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Gregory the Dialogist

804 bytes added, 20:42, August 23, 2008
Quotation
[[Image:GregoryGreat3.jpg|right|frame|Icon of St. Gregory the Dialogist]]
'''Gregory I''', also known as '''Gregory the Great''', served as [[Pope]] of Rome from [[September 3]], 590, until his death on [[March 12]], 604. His family had large land holdings in Italy, which he sold to help the poor. After turning his home into a monastery named for St. Andrew, Pope Pelagius II appointed him as an ambassador to Constantinople; however, Gregory disliked the worldly atmosphere of the court and never learned Greek. After his consecration as Bishop of Rome, he negotiated a peace with the Lombards, who besieged Rome, and he dispatched St. [[Augustine of Canterbury]] to evangelize Britain. He is known in the East as '''Gregory the Dialogist''' for his four-volume ''Dialogues'', in which he wrote of the lives and miracles of the [[saints]] of Italy and of the after-life. It is the primary source of the life of St. [[Benedict of Nursia]]. His other writings include the ''Moralia on Job'', a commentary on the Book of Job; his ''Homilies on Ezekiel''; the ''Pastoral Rule'', which served as the prime manual for priests in the West for many years; and a great number of other sermons. He added the commemoration of the Apostle Andrew to the embolism on the Lord's Prayer in the ancient Roman Mass; as a result, the Roman Mass is often called "Gregorian"; its revision in 1570 formed the basis of the [[Liturgy of St. Gregory the Great|Mass of St Gregory]], especially among the Orthodox. He was a patron of ancient Western chant, often called "Gregorian chant" for his patronage. In the East, he is credited with devising the [[Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts]], which still celebrated during Lent bears his name; however, modern scholarship considers this work an existing local usage although he played no role in Byzantiumits development.
==Quotes==
"We truly love God and keep His commandments if we restrain ourselves from our pleasures. For he who still abandons himself to unlawful desires certainly does not love God, since he contradicts Him in his own intentions... Therefore, he loves God truly, whose mind is not conquered by consent to evil delight. For the more one takes pleasure in lower things, the more he is separated from heavenly love."
 
"I say it without the least hesitation, whoever calls himself the universal bishop, or desires this title, is, by his pride, the precursor of Antichrist, because he thus attempts to raise himself above the others. The error into which he falls springs from pride equal to that of Antichrist; for as that Wicked One wished to be regarded as exalted above other men, like a god, so likewise whoever would be called sole bishop exalteth himself above others....You know it, my brother; hath not the venerable Council of Chalcedon conferred the honorary title of 'universal' upon the bishops of this Apostolic See [Rome], whereof I am, by God's will, the servant? And yet none of us hath permitted this title to be given to him; none hath assumed this bold title, lest by assuming a special distinction in the dignity of the episcopate, we should seem to refuse it to all the brethren."
== Liturgical Hymns ==
* [http://www.comeandseeicons.com/g/pha18.htm Icon of St. Gregory Dialogos]
* Nicholas Uspensky. [http://books.google.com/books?id=dmjQhWlKqqsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Uspensky+orthodox&sig=ACfU3U2oJOQSr-Mvx_IeW0oaUzfHIoWiyQ Evening Worship in the Orthodox Church], pp. 155-162.
 
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