Today Is September 3

The consecration took place on this day in 590 of Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great).

By Meister des Registrum Gregorii. - Trier, Stadtbibliothek

Pope Gregory I commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was Pope from 590 to his death in 604.

Gregory's father was Gordianus, a wealthy patrician, probably of the eminent patrician family of the gens Anicia , who owned large estates in Sicily and a mansion on the Caelian Hill in Rome. Of Gregory's early years we know very little, except how he loved to meditate on the Scriptures and to listen attentively to the conversations of his elders, so that he was "devoted to God from his youth up".

Gregory spent five years as an emissary to the imperial court at Constantinople between 579-584. Then he devoted himself to teaching and literary work.

On September 3, 590 Gregory was elected pope by the church leaders but he refused the office and fled from Rome. Gregory hid in the forest until he was found and was hauled back to the city where he reluctantly agreed to take the post. Gregory had no craving for the position and was so upset that he could barely speak.

At the time of Gregory's elevation to the papacy, Rome was in the midst of a plague epidemic to which Gregory's predecessor, Pelagius had been a victim. Gregory's first act as pope was to order a sorrowful procession through the city. The plague subsided. It was said that Pope Gregory originated the usage of the phrase "God Bless You", when someone sneezes, at a time when sneezing was a mortal symptom because of the plague.

Gregory encouraged many doctrines that later became prevalent in the Roman Catholic church such as the belief in the power of saints and relics, purgatory and transubstantiation in communion. He introduced the Catholic custom of placing ashes on the forehead as a sign of penitence from which Ash Wednesday originated.