September 3
Saints of the Day
 

Pope Saint Gregory the Great, 590-604, Gregory I; Father of the Fathers
Sent 40 missionaries to evangelize England, started the Gregorian Chants, first monk to be chosen Pope, Benedictine, Doctor of the Church

    Son of a wealthy Roman senator and Saint Silvia Great-grandson of Pope Saint Felix III. Prefect of Rome for a year, then he sold his possessions, turned his home into a Benedictine monastery, and used his money to build six monasteries in Sicily and one in Rome. Benedictine monk.

    Upon seeing English children being sold in the Roman Forum, he became a missionary to England.

    Elected 64th Pope by unanimous acclamation on 3 September 590, the first monk to be chosen.

    Sent Saint Augustine of Canterbury and a company of 40 monks to evangelize England, and other missionaries to France, Spain, and Africa.

    Collected the melodies and plain chant so associated with him that they are now known as Gregorian Chants. Wrote seminal works on the Mass and Office.

   Doctor of the Latin Church, with Augustine, Ambrose and Jerome as one of the four key doctors of the Western Church.

Born c.540 at Rome, Italy

Papal Ascension 3 September 590

Died 12 March 604 at Rome, Italy

Images Gallery of images of Saint Gregory [6 images, 149 kb]

Additional Information

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintg02.htm
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1127

Golden Legend, by Jacobus de Voragine

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Readings

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.

Saint Gregory the Great

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If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. Therefore we must always dread the final day, which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a day for conversion. And yet we refuse to cry over the evil we have done! Not only do we not weep for the sins we have committed, we even add to them....

If we are, in fact, now occupied in good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves. We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow. Nobody must rejoice in the security of their own good deeds. As long as we are still experiencing the uncertainties of this life, we do not know what end may follow...we must not trust in our own virtues.

Saint Gregory the Great, from Be Friends of God

Saints of September 3:

http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0103.htm