(ABOUT A.D. 541.)
[Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. The life of S. Gregory of
Langres was written by S. Gregory of Tours, who died 591.]
Saint Gregory, one of the principal senators of Autun, in France, was
appointed count of the city, and for many years administered justice
with the utmost prudence and uprightness. His wife, Armentaria, was also
of senatorial rank; by her he had several children, of whom Tetricus was
numbered among the Saints.
After the death of his wife, having been elected by the clergy and
citizens of Langres to be their bishop, he was consecrated by the
metropolitan. As bishop, his life was edifying. He was a model of
humility, and sought, above all things, to conceal his acts of
self-denial, and long communings with God. He ate barley bread, but that
this might not be observed, he had wheat cakes piled on the table above
his brown barley cakes, so that he could draw from the dish those for
his own eating, whilst the others ate white bread, and supposed him to
be doing the same. In like manner, at table he used a dull glass goblet,
so that it might not be noticed that he drank water, whereas, the others
were supplied with wine. At night, he was wont to rise from his bed,
when everybody else was asleep, and steal, on tip-toe, to the baptistery
of the church, where he passed several hours in prayer and singing
psalms. This was long unobserved; but one night a deacon was awake, and
saw the bishop rise. Wondering at his proceeding, when S. Gregory had
left the dormitory, he rose also, and stole softly after him, and saw
him enter the baptistery, the gate opening to him of its own accord. For
some time there was silence; and then the bishop's voice was heard
chanting, and immediately many voices took up the psalm, and the singing
continued for three hours. "I, for my part," says S. Gregory, of Tours,
"think that the Saints, of whom the relics were there preserved,
revealed themselves to the blessed man, and sang praises to God in
company with him."
One day, as he was walking to Langres, he was struck with fever, and he
died shortly after; "and his blessed countenance was so glorified after
his departure, that it looked like a blushing rose, whilst the rest of
his body was shining like a white lily, so that it seemed then to have a
foretaste of its future resurrection beauty." He was buried at Dijon,
which was then in the diocese of Langres, and his son, Tetricus,
succeeded him in the see of Langres.
There is much uncertainty about the date of his death. In some
Martyrologies he is said to have died in 535; Galesinius says in 524.
But he was present at the Council of Clermont, in 535, and signed the
decrees of the third Council of Orleans by his deputy, Evantius, the
priest, in 538; but did not appear at, or send a deputy to, the fourth
Council of Orleans, in 541. It is, therefore, probable that the see was
then vacant by his death.
In art, S. Gregory appears before a church door, which an angel opens to
him; or with chains, because it is said that as his body was being taken
to burial, the bier was set down before a prison, and the chains fell
off the prisoners, and they were freed at the same moment.