sacramentary
French (Norman), c. 1055-1065
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 641, fol. 22v

Gregory's family tree was interesting and had been Christian for a long time.  One of his grandfathers had been Pope, another Pope was a great uncle, and his family tree was also interwoven with the church, having both male priests, female religious and lay office holders in the line.  Gregory‘s father, Gordianus, was a senator and for a time he served as the Prefect of Rome, the highest senatorial office, dating back to the days of the Roman kings, before the Roman Republic or the Empire.  He was also some kind of minor lay official in the Roman church.  The family was relatively wealthy.  They had estates in the area south of Rome as well as in Sicily and owned a ruined estate on one of the famous seven hills of Rome, the Caelian, which came to be deeply associated with Gregory himself. 

Education and Early Career

As a boy and young man Gregory passed through the traditional education for a man of his rank.  He learned the curriculum of the Trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy) and, it would appear, also had some specialized training in Roman law, probably indicating his family plans that he should follow a political career.  His family household is also presumed to have been devout, based on its connections to the Church and to Gregory’s later life.  After the death of his father his mother joined two of his aunts as vowed religious nuns.

Aristotle lecturing Alexander the Great, Ptolemy, Saint Gregory and Galen
From the Fiore di vertu
French, 1455-1465
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 771, fol. 3r

A fantasy image with Aristotle shown lecturing some of his greatest pupils, although only one (Alexander the Great) was alive in his time.

At about the age of 30 he was elected as Prefect of Rome, the same rank his father had filled.  This was the highest administrative office in the city of Rome, responsible for the running of the city.  While nowhere near as powerful as it had been before the end of the Empire, it was still a great office, especially in its aura of antiquity and continuing authority during an unsettled period of the city’s history.  The Prefect was responsible for keeping the city functioning for its citizens, in spite of the decline in population that followed the move of the Imperial administration to first Milan and then, after that city fell to the Ostrogoths (and later to the Lombards), to Constantinople.

Gregory the Monk

However, Gregory did not keep this office very long.  After one term he renounced the office and declared his intention to become a monk.  He used revenues from his family’s lands in Sicily to found several monasteries, including one which he built among the ruins of his old family home on the Caelian Hill in Rome.  He himself became a monk in that monastery, named Saint Andrew’s on the Caelian. 

For several years he lived as a monk among the other monks on the Caelian Hill.  In 578, however, Pope Pelagius II sent him as an envoy to Constantinople, to maintain good relations with the eastern half of the Roman Empire, then developing into what is now known as the Byzantine Empire.  He does not seem to have adapted to life in the East, however, and continued to live a western monastic life while there. 

After about six or seven years he was recalled to Rome and became the abbot of his monastic foundation on the Caelian Hill.  There he spent his time in scholarship and contemplation and taught the monks and laity about the Scriptures.  He also wrote a great deal, including the books for which he became most famous, such as the commentary on the Book of Job, which became known as the Moralia in Job.  He also became the secretary and chief advisor to Pope Pelagius II.

Follower of Fra Angelico, The Papacy Is Offered to Saint Gregory the Great
Italian, c. 1435
Philadelphia, Museum of Art

Gregory Becomes Pope

When Pelagius II died during a plague in 589, Gregory was elected as his successor.  Gregory was not altogether happy in the choice and tried to avoid becoming Pope.  However, in the end he assented.  A legend appeared, about a hundred years after his death, that he ran away from Rome and hid in a cave in the forest.  There he was discovered when a flash of light revealed him to those looking for him and they were able to seize him and return him to the city.

Workshop of Jean Pucelle, Saint Gregory Discovered in His Hiding Place
From the Breviary de Belleville
French (Paris), c. 1323-1326
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 10483, fol. 160v

Gregory may have been a reluctant Pope, but once in office he was certainly an energetic one.  He continued to write and to preach.  He dispatched missionaries to parts of the world not yet touched by the Christian Gospel and attempted to unify the parts that were Christianized.  He instituted reforms aimed at standardizing the liturgy in the disjointed world of his time and may have been responsible for the earliest forms of what we know today as Gregorian chant.  He took over the day to day running of the city of Rome, as lay authority on the Italian peninsula was lost by Byzantium and fragmented among the various barbarian invaders. The form of papal government that we know today had its beginnings during his reign. 

