Pope and Doctor of the Church · Feast day September 3
St. Gregory the Great
The feast day of St. Gregory the Great is September 3, a memorial in the US Catholic calendar. Below: a short life and 4 sourced quotations in their own words.
| Feast day | September 3 |
|---|---|
| In the US calendar | Memorial |
| Title | Pope and Doctor of the Church |
| Died | c. 604 |
| In their own words | 4 sourced quotations |
| Next on Bless’s Today screen | None left in the published calendar (through December 31, 2028) |
Life
A Roman prefect who sold his estates to feed the poor, became a monk, and was dragged protesting to the papacy as plague and Lombard armies ravaged Italy. He called himself ‘servant of the servants of God,’ and meant it.
He reformed the liturgy and its chant — which bears his name — wrote the Pastoral Rule that guided bishops for a millennium, and sent Augustine of Canterbury to convert the English.
In their own words
Each quotation names the work it comes from. Bless quotes these in the comments beside the verses listed under In Scripture.
The Holy Scriptures grow with the one who reads them.
Learn the heart of God in the words of God.
Let the ruler be, through humility, a companion to those who live well, and through the zeal of righteousness, stern against the vices of the wicked.
The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.
In Scripture
In Bless, St. Gregory the Great’s words appear in the comments beside these verses. This page’s labels say how each is linked: “on this verse” means the saint wrote about that very verse; “on this theme” means the quotation shares its theme. Scripture is quoted from the Catholic Public Domain Version.
On this verse
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James 2:26 · CPDV Beside their words: “The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it…”
On this theme
The declaration of your words illuminates, and it gives understanding to little ones.
Psalm 118:130 · CPDV Beside their words: “The Holy Scriptures grow with the one who reads them.”
On this theme
I discovered your words and I consumed them. And your word became to me as the gladness and joy of my heart. For your name has been invoked over me, O Lord, the God of hosts.
Jeremiah 15:16 · CPDV Beside their words: “Learn the heart of God in the words of God.”
On this theme
Study the Scriptures. For you think that in them you have eternal life. And yet they also offer testimony about me.
John 5:39 · CPDV Beside their words: “Learn the heart of God in the words of God.”
On this theme
that you should preach the word urgently, in season and out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke, with all patience and doctrine.
2 Timothy 4:2 · CPDV Beside their words: “Let the ruler be, through humility, a companion to those who live well, and through the…”
On this theme
For the Word of God is living and effective: more piercing than any two-edged sword, reaching to the division even between the soul and the spirit, even between the joints and the marrow, and so it discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12 · CPDV Beside their words: “The Holy Scriptures grow with the one who reads them.”
On this theme
pasture the flock of God that is among you, providing for it, not as a requirement, but willingly, in accord with God, and not for the sake of tainted profit, but freely, not so as to dominate by means of the clerical state, but so as to be formed into a flock from the heart.
1 Peter 5:2–3 · CPDV Beside their words: “Let the ruler be, through humility, a companion to those who live well, and through the…”
On this theme
My little sons, let us not love in words only, but in works and in truth.
1 John 3:18 · CPDV Beside their words: “The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it…”
In the calendar
The upcoming dates, through December 31, 2028, when Bless’s Today screen shows St. Gregory the Great. Where the US calendar keeps another celebration that day, it is named instead and no rank is given.
Readings
No dates are left in Bless’s published calendar, which runs through December 31, 2028. St. Gregory the Great keeps September 3 in Bless’s calendar of saints: see the saints of September.
All the saints of September Born on September 3? A saint for every day
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