St. Gregory the Great, a central figure of the medieval western Church and one of the most admired popes in history, is commemorated in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Catholic liturgy on Sept. 3.
Born near the middle of the 6th century into a noble Roman family, Gregory received a classical education in liberal arts and the law. He also had strong religious formation from his devout family, particularly from his mother Silvia, also a canonized saint. By around the age of 30, Gregory had advanced to high political office in Rome, during what was nevertheless a period of marked decline for the city.
Some time after becoming the prefect of the former imperial capital, Gregory chose to leave the civil administration to become a monk during the rise of the Benedictine order. In reality, however, the new monk's great career in public life was yet to come.
After three years of strict monastic life, he was called personally by the pope to assume the office of a deacon in Rome. From Rome, he was dispatched to Constantinople to seek aid from the emperor for Rome's civic troubles and to aid in resolving the Eastern Church's theological controversies. He returned to Rome in 586 after six years of service as the papal representative to the eastern Church and empire.
Rome faced a series of disasters caused by flooding in 589, followed by the death of Pope Pelagius II the next year. Gregory, then serving as abbot in a monastery, reluctantly accepted his election to replace him as the Bishop of Rome.
Despite this initial reluctance, however, Pope Gregory began working tirelessly to reform and solidify the Roman liturgy, the disciplines of the Church, the military and economic security of Rome, and the Church's spreading influence in western Europe.
As pope, Gregory brought his political experience at Rome and Constantinople to bear in the task of preventing the Catholic Church from becoming subservient to any of the various groups struggling for control of the former imperial capital. As the former abbot of a monastery, he strongly supported the Benedictine movement as a bedrock of the western Church. He sent missionaries to England and is given much of the credit for the nation's conversion.
He is known above all for his magnificent contributions to the Liturgy of the Mass and Office. He is one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church.
In undertaking these works, Pope Gregory saw himself as the "servant of the servants of God." He was the first of the Bishops of Rome to popularize the now-traditional papal title, which referred to Christ's command that those in the highest position of leadership should be "the last of all and the servant of all."
Even as he undertook to consolidate papal power and shore up the West during the crumbling of the Roman empire, St. Gregory the Great maintained a humble sense of his mission as a servant and pastor of souls from the time of his election until his death on March 12, 604. He is the patron of teachers.
— Catholic News Agency
The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrates two historical events: the discovery of the True Cross by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, in 320 under the temple of Venus in Jerusalem, and the dedication in 335 of the basilica and shrine built on Calvary by Constantine, which mark the site of Jesus’ crucifixion.
The basilica, named the Martyrium, and the shrine, named the Calvarium, were destroyed by the Persians in 614. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre which now stands on the site was built by the crusaders in 1149.
However the feast, more than anything else, is a celebration and commemoration of God’s greatest work: His salvific death on the Cross and His Resurrection, through which death was defeated and the doors to heaven opened.
The entrance antiphon for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is: “We should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for He is our salvation, our life and our resurrection: through Him we are saved and made free.”
— CNA/EWTN
Exaltation of the Holy Cross:
Early in the fourth century St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ's life. She razed the Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior's tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher over the tomb.
During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.
The cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century, according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus' head: Then "all the people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on."
To this day the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica's dedication. The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.
The cross is today the universal image of Christian belief. Countless generations of artists have turned it into a thing of beauty to be carried in procession or worn as jewelry. To the eyes of the first Christians, it had no beauty. It stood outside too many city walls, decorated only with decaying corpses, as a threat to anyone who defied Rome's authority – including Christians who refused sacrifice to Roman gods.
Although believers spoke of the cross as the instrument of salvation, it seldom appeared in Christian art unless disguised as an anchor or the Chi-Rho until after Constantine's edict of toleration.
"How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light, not darkness; Paradise, not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord, like a great warrior, was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed thereby our wounds. A tree has destroyed us, a tree now brought us life." (Theodore of Studios)
— AmericanCatholic.org
Exaltation of the Holy Cross Novena
Jesus, Who because of Your burning love for us willed to be crucified and to shed Your Most Precious Blood for the redemption and salvation of our souls, look down upon us and grant the petition we ask for ... (mention here).
We trust completely in Your Mercy.
Cleanse us from sin by Your grace, sanctify our work, give us and all those who are dear to us our daily bread, lighten the burden of our sufferings, bless our families, and grant to the nations, so sorely afflicted, Your peace, which is the only true peace, so that by obeying Your commandments we may come at last to the glory of heaven.
Amen.