Master of the Roman de Fauvel, Saint Gregory Preaching
From the Vies de saints
French (Paris), c. 1300-1325
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 183, fol. 237v

Some idea of the extent of Gregory’s actions can be gained from this passage in a brief essay on his pontificate written by the British historian Eamon Duffy (no relation that I’m aware of) in his book Ten Popes Who Shook the World.  “Almost nine hundred of Gregory’s letters survive, so we know more about his pontificate than that of any other pope of late antiquity. The range of his activities, the grip and minuteness of his tireless involvement in the myriad responsibilities of the greatest bishopric in the Christian world are astonishing even in our time of global expansion. His concerns stretched from Visigothic Spain and eastern Gaul to Africa, Greece and the Balkans. His letters show him organising corn supplies from Sicily to feed the famine-stricken people of central Italy; enforcing clerical celibacy; overseeing the administration of the papal horse ranches; rebuking bishops who were mistreating Jews or who could not get on with their senior clergy; buying the liberty of Roman citizens enslaved by the Lombards; overhauling the administration of papal lands to eliminate corruption; securing trusted Roman clerics, especially monks, for vacancies in provincial bishoprics; defying imperial legislation designed to prevent men of military age from becoming monks; sending gifts of relics or sacred books to encourage pious princes; cultivating the Catholic wives of pagan or heretical rulers, even among the Lombards, whose souls, as a bishop, he wanted to save (though, as a proud and aggrieved Roman, he loathed them).”  Also, in Duffy’s words “Struggling to hold back the collapse of the classical world, this aristocratic Roman monk had unwittingly invented Europe.”^1.

 

Iconography of Saint Gregory the Great

Image as Pope

Some of the iconography associated with Saint Gregory the Great is simply that which shows him as the Pope.  There is little reference in any of these images to the material that would form the bulk of his iconography.  Usually shown in either a seated or a standing posture, giving a blessing, he may carry a book or the distinctive cross that is the symbol of the universal papal authority (distinct from the more common crozier or shepherd hook of a local bishop or archbishop).  One interesting sidelight of this (and all the other images of Saint Gregory) is that one can trace the development of the distinctive papal headgear, the triple tiara, from nothing special to a variation of the episcopal miter to a conical headdress to the eventual beehive shape that it had in the modern era. 

Saint Gregory the Great
From a Missal
French (Champagne), c. 1050
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 818, fol. 2v

Bernardo Daddi, Saint Gregory the Great
Italian, c. 1334
Cambridge, Harvard Art Museums, Fogg Museum, Gift of Miss Margaret Whitney

Saint Gregory the Great
German, c. 1400
Soest, Protestant Parish Church of Saint Mary zur Wiese and Wiesenkirche

Gold Scrolls Group, Saint Gregory the Great
From a Missal
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1415-1425
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 374, fol. 122v

Master of the Morgan Infancy Cycle, Saint Gregory the Great
From a Book of Hours
Dutch (Delft), c. 1415-1420
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 866, fol. 146v

Master of Catherine of Cleves, Saint Gregory the Great
From the Hours of Catherine of Cleves
Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1435-1445
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 917, fol. 240v

Bicci di Lorenzo, Saint Gregory the Great
Italian, c. 1447
Arezzo, Church of San Francesco

Gregory the Great and His Secretary
From the Fleur des histoires by Jean Mansel
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1450-1475
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 299, fol. 1r

Jean le Tavernier and Follower, Saint Gregory the Great
From the Hours of Philip of Burgundy
Flemish (Oudenaarde), c. 1450-1460
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 2, fol. 209r

Followers of the Coëtivy Master, Saint Gregory the Great

From a Book of Hours

French (Loire), c. 1470-1480

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS G 1 II, fol. 264r

Nicolas Cordier, Saint Gregory the Great
French, c. 1602
Rome, Church of San Gregorio Magno al Celio

Francisco de Zurbaran, Saint Gregory the Great
Spanish, c. 1626-1627
Seville, Museo de Bellas Artes

Saint Gregory the Great
German, c. 1787
Huysburg am Harz, Monastery Church of the Assumption

Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Saint Gregory the Great
Spanish, c. 1797
Madrid, Museo Romantico

Carl Heinrich Hermann and Assistants, Saint Gregory the Great
German, 1836
Munich, Church of Saint Ludwig

Lorenz Benz, Saint Gregory the Great
German, c. 1865
Schwäbisch Gmünd, Sankt Josefskapelle

