(A.D 540-604), Pope of Rome (perhaps the last good one?) and Preacher of Dialogues. I first read St Gregory's advice to St Augustine of Canterbury many years ago in one of my Oxford World Classics editions called The Anglo-Saxon World and it knocked me sideways for its clarity, common sense and disparity (with later bishops of Rome), for he said: "things are not to be loved for the sake of a place; rather places are to be loved for the sake of their good things." And this was in answer to questions about what kind of liturgy to introduce to these grey shores. In those happy times there was no sacred congregation of rites and men were more instinctively liturgical.
Now, if I were not so wicked and lazy I'd have gone to Mattins this morrow. Instead, the Catholic Encyclopaedia has St Gregory's epistles which you can see here. Pick one in honour of the day.
Happy feast!
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