Moralia in Job 5

Argument. 1. St. Gregory's family. Gordianus his father. 2. His holy mother Silvia. 3. His forebears, among whom St. Felix the pope. 4. His paternal aunts, among whom the holy Tharsilla and Aemiliana. 5. He had a brother. 6. In what year he was born. 7. What his name signifies. 8. The holy boy's upbringing. 9. And his studies. (Year 549.) 1. Gregory, surnamed the Great, was brought into the light at Rome, of parents illustrious no less for the splendor of their lineage than for the integrity and holiness of their character. His father Gordianus, a most noble and most wealthy man of the senatorial order, was a regionarius; that is, as the most eminent father of the Ecclesiastical Annals infers from the account of John the Deacon (book IV, chapter...

chapter 83), he was, at the year 604, one of the seven cardinal deacons who were called regionarii, because they were set over certain regions of the City. But in truth the regionarii were appointed not only from among the deacons, but also from among the subdeacons and from the notaries, and afterwards, by the grant of Gregory the Great, from among the defenders (Register, book VIII, epistle 14). I shall relate the words of John the Deacon, that the prudent reader may determine what is to be understood from them: 'In the atrium of that venerable monastery (of St. Andrew), by Gregory's command, near the nymphaeum, two very ancient icons artfully painted are seen even to this day; in one of which the blessed...'

the apostle Peter is beheld sitting, and taking by the right hand, with his own right hand, Gordianus the regionarius standing—namely, the father of Gregory. This Gordianus's dress is a chasuble of chestnut color, beneath the chasuble a dalmatic, having on his feet buskins. These garments indeed seem to argue him a deacon. But Ferrarius, in book I On Vesture, chapter 38, judges that the use of the chasuble and the dalmatic was then promiscuous; and this is clearly proved from John the Deacon himself, when among the vestments of St. Silvia, mother of blessed Gregory, he reckons a chasuble, as we shall say below. On which matter the most learned John Mabillon is to be read, in the Preface to Volume I of the Acts of the Saints, section 108. That Gordianus was nevertheless a regionarius, and enrolled among the ministers of the basilica of St.

Peter, or co-opted into the Roman Church, is shown both by the words of John the Deacon and by the image of blessed Peter taking Gordianus by the right hand. From the same ancient picture John the Deacon (compare Paul the Deacon; John the Deacon book I, no. 1; Bede book II of the History, chapter 1; St. Gregory of Tours book X of the History, chapter 1) attributes to Gordianus a tall stature, a spread-out face, green eyes, a modest beard, a grave countenance. 2. Silvia, the mother of Gregory, bidding farewell to the world (whether her husband being dead, or still surviving, is uncertain), chose a retreat for herself near the gate of the basilica of St. Paul the apostle; in which place, commonly called Cella nova, an oratory dedicated to her name was founded, and John the Deacon testifies that it was still standing in his own age.

For Silvia has been enrolled in the register of the Saints, and her name is read inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the third day of November. The praised writer relates that St. Silvia was depicted, by St. Gregory's command, in the monastery of St. Andrew: 'She is depicted sitting,' he says, 'covered with a white veil so folded back from the right shoulder toward the left that under it she draws her hand as if from a chasuble.' The rest that pertains to her clothing and adornment, read in John the Deacon, book IV, chapter 83. As regards her form:

'Her stature is full,' he says in the same place, 'her face indeed round and fair, but already wrinkled with age, which very old age itself signifies to have been most beautiful; with gray-blue and large eyes, modest eyebrows, comely lips, a cheerful countenance, bearing on her head a matronly headband.' (Compare John the Deacon, book I, no. 9.) 3. Concerning Gregory's forebears nothing certain has been handed down to us, except that, as Gregory bishop of Tours (book X of the History, chapter 1), a contemporary writer, teaches, he was descended from the leading senators.

To which words a twofold sense can be fitted here: namely, either that Gregory drew his descent from the ancient nobles of the Roman senate—those men, that is, who were lords of affairs when the republic flourished—or that his fathers held a place among the foremost senators of their own time. He himself testifies, in book IV of the Dialogues, chapter 16, and in homily 38 on the Gospels, that Pope Felix was his great-great-grandfather. But which Felix that was, whether the third or the fourth, is disputed. John the Deacon asserts that it was the fourth, whom he calls a man of great reverence in the Church of Christ; and he says that he most beautifully built the basilica of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian on the Via Sacra beside the temple of Romulus.