Miracles

The Plague Procession

One of the first things that confronted the new Pope was a plague then raging across the known world.  This is probably one of the aftershocks of the great plague of Justinian, which had devastated both the Roman Empire (East and West) and Persian Empire around the middle of the sixth century.  This plague is now thought to have been an instance of the bubonic plague, an earlier version the Black Death, that ravaged Europe much later (during the fourteenth century).  As the Pope was by now the only real ruler of the city of Rome, Gregory did what he could.  In an era when nothing was known about what caused the plague and how it spread people were left with few options.  Chief among them was penance and prayer, since it was believed that all such illnesses were a punishment from God for the sinful lives of people.  And this is what Gregory did.  He ordered a large procession of the people of Rome, originating in the seven pilgrimage churches of the old city, meeting eventually at the tomb of Saint Peter on the Vatican side of the river Tibur.  As the procession converged at the crossing point of the river, near the tomb of Emperor Hadrian, Gregory had a vision of the angel Michael, holding a drawn sword above his head, standing on the top of the structure.  As Gregory watched, Michael sheathed his flaming sword and disappeared.  This was interpreted as indicating that the penitential procession had ended God’s anger against the city and that the plague would shortly end.  It did.  

As a response, Pope Gregory ordered the construction of a chapel to Saint Michael the Archangel within the tomb structure.  From that day to this, Hadrian’s Tomb became known as Castel Sant’Angelo. 

Coppo di Marcovaldo, Saint Gregory Ordering the Building of a Chapel to the Archangel Michael at Hadrian's Tomb
Italian, c. 1250-1255
San Casciano in Val di Pesa, Museo d'Arte Sacra

Lorenzo Ghiberti, Saint Gregory Ordering the Building of a Chapel to the Archangel Michael at Hadrian's Tomb
Italian, c. 1421-1424
Florence, Baptistry

Master of Claude de France, Saint Gregory Ordering the Building of a Chapel to the Archangel Michael at Hadrian's Tomb
From the Prayer Book of Claude de France
French (Tours), c. 1515-1520
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 1166, fol. 51r

Images of this procession abound in the artistic record but are most frequent after the middle of the fourteenth century.  This is for good reason, as the years 1347-1348 were the height of the next major outbreak of bubonic plague throughout the same territories that had been decimated in the sixth century.

Giovanni di Benedetto & Workshop, Saint Gregory's Procession
From a Book of Hours
Italian (Milan), c. 1385-1390
Paris, Bibliotheeque nationale de France
MS Latin 757, fol. 155r

The Limbourg Brothers, Head of the Procession

From the Tres Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry

Flemish (Limbourg), c. 1411-1416

Chantilly, Musée Condé

MS 65, fol. 72r

This opening group at the head of the procession includes a deacon who has succumbed to the plague while walking in it.

The Limbourg Brothers, Pope Gregory Sees the Angel
From the Tres Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry
Flemish (Limbourg), c. 1411-1416
Chantilly, Musée Condé
MS 65, fol. 71v

In this second half of the image we see Pope Gregory, preceded by two priests carrying a reliquary (relics of Saint Peter, perhaps) and followed by a crowd of Roman citizens.  The Pope and one of the women in the crowd react to the apparition of the angel atop Hadrian's Tomb, while other members of the public attend to those fallen from the effects of the plague.

Chroniques II Workshop, Pope Gregory's Procession
From Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1445-1465
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 673, fol. 255r
This presents a sedate, less dramatic image of the event.

Giovanni di Paolo, Procession of Saint Gregory
Italian, c. 1450-1475
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Anonymous, The Miracle of Castel Sant'Angelo
Spanish, c. 1500
Philadelphia, Museum of At

Master of the David Scenes in the Grimani Breviary, Mass of Saint Gregory and the Plague Procession
From a Book of Hours
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1525-1530
New York, Pierpont Morgan library
MS M 1175, fol. 202v

Jacopo Zucchi, The Procession of Saint Gregory
Italian, c. 1578-1580
Vatican City, Pinacoteca Vaticana

Horace Le Blanc, Procession of Saint Gregory to Castel Sant'Angelo in 590

French, 1625

Dijon, Musée d'Art Sacré

Jacques Callot, Saint Gregory in Procession near Hadrian's Tomb

From Les images de tous les saints et santes del'année

French, c. 1632-1635

London, Trustees of the British Museum

The image appears to have remained popular so long as Europe remained vulnerable to devastating bouts of bubonic plague.

Other Miracles

Several other miracles are credited to Saint Gregory during his lifetime and afterwards.  However, these make up only a very small sliver of his iconography, especially in comparison with other saints.

