Greatness

Today (March 12th) is the feast of St. Gregory the Great, and just his name begs a queue of questions -- not about whether St. Gregory deserves the appellation (of course he does!), but more about the honor of the title itself. Don't you wonder? First of all, what makes for the distinction, considering there are so many saints we might also think of as great who don't get 'the Great' as part of their legacy? Is it an official title conferred by the Church? How many Greats are there, and do they come from all different strata of Church life or are they all "big wigs" in the hierarchy?

I had a hard enough time just trying to remember more than two or three saints called "the Great," so, as a public service -- and because I was just curious -- I grabbed my deer slayer hat and took my magnifying glass to the internet, and this is what I found:

* Though it seems there is a list of popes at the Vatican (the Annuario Pontificio) that does distinguish the Greats among the Successors of Peter, the Church never officially pronounces saints as “great”; rather, those whom we know by the title have won the honor by popular acclaim at the time of  death and later earned them in perpetuity by the acclaim of history itself. When the moniker, sometimes applied out of the affection of a saint's contemporary society, stands the test of time and the objectivity of distance and comparison, the saint is officially unofficially one of "the Greats."

* There are seven holy men and women of the Church who have thus stood the test and become universally acclaimed the Greats of the Roman Catholic calendar Though there may be more, these are those most universally recognized.

 

Three Popes: Pope St. Leo I (reigned 440–61 AD); Pope St. Gregory I (590–604  AD); and Pope St. Nicholas I (858–67 AD). 

Two bishops: St. Albert the Great (aka 'Albert Magnus,' c.1200-1280 AD) and St. Basil the Great (aka 'Basil of Ceasarea,' c.330-379 AD)

One abbot: St. Anthony the Great (aka 'Antony of the Desert,' 251-356 AD)

One Abbess: St. Gertrude the Great (aka 'St. Gertrude of Helfta,' 1256-1302 AD)

One motive for persisting in the Great reference for some saints is that of providing distinction between two saints of the same name. For instance, St. Gertrude, the only female called Great, received the title from Pope Benedict XIV to differentiate her from Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn, who was the elder sister of St. Mechtilde and abbess of St. Gertrude the Great's convent, but she left no writings, and is not a canonized saint.  A good abbess and holy woman, to be sure, but the abbess didn't merit the acknowledgement from the pope as our St. Gertrude did. 

St. Anthony the Great -- perhaps more commonly known as St. Anthony of the Desert -- earned several other distinguishing titles to prevent confusing him with St. Anthony of Padua: Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Hermit, and Anthony of Thebes, but the title of Great is a well-earned asterisk considering he is known as the Father of All Monks, one of the founders of Christian monasticism. 

But What is Greatness?

Seeing as all saints (in my mind, anyway) are great, the next question has to be: what was it exactly that made these saints, popes, bishops, abbot and abbess, stand out in their greatness? All the accomplishments and virtues of these seven would fill the big walnut tree in my backyard, but here are some nutshell possibilities to consider:

St. Albert the Great 

Popularly known as the teacher of the great St. Thomas Aquinas (the consummate theologian, the Angelic Doctor, who did not get the sobriquet) -- and not as a bishop, St. Albert was appointed the bishopric of Regensburg, Germany, by Pope Alexander IV in 1260. 

Due to the difficulty of maintaining his Dominican vows of humility, however, he resigned the post with permission of Pope Urban IV after only three years . The story goes that he felt riding a horse incompatible with this vows, so he walked the length and breadth of his large diocese in his zeal for his people, but felt unsatisfied that he provided for them adequately. (Can you imagine?) Humble to a fault, St. Albert earned the laud of centuries of Catholics for his great learning, his successful diplomacy, and his passion for education of all kinds, but especially in theology (and especially amongst his Dominicans). He was known in his time, as well as in our own, as a scientist, philosopher, astrologer, and spiritual writer.  How could we think of the teacher of St. Thomas as anything less than Great?