Nor indeed can we easily bring ourselves to believe that John the Deacon rashly pronounced Felix IV for III. This deacon of the Roman Church undertook, at the urging of Pope John VIII, to write the Life of St. Gregory, which afterwards, approved by the authority of the same supreme pontiff, he published. He had inspected all the ancient monuments, had turned over the catalogues of the supreme pontiffs, the acts, the daybooks. He had surveyed with careful eyes the basilica of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian, still standing such as Pope Felix had built it, and had discerned—doubtless from certain inscriptions or from other sure evidences—that the pontiff Felix, Gregory's great-great-grandfather, was the fourth of that name, not the third.

And indeed, before Baronius's emendation, 'Felix IV' was read in the Roman Martyrology; and it is established from other sources that the basilica of the holy martyrs of which our deacon speaks was built not by Felix the third, but by the fourth pontiff of that name. This opinion of John the eminent Cardinal Baronius impugns, both in his Annotations on the Roman Martyrology on the 25th day of February, and in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 581, chiefly on this ground: that it is established that Felix IV was a Samnite, whereas the forebears of Gregory the Great were Romans. But what forbids that Felix, though Roman by lineage, was nevertheless born among the Samnites? Although Gregory himself seems sufficiently to intimate that some of his kinsmen were Samnites, when he says, in book III of the Dialogues, chapter 26:

'Recently in the province of Samnium a certain venerable man, Mennas by name, was leading a solitary life; known to many of our people, he died about ten years ago.' For the rest, it is not always so easy to assign the homeland of great men, because their parents, whether on account of the various provinces which they visit for the good of the commonwealth, or because of the various estates which they possess in many regions, have almost no fixed seat in any one city.

Indeed, that Gregory's great-grandfathers possessed very many rich country estates outside the Roman territory is clear from this: that their heir Gordianus left to his son a most ample patrimony in Sicily, out of which he afterwards not only built six monasteries on that same island, as will be said below, but also endowed them most munificently. The whole weight of this argument also collapses, if it be said that Gregory was indeed Roman on his father's side, yet that some one of his forebears dwelt in Samnium, where he had begotten Felix. Only one knot here remains to be untied. Namely, the age of Felix IV, who inaugurated his pontificate in the year 526 and departed to heaven in the year 529, scarcely permits him to be suspected as Gregory's great-great-grandfather;

for five degrees of generations ought to be numbered between the two, even though from Felix's death to Gregory's birth only eleven years had elapsed, and Felix would have seen his great-great-grandson Gordianus at least seven years old. I confess indeed that it rarely happens that a father should embrace his sons propagated even to the fourth generation, which would have been granted to Felix; nor yet is this altogether impossible, or unheard of, or even wholly unusual. Perhaps too this word 'atavus' (great-great-grandfather) is not to be taken strictly for the father of the great-grandfather and the grandfather of the great-grandfather, but by this word may be signified one of the forebears, without regard to the degree of generation.

Felix IV governed the Church with such prudence and with the praise of all the virtues, that he deserved to be added to the calendar of the Saints, on the 30th day of January. The same honor Felix III attained, whose birthday (into heaven) is celebrated on the 25th of February. 4. Concerning his three paternal aunts, St. Gregory relates these things worthy of note, both in book IV of the Dialogues, chapter 16, and in homily 3(?) on the Gospels: 'My father had three sisters, all three of whom were consecrated virgins: of whom one was called Tharsilla, another Gordiana, another Aemiliana. All were converted with one ardor, consecrated at one and the same time, and, living under regular discipline, they led a common life in their own house.'

The holy Doctor goes on to describe the continual progress of Tharsilla and Aemiliana, and their longed-for passage to heaven—St. Felix the pope especially inviting his niece Tharsilla to the fellowship of eternal light, and Christ the Lord meeting his most dear spouse. But on the contrary, says Gregory, 'the soul of Gordiana began, through daily losses, to grow lukewarm from the warmth of intimate love, and little by little to return to the love of this world. Her the pious sisters took care to correct daily with gentle reproof, and to reform from lightness of manners to the gravity of her habit.'