 

Master of the Livre du Sacre & Workshop, Miracle of Saint Gregory
From the Speculum historiale by Vincent of Beauvais
French (Paris), c. 1370-1380
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquisition francaise 15944, fol. 80r

Legends of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Legends
French, c. 1250-1300
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquisition francaise 23686, fol. 132r

Richard de Montbaston, Saint Gregory and the Mendicant Angel
From the Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine
French (Paris),1348
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 241, fol. 74r

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Announcing the Death of Saint Fina
Italian, c. 1473-1475
San Gimignano, Collegiata

Inspired Writer

One of the most frequent images of Saint Gregory are those that depict him as an inspired writer.  Beginning with images made not long after his death and continuing for a thousand years, he has been depicted as a writer, usually (though not always) seated and writing, receiving inspiration, if not outright dictation, from a dove, the visual representation for the Holy Spirit.  This is the same pose as was generally used for “portraits” of the four evangelists that usually appeared in copies of the Bible.  That Saint Gregory should be depicted this way speaks volumes about the respect in which his writings was held.

 

Saint Gregory the Great
From the Sacramentary of Charles the Bald
French, c. 850
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 1141, fol. 3r

Master of the Vienna Gregory Plaque, Saint Gregory Writing
Mosan, End of the 10th Century
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Kunstkammer

Author Portrait of Saint Gregory the Great
From the Dialogues by Gregory the Great
German, First Half of the 12th Century
London, British Library
MS Harley 3011, fol. 59v

Saint Gregory at Work
Title Page of a Book
Czech, c. 1140
Stockholm, Kungliga Biblioteket
MS Cod. A 144

In this charming picture everyone has a label, including the figures of the scribe and the painter at the bottom of the page!

Abboy Frowin, Gregory and His Deacon, Peter
Title Page from the Moralia in Job by Saint Gregory
Swiss (Engelberg), c. 1143-1178
Cleveland, Museum of Art

Author Portrait of Saint Gregory
From the Registrum epistolarum of Gregory the Great
Flemish (Tournai), c. 1150-1175
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 2288, fol. 1v

Saint Gregory the Great
Page from a Life of Saint Gregory
German (Weingarten), c. 1188-1200
Chicago, Art Institute

Saint Gregory Writing
From a Picture Bible
French (St. Omer), c. 1190-1200
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F f5, fol. 25v

Saints Martin, Jerome and Gregory
From the Porch of the Confessors
French, 12th-13th Century
Chartres, Cathedral of Notre Dame

Although not entirely obvious in this picture, the dove of the Holy Spirit (now headless) is perched on Saint Gregory's right shoulder.)

Jacquemart, Saint Gregory Receiving Inspiration
From the Petites heures de Jean de Berry
French (Bourges), c. 1385-1390
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 18014, fol. 75r

Maitre de la Mazarine and Workshop, Saint Gregory and a Scribe
From the Grandes heures de Jean de Berry
French (Paris), 1409
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 919, fol. 100r

Michael Pacher, Saint Gregory the Great

From the Altar of the Church Fathers

German, 1480

Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek

Gaspare Romano, Saint Gregory the Great
From the Moralia in Job by Saint Gregory the Great
Italian (Roman), 1485
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 2231 (2), fol. 25r

This subject appeared to go into abeyance during the Reformation, but returned with renewed interest in the period of the Counter-Reformation and Baroque.

Peter Paul Rubens, Ecstasy of Saint Gregory the Great
Flemish, 1608
Grenoble, Musée des Beaux-Arts

 

Domenico Feti, Saint Gregory the Great
Italian, c. 1610-1520
Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts

Jusepe de Ribera, Saint Gregory the Great
Spanish, c. 1614
Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica

Anonymous, Saint Gregory the Great
Spanish, c. 1630
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Jacopo Vignali, Saint Gregory the Great
Italian, c. 1630
Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum

Fray Juan Andres Rizi, Saint Gregory the Great
Spanish, c. 1645-1655
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Lucas Franchoys the Younger. Saint Gregory the Great

Flemish. c. 1650

Pau, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Domenico Maggiotto, Saint Gregory the Great
Italian, c. 1760s
Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

 

Theologian and Philosopher

On a different, more human, level, Gregory was also depicted in the act of writing or alluding to his written work.  

Saint Gregory the Great
From the Registrum epistolarum by Saint Gregory the Great
French (Saint-Amand), c. 1150-1175
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 2287, fol. 1v

Saint Gregory the Great
Italian, c. 1320
London, Victoria and Albert Museum

Pope Gregory Presenting the Life of Saint Benedict to the Monks
From the Vita S. Benedicti by Saint Gregory the Great
Italian (Padua), c. 1445-1455
NY, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 184, fol. 1r

Guillaume Vrelant and Workshop, Saint Gregory the Great
From a Book of Hours
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1455-1465
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 387, fol. 100v

Follower of Loyset Li, Saint Gregory Teaching
From the Homilies on the Four Evangelists by Saint Gregory the Great
Flemish, c. 1480-1490
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 129 C 4, fol. 1r

