Cornish Heath. _Erica vaguus._
Dedicated to _St. Eulogius_.
~March 12.~
_St. Gregory the Great._ _St. Maximilian_, A. D. 296. _St. Paul_,
Bishop of Leon, about 573.
_St. Gregory the Great._
He was prætor of Rome in 574, under the emperor Justin; next year he
became a monk, and by fasting and study so weakened his stomach, that he
swooned if he did not frequently eat. “What gave him the greatest
affliction,” says Butler, “was, his not being able to fast on an
Easter-eve; a day on which, says St. John the deacon, ‘every one, not
even excepting little children are used to fast;’ whereupon, by praying
that he might be enabled to fast, he not only fasted, but quite forgot
his illness.” He determined to come to Britain to propagate the faith;
but the whole city rose in an uproar to prevent his departure, and the
pope constrained him to remain. Pope Pelagius II. sent him as nuncio to
Constantinople, where Eutychius fell into an error, importing that after
the resurrection glorified bodies would not be palpable, but of a more
subtile texture than air. Whereupon, says Butler, St. Gregory was
alarmed, and clearly demonstrated that their bodies would be the same
which they had on earth, and Eutychius retracted his error: on his
return to Rome he took with him an arm of St. Andrew, and the head of
St. Luke. Pelagius made him his secretary, and after his death was
elected pope himself. To escape from the danger of this elevation, he
got himself carried out of Rome in a wicker basket, and lay concealed in
woods and caverns for three days. He was afterwards consecrated with
great pomp, and on that occasion sent a synodal epistle to the other
patriarchs, wherein he declared that “he received the four councils as
the four gospels.” Butler says, he extended his charity to the heretics,
and “to the very Jews,” yet he afterwards adds, that in Africa “he
extirpated the Donatists.” He subscribed himself in his letters,
“Servant of the Servants of God.” He sent to the empress Constantina a
veil which had touched the relics of the apostles, and assured her that
miracles had been wrought by such relics, and promised her some
dust-filings of the chains of St. Paul. He sent St. Austin and other
monks to convert the English. (See February 24, _St. Ethelbert_.) He
died on the 25th of January, 604.[18] His devotion to the church was
constant; he was learned, enterprising, sincere, and credulous, and, for
the times wherein he lived, charitable, and merciful. It should be
observed, that he was the author of the church-singing called the
Gregorian chaunt.
Many miracles are related of St. Gregory, as that going to bless a
church in honour of St. Agnes, which had been used by the Arians, he
caused the relics to be placed on the altar, whereon a hog went grunting
out of the church with a fearful noise; whence it was averred that the
devil, who had been served in it by the heretic Arians, was driven out
by the relics. Sometimes the lamps were miraculously lighted. One day a
bright cloud descended on the altar, with a heavenly odour, so that from
reverence no one dared to enter the church. At another time, when
Gregory was transubstantiating the wafers a woman laughed; he asked her
why she laughed? to which at length she answered, “because you call the
bread which I made with my own hands the body of our Lord;” whereupon he
prayed, and the consecrated bread appeared flesh to every one present;
and the woman was converted, and the rest were confirmed. At another
time, some ambassadors coming to Rome for relics, Gregory took a linen
cloth which had been applied to the body of a saint, and enclosing it in
a box gave it to them. While on their journey home they were curious to
see the contents of the box: and finding nothing within it but the
cloth, returned to St. Gregory complaining that he had deceived them. On
this he took the cloth, laid it on the altar, prayed, pricked it with a
knife, the cloth shed blood, and the astonished ambassadors reverently
took back the box. Another time one who had been excommunicated by St.
Gregory for having put away his lawful wife, bargained with certain
sorcerers and witches for revenge; who, when the holy pope rode through
the city, sent the devil into his horse, and made him caper, so that he
could not be held; then with the sign of the cross the pope cast out the
devil, and the witches by miracle becoming blind were converted, and St.
Gregory baptized them; yet he would not restore their sight, lest they
should read their magical books again, but maintained them out of the
church rents. After his death there was a famine in Rome, and the people
being falsely persuaded that St. Gregory had wasted the church property,
gathered his writings to burn them; wherefore Peter, the deacon, who had
been intimate with Gregory, affirmed, that “he had often seen the Holy
Ghost, in form of a dove upon St. Gregory’s head whilst he was writing,
and that it would be an insufferable affront to burn those books, which
had been written by his inspiration;” and to assure them of this he
offered to confirm it by oath, but stipulated that if he died
immediately after he had taken the oath, they should believe that he had
told them the truth: this being assented to, he took the oath, and
thereupon died, and the people believed; and “hence the painters came to
represent St. Gregory, with a dove at his ear, to signify that the Holy
Ghost inspired and dictated what he writ.”[19]
It is also a legend concerning St. Gregory, that when he fled from Rome
to avoid the dignity of popedom and lay hid, a bright pillar of fire
descending from heaven, glittered above his head, and angels appeared
descending and ascending by the same fiery pillar upon him, wherefore
he was “miraculously betrayed.”[20]
After St. Gregory’s death there was a hermit, who had left all his
goods, and left the world, and kept nothing but his cat, and this cat he
used to play with, and hold in his lap tenderly: one day he prayed that
it might be revealed to him, to the joy of what saint he should
hereafter come; then St. Gregory was revealed to him, and that he should
come to his joy; wherefore the hermit sighed, and disliked his poverty,
because St. Gregory had possessed so much earthly riches: and in
revelation it was commanded him to be quiet, because he had more
pleasure in stroking and playing with his cat, than St. Gregory had in
all his riches. Then the hermit prayed that he might have the like merit
and reward with St. Gregory; and in this story, lieth great moral.