This is special:
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Gregory the great
Image via WikipediaMy wife included in my Christmas gifts this year a biography on 'St Gregory the Great' by Abbot Snow, (link). Its a 1924 printing you can download on the linked page.
Gregory (540-604 A.D.) was the first pope to have a monastic background. The simplicity he exemplified in his leadership is refreshing, and tellling of what he valued. When he took the point (so to speak) he gathered like-minded clerics and monks as his counselors. He changed out the Imperial palace at Constantinople in other ways as well, including the furniture and "distinctions of dress" becoming much simpler as well.
Here's a quote attributed to him: "The ornaments of a bishop should be purity, uprightness, charity, learning; for pomp, luxury, precious or soft garments are the insignia of proud courtiers and lascivious women rather than of bishops, the successors of the Apostles."
Gregory (540-604 A.D.) was the first pope to have a monastic background. The simplicity he exemplified in his leadership is refreshing, and tellling of what he valued. When he took the point (so to speak) he gathered like-minded clerics and monks as his counselors. He changed out the Imperial palace at Constantinople in other ways as well, including the furniture and "distinctions of dress" becoming much simpler as well.
Here's a quote attributed to him: "The ornaments of a bishop should be purity, uprightness, charity, learning; for pomp, luxury, precious or soft garments are the insignia of proud courtiers and lascivious women rather than of bishops, the successors of the Apostles."
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