Raphael, Justice
Italian, 1511
Vatican City, Apostolic Palace, Stanza della Segnatura

Anton Wierix II After Maerten de Vos, Saint Gregory the Great in His Study
From the Four Fathers of the Church
Flemish, 1585
Cambridge, Harvard Art Museums, Fogg Museum, Gift of Barbara Ketcham Wheaton

Arnould de Vuez, Saint Gregory the Great
French, c. 1700
Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts

Doctor of the Church

However, a much larger group of images depict Gregory along with several other respected Christian writers as one of the Fathers of the Latin Church.  The four men generally included in the group are Saints Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory.  Images usually show all four, but in some Gregory is paired with only one other and that one is usually Saint Jerome. 

 

Saints Gregory and Augustine
From the Images de la vie de Jesus Christ et des saints
Flemish (Hainaut), c. 1285-1290
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquistiion francause 16251, fol. 91r

Jacobello Alberegno, Crucified Christ Between the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist, with Saints Gregory and Jerome
Italian, c. 1375-1397
Venice, Galleria dell'Accademia

The Orosius Master, God wotjSaints Augustine, Gregory, Ambrose and Jerome
From City of God by Saint Augustine of Hippo
French (Paris), c. 1410
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 72 A 22, fol. 6r

Attributed to Joan Rosato, Mystical Crucifixion, with the Four Doctors of the Church and Saint Paul Contemplating the Crucifixion
Spanish, c. 1445
Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum

Fathers of the Church Saints Gregory and Ambrose
French or Flemish, c. 1480
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Madonna and Child with the Four Church Fathers
German, c. 1490
Hersbruck, Protestant Parish Church

 

Pedro Berruguete, Saints Gregory the Great and Jerome
Spanish, c. 1495-1500
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Abraham Van Diepenbeeck, The Four Doctors of Church

Flemish, c. 1650-1660

Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Reform of the Liturgy

I did not find many images that referred to this specific part of Saint Gregory’s legacy, although some other images that I have classified elsewhere may be related to this subject.

 

Saint Gregory the Great
From the Regula pastoralis by Saint Gregory the Great
French (Limoges), End of the 11th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 2799, fol. 2r

Richard de Montbaston, Saint Gregory Instructs Saint Mamert on Litanies
From the Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine
French (Paris), 1348
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 241, fol. 122v

Taddeo Crivelli, Saint Gregory the Great
From the Gualenghi-d'Este Hours
Italian, c. 1469
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS Ludwig IX 13, fol. 172v

A Famous Decision

One of the most distinctive subjects in the life and iconography of Saint Gregory was his decision to send a missionary group of monks to the kingdom of Kent in England in the 590s.  The well-known story is that Gregory happened to see some unusual looking slaves for sale in the Roman slave market as he passed by on the street.  They were young men with very pale skin and blonde hair, an unusual combination in the Mediterranean world of the time.  He asked where they came from and was told that they were from Britain. 

Now, by this time, formerly Romanized, Christian Britain had been swallowed up by a wave of immigration from the pagan north of Germany.  Tribes like the Angles, Saxons and Jutes had taken over territory in the eastern half of the island and caused a great emigration of the former residents who were Christian.  Those people had fled their homes to move west, into what later became Wales, or across the sea to the continental area of Brittany, to which they carried their identity as Britons.  Therefore, the people Gregory was asking about were either Germanic captives seized in raids or young men simply traded away for luxury goods from within the recently Germanized areas.  They were identified to him as being Angles from Britain.  Struck by their shining appearance Gregory is supposed to have remarked “Non angli, sed angeli!” (not Angles, but angels).  He determined that this angelic looking people should be converted and sent a  party of monks from the abbey on the Caelian Hill, under the leadership of a monk named Augustine, whom he anointed as bishop, to the king of Kent in southern Aengleland.  The mission was successful and that is why the Archbishop of Canterbury is today the leading primate in the Church of England. 

 

Jeanne de Montbaston, Gregory and the English Slave
From a Vies de saints
French (Paris), c. 1325-1350
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 185, fol. 182v

Here the individual holding the English slave is depicted as a demon, not as a human slave trader.