But when her sisters had died, forgetful of the fear of the Lord, forgetful of modesty and reverence, forgetful of her consecration, she afterwards took as husband the steward of her own fields. Behold, all three were first converted with one ardor, but they did not remain in one and the same zeal: because, according to the Lord's word, many are called, but few are chosen. Gregory mentions another aunt, either paternal or maternal, in book I, epistle 39, writing to Anthemius the subdeacon: 'But I wish that to lady Pateria my aunt... you offer twenty solidi for the boys' footwear, and three hundred pecks of wheat.' For 'thia' is a word derived from the Greek, which signifies a paternal or maternal aunt. In the Spanish tongue also 'tia' sounds the same.

By what mischance the most noble woman Pateria had been reduced to extreme poverty need not long be inquired into, all Italy being then aflame with constant wars. 5. That Gregory had a brother, no one who has attentively read his letters will call into doubt; for often in them he makes mention of his brother. In book I, epistle 41, he writes to Peter the subdeacon: 'We give thanks to your solicitude, that concerning the affair of my brother I charged you that you should have transmitted his silver.' Book IX, epistle 98: 'But if it is only so much, we shall cause our glorious brother, or one of the bishops... to subscribe.' In the same book, epistle 102: 'Our son, the magnificent man Occlianus... one boy...'

is known, by the right of our brother, to have brought to him. Book X, epistle 51: 'Which things by my glorious brother the Palatine Patrician,' etc. Finally, book XIV, epistle 2: 'Concerning the monastery of St. Hermas, which... was built by our brother.' Gregory of Tours seems to speak of the same (book X, chapter 1), when he says: 'But the Prefect of the city of Rome, his (Gregory's) brother, anticipated the messenger.' For 'germanus,' even among writers of the best Latinity, signifies a brother, as if born of the same seed; and hence by the Spaniards a brother is called 'Hermano,' and by the Italians 'Germano.' 6. In what year Gregory was brought into the light, it is permitted to attain rather by conjectures than to establish by weighty proofs.

That we may proceed from things known to the elucidation of things more obscure, it is established from ancient monuments that he closed his last day in the month of March in the year 604. Worn out by continual illnesses rather than by old age, this most holy pontiff departed from among the living. His nurse was still surviving at least ten years before he himself departed from life: at which time he commended her to the patrician lady Rusticiana, in epistle 46 of book IV. Moreover, Gregory often complains of gout, of weakness of the stomach, and of various other infirmities; but of the discomforts of old age, nowhere; which surely furnishes no slight argument for an age not yet so far advanced. Add to this what the holy man wrote to Januarius, bishop of Cagliari, epistle 1 of book IX, in the year of his pontificate...

in the ninth, four or five years before his death. For, compelled to rebuke this aged bishop, he seems immediately to check his modesty, and to raise against himself these words of the Apostle to Timothy while still young: 'Rebuke not an elder' (1 Timothy 5:1). Therefore he then acknowledged himself younger than Januarius, and hence it can scarcely be believed that he was then older than sixty; but let us consult what he himself teaches about his own age in his Dialogues. In book III, chapter 11, Gregory, relating a miracle wrought in St. Cerbonius, bishop of Populonia, at the time when Totila, king of the Goths, was encamped at the eighth milestone from the city of Rome at Merulae, observes that it happened in his own days. Totila, who began to reign in the year...

541, twice encircled Rome with a siege and stormed it, namely in the years 546 and 549. The former siege was protracted for a whole year, at which time Totila was not far distant from the City. Whence it seems all the more probable that what Gregory relates happened then, and became easily known by that means both to him and to others dwelling at Rome. He was then at least six or seven years old; for we are not accustomed to say that things done while we were still wailing infants happened in our own days. These things weighed, I judge that St. Gregory's birth is to be referred to the year 540—the... of Pope Vigilius (if however the years of his pontificate are to be reckoned from the time when he was substituted in the place of St. Silverius unjustly deposed), the thirteenth of Justinian Augustus,

and the fifth and last of Vitigis, king of the Goths, whom Belisarius, Ravenna being captured, led bound to Constantinople. 7. Gregory's name, which signifies 'watchful,' 'he obtained not without some great presage,' says Paul the Deacon (no. 1). For in very truth he watched over himself, while, clinging to the divine precepts, he lived praiseworthily; he watched over the faithful peoples, while by the genius of his abundant teaching he laid open to them by what path they might ascend to the heavenly things. How greatly our Gregory esteemed watchfulness and solicitude he not obscurely discloses in many places, but most of all in book XX of the Morals, no. 8: 'The elect, as long as they are in this life, do not promise themselves the confidence of security.'

