Pope Gregory the Great and a Prominent Woman of His Time
If the title "Great" applied to a historical personage may be rightly defined as implying the combination of high moral purpose with commanding ability, so used as to affect extensively the history of mankind, such title has been assigned duly to the first Pope Gregory. In all cases favorable circumstances are, of course, required, that the result may be actual, not mere potential, greatness. There must be suitable environments for the development and display of an influential life. Gregory might have lived and died with no renown beyond that of ascetic saintliness, had not circumstances called him from his monastery; in a less eventful age his great qualities still might not have found their adequate field for exercise. He stands out on the pages of history as a striking instance of a remarkable man, at a remarkable time, being placed by Providence in an office peculiarly suitable for the exercise of his powers, in the Roman Papacy. The position was not of his own seeking; he shrank from it. Greatness, in the sense of great estate, was "thrust upon" him; but when it came, he showed himself at once worthy of it. And it is to be observed that, though he sought it not, yet in one sense he himself "achieved" it, inasmuch as it was his acknowledged fitness that caused all concerned in his elevation to force its acceptance upon him.
Catholicism, Classics, Gregory the Great
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