St. Anthony the Great 

Known as the Father of All Monks, he was not the first ascetic, but he was the first to escape to the wilderness (c. AD 270) to live a life devoted to prayer and sacrifice -- and lead others to do likewise. The biography of his life by Athanasius of Alexandria is credited with spreading the concept St. Anthony's type of monasticism throughout Western Europe, otherwise little would be known of this holy monk who purposely hid from the world. It is known through Athanasius that St. Anthony ate only bread, salt, and herbs. He drank only water and never took of meat or wine. He ate only once a day and sometimes fasted for several days. He was periodically beaten by demons in the shapes of fantastic beasts, sometimes to within an inch of his life. Though he struggled to remain solitary, a scattered group of followers began to set up "camps" near his hermitage and begged him to lead them also to holiness. In sympathy, and no doubt at the prompting of the Holy Ghost, he agreed to lead them, and spent the next five or six years organizing and teaching the great number of monks that had sprung up around him -- then retired to the inner desert between the Nile and the Red Sea where he spent the last 45 years of life in solitary prayer and penance. How could we not call the Father of Monks Great?

St Basil the Great

A Greek bishop of Caesarea, St. Basil was an important theologian  of the early Church who championed the Nicene Creed at the Council of Nicaea. He fought all the chief heresies that beset the early Church, including Arianism and the errors of Apollinaris of Laodicea. He was instrumental in laying out the guidelines for monastic life. Laying the foundational groundwork for monasticism in the Church, he founded (with the help of his widowed mother and sisters) a monastic settlement on his family's estate near Annesi. His writings about monastic communal life became instrumental in the development of the monastic tradition, particularly in the Eastern Church. 

Together with St. Gregory Nazianzus, he collected within the Origen's Philocalia a large portion of the historian's works documenting the early Church. When he was bishop of Caesarea, he personally organized a charitable kitchen for the poor during a famine and gave away his personal family inheritance to help the poor. We know from his letters that he worked to reform thieves and fallen women. He took personal interest in the selection of candidates for Holy Orders, personally chastised civil officials when they failed in their duties -- and preached to large congregations every morning and evening in his own church. St. Gregory Nazianzus who knew him well compared him to the seven wonders of the world. And if St. Gregory doesn't know Greatness, who does?

St. Gertrude the Great

Part of the confusion between Gertrude of Hackeborn and St. Gertrude the Great lies in the fact that Gertrude of Hackeborn was the Abbess of the Convent in Helftla when our St. Gertrude (the Great one) entered in the year 1260 at the age of 4 (most likely having been orphaned, but it is a debated point). St. Gertrude the Great was mentored under the renowned St. Mechtilde (patron saint of Church music), and reportedly joined the convent itself (Benedictine or Cistersian? It is also debated) at the tender age of ten. By all accounts, however, she was a phenomenal child, taking naturally to Latin and a large range of common course studies. 

At the age of 25, however, her priorities changed to studies of theology and scripture when she experienced the first of a series of visions that continued throughout her life. She became one of the great mystics of the 13th century, devoting her time to prayer and meditation and to writing spiritual treatises for the benefit of her monastic sisters, several which survive today, including her Spiritual Exercises and many sections of a book called The Herald.  She was one of the first devotees of the Sacred heart of Jesus, promoted amongst her Religious Sisters the notion of "nuptial mysticism" -- or being "Brides of Christ," and shared her tender regard for the suffering souls in Purgatory in her writings and her personal urging. She is well known for the following prayer: 

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, for those in my own home and in my family. Amen.  

St. Francis DeSales and St. Philip Neri both benefitted by St. Gertrude's revelations and prayers, and Dom Prosper Gueranger (famously, the author of The Liturgical Year and the restorer of Benedictine monasticism in France) owed his gratitude to the influence of St. Gertrude's writings. Her life, spent over 750 years ago, has never stopped influencing seekers of the Spiritual Life. That is true Greatness.

Pope St. Gregory the Great

Another Roman pontiff born in Rome, Pope St. Gregory was born in AD 540 to a wealthy Roman family that was also devoutly Catholic. His mother, Sylvia, and two paternal aunts are honored as saints. A prefect of Rome first, Pope St. Gregory did not enter the Religious life (the Benedictines) until after the age of 33. He was chosen to be a papal deacon by Pope Pelagius II in 578, was papal nuncio to the Byzantine court from 579-585, and, finally, was elected and consecrated pope (by unanimous decision) in 590 AD. His pontificate was distinguished throughout with greatness. In his Liber Regulae Pastoralis, he detailed the specific duties of bishops, he recorded many lives of the saints in his Dialogues, and is recorded as having reformed clerical discipline, removing bishops and priests from office where necessary. He was responsible for peace treaties among barbarian invaders, converting many, and commissioned many groups of missionaries, notably to the British Isles through St. Augustine of Canterbury; St. Colomban who converted much of France; and St. Leander who freed Spain from the Arian error of the Visigoths.

