The Missionary Activity of the Pope Gregory the Great

Wrocławski Przegląd Teologiczny 28 (2020) 2, 207–228 Wrocław Theological Review Dawid Dudziak John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland ORCID: 0000-0003-4200-6358 The Missionary Activity of the Pope Gregory the Great Działalność misyjna papieża Grzegorza Wielkiego Abstr act: The Migration Period at the turn of antiquity and the Middle Ages changed the face of Europe permanently. The Fall of the Roman Empire in the West showed that the functioning of the state and church administration must change. This was perfectly understood by Pope Gregory the Great, who, understanding the circumstances, undertook the task of re-evangelising Europe. In this undertaking, the monks played a significant role as missionaries of the new Europe. The Pope restored to the Holy See the priority in organizing missions and evangelization, which had been the domain of the secular power of the Empire for several centuries. Gregory the Great left behind numerous guidelines and advice for the missionaries, and he personally ensured that everyone entrusted with the task of evangelization was properly prepared for it. As the basis of the mission, Gregory considered, first and foremost, the testimony of the life of missionaries according to the so-called spirituality exemplum. In addition to the proclamation of the Gospel, monks were required to be active witnesses of love, demonstrated by the establishment of structures for the service of caritas. In his decisions, the Pope was firm and courageous, which is why posterity gave him the title of First European. Keywords: Saint Gregory the Great, missions, Migration Period, evangelization, Britain, Roman Empire Abstr akt: Wielka Wędrówka Ludów na przełomie starożytności i średniowiecza zmieniła na stałe oblicze Europy. Upadek Cesarstwa Rzymskiego na Zachodzie pokazał, że dotychczasowe funkcjonowanie administracji państwowej i Kościoła musi ulec zmianie. Doskonale rozumiał to papież Grzegorz Wielki, który odczytując bieżącą sytuację, podjął się zadania reewangelizacji Europy. W tym przedsięwzięciu mnisi odegrali znaczącą rolę jako misjonarze nowej Europy. Papież przywrócił Stolicy Apostolskiej pierwszeństwo w organizowaniu misji i ewangelizacji, które od kilku stuleci były domeną władzy świeckiej Cesarstwa. Grzegorz Wielki pozostawił po sobie liczne wskazania i rady dla misjonarzy, jak również osobiście dbał o to, aby każdy DOI: 10.34839/wpt.2020.28.2.207-228 © Papieski Wydział Teologiczny we Wrocławiu 208 Dawid Dudziak udający się z zadaniem ewangelizacji był do tego odpowiednio przygotowany. Jako podstawę misji uznał Grzegorz świadectwo życia misjonarzy według tzw. duchowości exemplum. Oprócz głoszenia Ewangelii do podstawowych zadań mnichów należało czynne świadectwo miłości, okazywane poprzez zakładanie struktur posługi caritas. W swoich decyzjach papież był stanowczy i odważny, przez co potomni nadali mu tytuł Pierwszego Europejczyka. Słowa kluczowe: św. Grzegorz Wielki, misje, Wielka Wędrówka Ludów, ewangelizacja, Brytania, Cesarstwo Rzymskie I n Europe’s history witnessed the time called the Migration Period which took on great importance. This term came to mean the mostly military actions of peoples which unwittingly determined the shape of the Old Continent and instilled a new ethos in the inhabitants of the Western world of the time. The mixing of cultures, peoples and nations translated into three centuries of suffering, bloodshed and a huge resettlement of European peoples. Although the greatest intensity of the barbaric activities occurred in the 6th century, it had begun two hundred years earlier. The invasions of Germans, Visigoths, Huns, Vandals and Suebi led to chaos in Western Europe. Roman political and administrative control quickly collapsed.1 The areas captured by the barbarians became the foundations of modern European states. The origins of today’s political divisions in Europe can be traced back to the events unfolding at the turn of antiquity and the Middle Ages. The new circumstances in Europe compelled the Church to act. Six centuries may seem to have been long enough for the Good News to reach every inhabitant of Europe. Yet, during the pontificate of Gregory the Great 2 it became obvious that missionary activity in all social, political and ecclesiastical circumstances was called for. Gregory came up with the idea of monasticism which was to be both coenobitic and missionary. 3 He regretted the Church ceased to function in areas where earlier the community of believers had been highly active, and decided to breathe new life into the activities of the Church. The reforms of the Church administration that he prepared and implemented were a response to the need of the clergy. Gregory the Great’s correspondence with the rulers and bishops of Gaul and with Augustine, the monk to whom the Pope had entrusted the task of evangelizing Britain, is an invaluable source of information about the Pope’s missionary 1 2 3 H. Chadwick, Kościół w epoce wczesnego chrześcijaństwa, Warsaw 2004, p. 247. The pontificate of Gregory the Great covered the years 590–604. V. Grossi, Historia duchowości – duchowość Ojców Kościoła, vol. 3b, Krakow 2004, p. 314. The Missionary Activity of the Pope Gregory the Great 209 activity. In his Letters and the Book of the Pastoral Rule (Pastoral Care) he laid down guidelines on the qualities required of the Good News preachers. Among the ecclesiastical documents, Pius X’s Iucunda Sane encyclical and John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Plurimum significans throw light on Gregory’s missionary commitment. The Holy See’s assumption of missionary leadership The disintegration of the relationship between the spiritual and secular powers compelled Gregory the Great to undertake and reorganize the Church’s missionary activity. Undoubtedly, he should be credited with establishing a new model of missionary work, which was not to be limited only to the lands of the Roman Empire as a natural environment of Christianity, but extended to all nations.4 Until then, the world was identified with the Empire, but then for a further 100 years Western Europe was merely an heir to the former Roman glory. The situation was different in the East, where Roman power and ethos were still sustained. This divergence forced the Pope to act alone in matters of Europe’s Christianization re-Christianization of. In Italy in 600 there were areas where the peasant population was still pagan. However, within a century the whole peninsula became catholic thanks to the missions.5 Gregory’s undertaking needed material funds for a missionary expedition and, most importantly, people who would dare to undertake such a dangerous task. It seems that the decision about a missionary expedition to the Anglo-Saxons was made because of a personal experience he had already had before his pontificate, when in a Roman marketplace he had once encountered a group of slaves from England, who amazed him with their angelic faces. When Gregory had a (...truncated)