The Dawn of a New Era
September 3, Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great
Dear brothers and sisters, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, Italy was ravaged by the Greco-Gothic War.
The capital of the Western Roman Empire had been moved to Ravenna, and Rome was abandoned to its fate.
What had once been the capital of the world, besieged, destroyed, and sacked first by the Visigoths in 410 and then by the Vandals in 455, had shrunk from 100,000 inhabitants to just 30,000, afflicted by hunger and epidemics.
Gregory was born in 540 to an ancient noble family. Gifted with great intelligence, at just 33 years of age he became prefect of the city, but the Lord called him to other endeavors. Fascinated by the life of Saint Benedict, in 573 he renounced his possessions and donated them to the poor. Having become a Benedictine, he transformed his home on the Celian Hill into a convent and became its abbot.
He was torn from his life of silence, prayer, and study by Pope Pelagius II, who made him his ambassador to the Court of Constantinople.
Returning to Rome, which was ravaged by the plague, upon the death of Pope Pelagius II in 590, he was "called" by God to become Pope.
He was given the title of Consul of God for his immense faith and wise administration, with which he saved the inhabitants of Rome from hunger and plague.
Gregory, having become aware of the new world taking shape in Europe, did not lose heart. Inspired by God, he led from Arian heresy to the true Catholic faith. the noble tribe of the Lombards, with the help of the very Catholic Queen Theodelinda, and the noble tribe of the Visigoths, settled in Spain, with the help of King Reccared I. He also took care of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, sending 40 Benedictine monks to Britain, led by the monk who would later become Saint Augustine of Canterbury.
With the sanctity of his life and his enlightened actions, he laid the foundation for the birth of what would later become the Holy Roman Empire.