Francois Nouviaire, Saint Gregory the Great Commissioning Saint Augustine of Canterbury
French, c. 1834
Stenay, Church of Saint Gregory

J. Fournier, Saint Gregory the Great Sends Saint Melec to Evangelize the Anglo-Saxons
French, 1899
Guegon, Church of Saint Melec

Legendary Events

The iconography of Saint Gregory outlined above reflects those aspects of Saint Gregory’s life that are based on fact, on things that really happened.  Sometimes a legendary event may have been added to a real one, as for instance the appearance of the angel atop Hadrian’s Tomb during the plague procession requested by the newly installed pope in 590.  But at least the events depicted were at the basic level real.  Similarly with images of Gregory as a writer and Father.  They are based on the respect in which his writings were held by subsequent generations.  However, there are some other elements of the iconography that seem to be wholly fantastical.  While there may have been some real event at the base of one or more is extremely difficult to say with any degree of certainty.

 

Mass of Saint Gregory

The most obvious example of this is also the most popular.  This is the so-called Mass of Saint Gregory which was extremely popular in the fifteenth century and somewhat sporadically thereafter. 

Anonymous, The Mass of Saint Gregory

German, 15th Century

Paray-le-Monial, Musée du Hieron

The subject of this iconography depicts Pope Gregory at the moment of or just after the Consecration of the Mass, often, but not always, attended by deacons and other members of the papal court.  As the pope kneels or elevates the Host a vision of Christ as the crucified Man of Sorrows appears in place of the altarpiece.  This goes back to a story told by one of his early biographers.  Supposedly, there was a member of the papal household who doubted the real presence of Jesus in the piece of bread on the altar.  In other words, this person doubted the central Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation, that what had been simple bread becomes the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ through the words of Consecration, while still looking outwardly like bread.  The vision of the Man of Sorrows, beaten, bloodied, dead but still living, was given to reinforce the doctrine and to reinforce  the wavering faith of the doubter.   

Master of the Munich Golden Legend, the Mass of Saint Gregory
From the Hours of Duke Arthur of Brittany
French (Angers), c. 1430-1440
New  York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 241, fol. 40v

The Rambures Master, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
French (Amiens), c. 1455-1465
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 194, fol. 145r

Masters of Hugo Janszoon van Woerden, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
Dutch (Leyden), c. 1475-1500
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 G 13, fol. 98v

Often the apparition is a simple one of Jesus as the Man of Sorrows, alone.  But frequently the simple image is compounded, and we see not only Jesus, but the entire panoply of the Instruments of the Passion.  There may be angels and, most interestingly, there may be representations of those who tortured or condemned Jesus as well.  The space around the altar can become quite crowded. 

The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1455-1460
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 135 E 40, fol. 110v

Israhel van Meckenem, The Mass of Saint Gregory
German, c. 1460-1500
London, Trustees of the British Museum

The invention of the printing press meant that prints, such as this one, began to spread the image farther and wider than illuminated books or panel paintings could.

Jean Colombe and Workshop, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
French (Bourges), c. 1465-1470
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 248, fol. 118r

Attributed to Diego de la Cruz, The Mass of Saint Gregory
Spanish, c. 1490
Philadelphia, Museum of Art

Master of Antoine of Burgundy, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
Flemish (Mons), c. 1490-1500
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 16, fol. 120r

Masters of the Dark Eyes, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1490
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 G 16, fol. 149v

Jean Poyer, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From the Hours of Henry VIII
French (Tours), c. 1495-1505
New  York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS H 8, fol. 168r

Follower of Simon Bening, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
Flemish, c. 1500-1525
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS RMMW  10 E 3, fol. 190v

In addition, on the Pope's side of the altar, facing this apparition, there may be no one else, or there may be only members of the papal chapel, or the room may be full of spectators, including donors. 

Anonymous, The Mass of Saint Gregory
French, c. 1438
Paris, Musée du Louvre

The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
Flemish, c. 1465-1475
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 93, fol. 7v

Simon Marmion, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
Flemish, c. 1475-1485
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 6, fol. 154r

Israhel van Meckenem, The Mass of Saint Gregory
German, c. 1480-1485
London, Trustees of the British Museum

Master of the Heiligen Sippe, The Mass of Saint Gregory
German, 1486
Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent

Anonymous, The Mass of Saint Gregory
Flemish, c. 1500
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

Triptych of the Mass of Saint Gregory
Flemish, 15th Century
Paris, Musée du Cluny, Musée national du Moyen Age

Albrecht Dürer, The Mass of Saint Gregory

German, 1511

London, Trustees of the British Museum

Adriaen Ysenbrandt, The Mass of Saint Gregory
Flemish, c. 1510-1550
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum

Adriaen Ysenbrandt, The Mass of Saint Gregory
Dutch, c. 1515-1530
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Master of Claude de France, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From the Prayer Book of Claude de France
French (Tours), c. 1515-1520
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 1166, fol. 50v

Workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, Teh Mass of Saint Gregory with Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg
German, c. 1520-1525
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek

Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg may have had hopes of becoming Pope, since he commissioned two versions of this subject from Lucas Cranach and had himself added as a character in each.

Workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Mass of Saint Gregory with Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg
German, c. 1520-1525
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek

The Mass of Saint Gregory
From the Hours of Antoine le Bon
French (Lorraine), 1533
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquisition latine 302, fol. 76v

Here the vision is not just that of the Man of Sorrows.  It is actually the image of the Sorrow of God, in which God the Father holds the Man of Sorrows on his lap, presenting the Son to us as a sign of his love and forgiveness, while the dove of the Holy Spirit hovers nearby.

Christ may stand or sit or be upheld by angels.  He may also direct the blood from his pierced side into the chalice on the altar, further reinforcing the reality of His Presence in the consecrated wine, which has become his Blood.

Master of Adelaide of Savoy, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From Fragment of a Book of Hours
French (Loire Valley), c. 1455-1465
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 1067, fol. 9r

Georges Trubert, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From Diurnal of Rene II of Lorraine
French (Nancy), c. 1492-1493
Paris, Bibliotheue nationale de France
MS Latin 10491, fol. 214v

Possibly Robert Boyvin, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
French (Rouen), c. 1495-1505
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS H 1, fol. 115r

Simon Bening, The Mass of Saint Gregory
From a Book of Hours
Flemish (Bruges), 1531
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 451, fol. 113v

The iconography of this very important image is quite diverse in spite of the uniformity of its message of belief in the presence of Christ in the consecrated Host.

Altarpiece of the Eucharist from the monastery of Averbode
Flemish, c. 1500-1525
Paris, Musée du Cluny, Musée national du Moyen Age

What may be one of the most astonishing images, however, is one that was made in the Spanish colonies of the New World in 1539,  just 47 years from the date of the Columbus landing and only 18 years after the conquest of the Aztec Empire by Hernan Cortez.  It was commissioned by “Diego de Alvarado Huanitzin (nephew and son-in-law to Moctezuma II, the last Aztec ruler of Mexico” as a gift for Pope Paul III in gratitude for his defense of native Americans in 1537, which ended their enslavement.  It is composed of iridescent bird feathers and gold anchored on a wooden plaque.  Featherwork was a long-standing artistic medium in pre-colonial Mexico, but its use for a European subject was new.  The design of the image is based on a print by Israhel van Mechenen.  The work demonstrates several things:  the acceptance by native Americans of the new religious and political order, growing belief in the doctrines of Christianity, the far-reaching influence of printed images.  It is an extremely precious object.  

The Mass of Saint Gregory
Mosaic Made of Wood and Bird Feathers
Mexican (Nahua), 1539
Auch, Musée des Jacobins

Discussions on the Eucharist

There is a significant later offshoot from the subject matter of the Mass of Saint Gregory.  That iconography aimed to convince the viewer of the reality of the doctrine of Transubstantiation.  This specific subject was almost entirely a northern European subject and almost entirely confined to the fifteenth century.  However, other artists, from a later period came to deal with the same subject matter in a somewhat different way.  They presented a group of saints, very often the Church Fathers, discussing the Eucharist and offering praise.  But the bloody figure of the Man of Sorrows does not appear in these images.  Raphael led the way with the famous painting of the Disputà in the Stanza della Segnatura at the Vatican.  There, however, instead of the Man of Sorrows appearing above the altar, it is the glorified Risen Christ in Majesty that appears, while a throng of theologians and other saints salute him, both in His heavenly glory and his Eucharistic Presence.  Prominent among them is Pope Saint Gregory the Great.

Rafael, Disputation of the Holy Sacrament, known as the Disputà
Italian, c. 1510-1511
Vatican City, Apostolic Palace, Stanza della Segnatura

Other, later artists skipped the figure of Christ entirely, presenting the Eucharist only through the image of a Host in the monstrance, as used for Benediction and Adoration services.

Peter Paul Rubens, The Defenders of the Eucharist (Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Clare, Thomas Aquinas, Norbert and Jerome)
Flemish, 1625
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Abraham Bloemart, The Four Doctors of the Church Discussing the Eucharist
Flemish, 1632
Private Collection

Visions of Saint Gregory

A later development in the iconography of Saint Gregory was to depict him in the role of visionary.  While he was a man of prayer and deep contemplation, he was not depicted as a visionary until nearly a thousand years after his death.  

The  image below refers back to the subject of the Mass of Saint Gregory, but here the vision is given to Gregory alone, privately, and depicts Christ actually hanging on the Cross. 

