Pope St. Gregory I "The Great"

In this picture St. Pope Gregory the Great is dictating to his monk what we, Orthodox Catholics have love so dearly "the Gregorian Chant". Chant is making a comeback especially with the latest round of young men entering the priesthood. Gregory the Great was Pope from 590 until his death in 1604. he was the first Pope to come from a monastic background. He praised the life of monks. St. Gregory's pontificate saw the development of the notion of private penance as parallel to the institution of public penance. He explicitly taught a doctrine of Purgatory where a soul destined to undergo purification after death because of certain sins, could begin its purification in this earthly life, through good works, obedience and Christian conduct, making the travails to come lighter and shorter. In letters, St. Gregory remarks that he moved the Pater Noster (Our Father) to immediately after the Roman Canon and immediately before theFraction. This position is still maintained today in the Roman Liturgy. He established the nine Kyries (a vestigial remnant of the litany which was originally at that place) at the beginning of Mass. He also reduced the role of deacons in the Roman Liturgy.

Gregory is the only Pope between the fifth and the eleventh centuries whose correspondence and writings have survived enough to form a comprehensive corpus. Some of his writings are:

• Sermons (forty on the Gospels are recognized as authentic, twenty-two on Ezekiel, two on the Song of Songs)
• Dialogues, a collection of miracles, signs, wonders, and healings including the popular life of St. Benedict
• Commentary on Job, frequently known even in English-language histories by its Latin title, Magna Moralia
• The Rule for Pastors, in which he contrasted the role of bishops as pastors of their flock with their position as nobles of the church: the definitive statement of the nature of the episcopal office
• Copies of some 854 letters have survived, out of an unknown original number recorded in Gregory's time in a register. It is known to have existed in the Vatican, its last known location, in the 9th century. It consisted of 14 papyrus rolls, now missing. Copies of letters had begun to be made, the largest batch of 686 by order ofAdrian I. The majority of the copies, dating from the 10th to the 15th century, are stored in theVatican library.

He is one of the original Doctors of the Church named so in 1298 (courtesy Wikipedia)