For at all hours, wary against temptations, they dread the snares of the hidden enemy, who, even when temptation ceases, are gravely troubled by suspicion alone. For often to many an incautious security has been a grave peril: so that they came to know the snares of the crafty enemy not while being tempted, but when already laid low. We must indeed ever be watchful, so that the mind, continually solicitous, may never be relaxed from its supernal intention, lest, deserting laborious things, lying amid fluid thoughts as if upon certain soft bedding, the mind, dissolved, prostitute itself to the corrupter devil when he comes. The rest I omit, though most exquisite for persuading Christian watchfulness. 8. Concerning Gregory's rearing and instruction in his boyhood age nothing is known to us;

but neither the highest piety of his parents, nor the exceptional holiness of the son—who even while soldiering in the world took pains to compose his conduct to the most exact norm of Christian perfection—allow us to doubt that from his tender years he was nurtured in all the precepts of the Gospel law, and, in the wrestling-school of all the virtues, was exercised and instructed as much as his age bore, indeed beyond his age. And since the rearing of little ones is chiefly the province of mothers, according to Paul (1 Timothy 5:10), we conjecture not without reason that St. Silvia discharged this office strenuously toward her Gregory, and diligently fulfilled all the duties of a Christian mother in instructing him.

By what art and industry noble boys, and most of all those of royal stock, ought to be cultivated for piety and formed, Gregory teaches beautifully, writing to Theoctista in book VII, epistle 26, to whom, as to a most dear sister, Maurice Augustus had entrusted his sweetest pledges, that is, had handed over his sons to be educated. Among the other excellent things which are read in this epistle, these are especially to be weighed and engraved on the memory: 'The words,' he says, 'of those who nurture will be either milk if they are good, or poison if they are bad.' 9. What masters and teachers the holy boy used, that he might attain to so great a summit of knowledge and wisdom, wholly escapes us. 'In grammatical letters,' says Gregory of Tours,

in the place already praised, 'and in dialectic and rhetoric, he was so instructed, that in the City itself he was thought to be second to none.' Yet that he was by no means versed in the Greek tongue, he professes—by a rare example of humility among the learned—in epistle 32 of book VII. That he was most skilled and most learned in law, very many of his epistles prove, especially the forty-fifth of book XIII. The same things as Gregory of Tours does Paul the Deacon hand down, and he adds that at Rome at this time the studies of letters especially flourished, namely with the great Cassiodorus above all lending his effort—who had revived learning lying prostrate in Italy, and had established a most celebrated academy in his own monastery, as we have described in almost the whole third book of his Life.

To be noted above the rest are these words of Paul the Deacon (no. 1): 'There was in him (Gregory), while still of tender age, an already mature zeal, namely, to cleave to the sayings of his elders, and, if he could perceive anything worthy of hearing, not slothfully to consign it to oblivion, but rather to commit it to tenacious memory. And he was even then drawing the streams of doctrine with a thirsty breast, which afterwards, at a fitting time, he would pour forth with honeyed throat.' John the Deacon agrees with Paul, and adds that Gregory was by art a philosopher (book I, no. 1). But which sect of philosophers he embraced, he does not disclose. That ethics was especially cultivated by him no one can be ignorant, unless he be a stranger in the reading of his works.

Certainly I would gladly call him the Seneca of the Christians, were it not that it seemed better to say of him what Ambrose said of Abraham: 'A great man plainly, and illustrious for the marks of many virtues, whom philosophy could not equal with its aspirations. Finally, less is what she feigned than what he performed' (book I On Abraham, chapter 2). Divinatory astrology and other curious and perilous arts he never pursued. Against the mathematicians (astrologers) presuming to predict future events he rises up in homily 10 on the Gospels, nos. 4 and 5. But as for what John of Salisbury says in book II of the Policraticus (De Nugis Curialium), chapter 26, and book VIII, chapter...

19, namely that he not only ordered mathesis (astrology) to depart from the court, but even, with untimely zeal, applied fire to the Palatine Library, in whose archives were stored the books of all the disciplines, that the authority of sacred Scripture might be the greater, and the zeal for reading it more ardent—this plainly ought to be rejected among trifles and old wives' tales. Adorned with these virtues, cultivated with these studies, Gregory soon opened for himself a way to the chief dignities of the City, of the senate, of the commonwealth. But since a great part of what was done—whether in the administration of the empire or of the Church while he lived—qualis then was the state of each, especially in Italy, must be briefly set forth.