He restored clerical discipline, removing unworthy bishops and priests from office. He protected the Jews from persecution. He fed those who suffered from famine and ransomed those captured by barbarians. He negotiated peace treaties with the barbarian invaders, converting many of them. He instituted the Gregorian chant and to him is attributed the practice of offering thirty Masses for the repose of a soul after death. He is one of the 33 Doctors of the Church and is considered the final Western Church Father.

And this just hits the highlights. The list goes on and on -- and can only lead us to conclude that Pope St. Gregory is, indeed, one of the Greatest of the Greats.

Pope St. Leo the Great

Born a citizen of Rome in the early fifth century, Pope St. Leo succeeded Pope Sixtus III in AD 440. He fought tirelessly against the early heresies of Manichaeism, Pelagianism, Priscillianism, and Nestorianism, and is especially known for his labors against the heresy of Eutyches, which denied the hypostatic union (the divine and human natures united in the divine Person of Christ). He called the Council of Chalcedon in 451 to cement Catholic teaching in the matters of the Incarnation. 

A leader of courage and faith, Pope Leo met Attila the Hun (known as "the Scourge of God") face to face in AD 452 and by the grace of God prevented the destruction of Rome. The story that survives the centuries is that at the meeting Attila saw Saints Peter and Paul wielding swords above  the head of Leo, and this ominous threat motivated Attila to retreat. Ever after, Leo was known by his people as “the Shield of God.” As the Roman Empire declined, Leo sought to strengthen the Church: he suppressed any surviving pagan festivals and closed all remaining pagan temples; he sent missionaries to Africa, then under the threat of barbarians; and he instituted many  needed reforms, including defining the roles of bishops under stricter discipline.  One of the hammers of heretics, Pope St. Leo provided not only guidance and leadership in the midst of heresy, but courage and miracles in the face of worldly danger. Truly a Great!

Pope St. Nicholas the Great

Another "not-to-be-confused-with" saint, Pope St. Nicholas was born c. 820 and has nothing to do with hanging stockings by fireplaces. Not merely a native of Rome, he was practically raised in the Vatican. Because his father was an official in the papal administration, he received his educated at the Lateran, then served in the papal administration, himself, under Pope Sergius II. He was later ordained a deacon by Pope Leo IV, became an advisor to Pope Benedict III, and upon Pope Benedict's death in 858, replaced him in the See of Peter. Well known for his charity and justice, Pope Nicholas denounced the king of Lorraine for attempting to divorce his legitimate wife to marry his mistress, and in the midst of resistance within the Church's hierarchy to bend to civil constructs, he remained firm. With the same resolve, he protected the rights and authority of the papacy at a time when secular rulers sought to control the Church, never hesitating to take decisive measures against them. Pope Nicholas was also a champion of the poor, a supporter of sacred art, and a reformer of clergy and laity alike. He sent missionaries to Bulgaria and Scandinavia under the leadership of St. Ansgar. Though a difficult time in the life of the Church, Pope St. Nicholas represented Christ on earth with the highest personal integrity, dying on November 13, 867 after nine years as Vicar of Christ. His guardianship of the Church, a job requirement of the papacy ignored since Pope Pius XII, amounts to true greatness.

A Great Gift to Us All

What all saints have in common, but especially The Greats, is that they were -- as GK Chesterton says in the quote on the right -- antidotes, not just of their particular time, but of all future times in the history of the Church. They offered what souls needed in their ages, and sometimes they cracked the whip on the Church, itself, when it needed to pull back on track. From the beauty of Gregorian chant to the devotion to the Sacred Heart to the examples of the guardianship of the church and the founding of ascetic and communal monasticism, every one of these Greats made permanent contributions to souls -- and to civilizations. They were a gift to our ancestors and to us, as well. 

My prayer is that we live to see the next Great and that he or she will be the antidote to the problems of our crazy times -- but most especially that they'll lead individual hearts, one by one, to God. St. Gregory the Great, please intercede for us!

* Please forgive the wacko fonts. Blogger is giving me all kinds of trouble in this regard lately! I'm not sure why. If anyone is having similar issues, let me know if you know what the solution is, please!