Having just celebrated our patronal feast and as we enter into a new academic year for the School, we remind ourselves of our patronage with this brief reflection offered by Abbot Michael Brunner.

St. Gregory the Great holding the abbey church
(monastery garden)

What made Saint Gregory the Great so great? It’s a fair question. He was after all the first monk to become pope. Instead of pursuing wealth and political power, he turned his family estate in Rome into a monastery, and also his three estates in Sicily. And all that we know about the life of Saint Benedict we know from his writings, in the Dialogues.

He was pope during a pretty chaotic time. Rome had fallen on very hard times. The Emperor was far away in Constantinople and didn’t care much about Rome. For the Roman people, Gregory was it, their ruler and protector. And he ruled and protected them through famine, flood, plague, barbarian invasions and predations. He set the ideal of the papacy, with the pope to be the “Servant of the Servants of God.”

Abbot Michael witnesses the oblation promise of Michele Rentschler
(image: Paul Zalonski)

As Saint Benedict wrote a Rule for monks, Pope Saint Gregory wrote a rule for bishops, spelling out how a bishop should be and what he should do. He is the patron saint of musicians and singers. He appreciated the beauty of the liturgy and codified and formalized its beauty in rubrics and the chant that bears his name. If not for Saint Gregory, we would know our Fr Edward for his beautiful renditions of show tunes instead of his beautiful execution of Gregorian chant. Saint Gregory used his wealth to feed and clothe the poor and he defended the Jews of Rome. He initiated the Church’s first great missionary project, the mission to England, without which this monastery might not be here.

He was a great writer. In addition to his Dialogues and his Pastoral Rule for Bishops, he wrote many letters and Biblical commentaries. He is one of the four great western Doctors of the early Church. He was a great leader as well as a greatly holy and scholarly man. It’s safe and fair to say that he made the western Church the Roman Catholic Church.

He is the patron of this monastery and our school. Under his protection and guidance, may we strive to live up to the high standard he sets for us.