Master of Charles V, A Vision of Saint Gregory the Great
From the Hours of Charles V
Flemish (Brussels), c. 1535-1545
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 696, fol. 258v

However, most of the vision paintings depict Gregory receiving a vision of the Madonna and Child in glory in heaven. 

Melchiorre Gherardini, The Vision of Saint Gregory
Italian, c. 1650
Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

Sebastiano Ricci, The Vision of Saint Gregory
Italian, c. 1700-1730
Padua, Basilica di Santa Giustina

Francesco Fontebasso, Saints Gregory the Great and Vitalis Interceding with the Virgin and Child for the Souls in Purgatory
Italian, c. 1730-1731
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Gregory as Member of a Group of Saints

Finally, Gregory’s iconography extends to including him among a group of saints, in a Sacra Conversazione.  Originating as part of large altarpieces, these images were useful in providing a means for a church or a patron to include many different, often entirely unrelated saints in a single group to satisfy personal or parochial needs to include a range of patron saints.    

 

Saints Gregory, Benedict and Cuthbert
From the Benedictional of Aethelwold
English, c. 963-984_London, British Library
MS Additional 49598, fol. 1r

Giovanni da Milano, Saints James the Greater and Gregory the Great
Italian, 1363
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Masolino di Panicale, Saints Gregory and Matthias
From the Santa Maria Maggiore Altarpiece
Italian, c. 1428-1429
London, National Gallery

Andrea Mantegna, The Trivulzio Madonna
Italian, c. 1494-1497
Milan, Civico Museo d'Arte Antic, Castello Sforzesco

Pinturicchio, The Virgin Mary in Heaven with Saints Gregory the Great and Benedict
Italian, 1512
San Gimignano, Museo Civico

Attributed to Lorenzo di Credi, Madonna and Child with Saints Joseph, John the Baptist, Gregory the Great, a Deacon Saint and a Female Saint
Italian, c. 1525-1527
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Juan de Borgoňa  the Younger, Saints Gregory the Great, Sebastian and Thyrsus
Spanish, 16th Century
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Stained Glass Panel with the Arms of Gebhard II Dornsperger, Abbot of Petershausen Ben Abbey
German, 1540
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Gregorio Pagani, Madonna and Child with Saints Margaret of Cortona, Gregory, Francis and John the Baptist
Italian, 1592
Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

Peter Paul Rubens, Saint Gregory the Great with Saints Maurus, Papianus and Domitilla
Flemich, 1608
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Peter Paul Rubens, Saints Maurus, Gregory, Papianus, Domitilla, Nereus and Achilleus
Flemish, 1608
Salzburg, Salzburger Barock museum

Guercino, Saint Gregory the Great with Saints Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier
Italian, c. 1625-1626
London, National Gallery

Since missionary work was among the aims of the Jesuits it seems very appropriate for this picture of Saints Ignatius and Francis Xavier to include at its heart the pope who sent out missionaries to convert the recently arrived pagan Anglo-Saxons.

Gregory As One of The Confessors

One special group of saints among these “conversations” are the confessors.  This is a group formed by saints who by their lives or by their writings proclaimed belief in Christ and the Church without being subjected to martyrdom for those beliefs.  In this group you will find some familiar figures:  Augustine, Jerome, Francis of Assisi,  Dominic, Thomas Aquinas, Louis IX and Gregory the Great.    

Jacquemart, The Confessor Saints
From the Petites heures de Jean de Berry
French (Bourges), c. 1385-1390
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 18014, fol. 105v

Lorenzo Monaco, A Group of Confessor Saints
From the San Benedetto Altarpiece
Italian, c. 1407-1409
London, National Gallery

Jean Bourdichon, Confessor Saints
From the Grandes heures d'Anne de Bretagne
French (Tours), c. 1503-1508
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9474, fol. 181v

Master of the Triumphs of Petrarch, Allegory-The Triumph of the Trinity
From Triumphs by Petrarch
French (Rouen), 1503
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 594, fol. 376r

Not a bad group to be numbered with!

 

©  M. Duffy, 2022

1.  Duffy, Eamon.  Ten Popes Who Shook the World, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2011, pages 50-58.  This is a good brief discussion of Gregory’s pontificate.  For more in depth considerations see also:Straw, Carole.  Gregory the Great:  Perfection in Imperfection, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press, 1988.Demacopoulos, George E. Gregory the Great:  Ascetic, Pastor and First Man of Rome, Notre Dame, Indiana, University of Notre Dame Press, 2015.
2. A discussion of this work by Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank can be found at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-americas/new-spain/viceroyalty-new-spain/a/featherworks-the-mass-of-st-gregory and at the Metropolitan Museum website:  https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/722118