Voices and influences
Gregory the Dialogist
The Roman prefect who became a monk, then a reluctant pope, and taught the Middle Ages how to care for souls.
Summary
This site quotes Gregory the Dialogist 628 times across 33 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 604.
- Quoted here most in Job: 384 of 628.
Gregory the Dialogist
- Lived
- died 604
- Tradition
- Patristic
5 of 628 quotations
Own words
Quoted in full, because Gregory the Dialogist died in 604 and these works are out of copyright. Each citation below names its edition and its year. A citation naming a modernised text means that edition makes its own editorial changes, and that edition's terms are not in this site's record.
Kish, who is called harsh, signifies not only his elect, but also the Redeemer himself. For no one was harsher toward himself than he.
The rest of the quotation
For the prophet, indicating the severity of this harshness, says: "Truly he himself bore our infirmities, and he himself carried our sorrows" (Isa. 53:4). For to die is not to suffer for mortals, who are subject to the suffering of a condemned nature.
1 Samuel 9:3 One day the donkeys of Saul’s father Kish wandered off, and Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants and go look for the donkeys.” BSB
There follows: "But as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you." 15.
The rest of the quotation
He speaks these things, to whom the Lord said above concerning those to whom he speaks: "They have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them." Behold, the prophet is rejected, and he speaks to those who reject him, saying: "Far be it from me that I should commit this sin against the Lord, that I should cease to pray for you."
1 Samuel 12:23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way. BSB
When long afterward David sat against the battle lines of enemies, he wished from desire to drink water from the cistern of Bethlehem. His chosen soldiers, breaking through the midst of the opposing forces, brought back unharmed the water the king had desired.
The rest of the quotation
But the man instructed by scourges immediately reproached himself for having desired water at the peril of his soldiers, and pouring it out, he offered it to the Lord, as it is written there: He poured it out to the Lord.
2 Samuel 23:16 So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD, BSB
Behold, His servants are not stedfast, and in His Angels He found folly: How much more in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which shall be consumed as by the moth?
The rest of the quotation
Though the Angelical nature, by being fixed in contemplation of the Creator, remains unchangeable in its own state, yet hereby, that it is a created being, it admits in itself the variableness of change. Now to be changed is to go from one thing into another, and to be without stability in one's self.
Job 4:18–19 If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth! BSB
MORAL INTERPRETATION. But he shall save the poor from the sword of their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. For the 'poor' is everyone that is not set up in his own eyes.
The rest of the quotation
And hence 'Truth' saith in the Gospel, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now a person is drawn into sin in two ways. For either he is led on by pleasure, or overcome by fear. For 'the sword of the mouth' is the mischievousness of persuasion, but 'the hand of the mighty' is the opposition of power.
Job 5:15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth and from the clutches of the powerful. BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Gregory the Dialogist 628 times across 33 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Gregory was born in Rome about 540, into an old senatorial family with money and land. The Rome he grew up in was a wreck. Plague came through in waves. The Lombards were burning their way down the peninsula. A city that had once held a million people was down to a few tens of thousands, camped among ruins it could no longer repair. About 573 he became prefect of the city — the highest civil office left in Rome. Then he walked away from it. He turned the family mansion on the Caelian Hill into a monastery of St. Andrew and used the family estates in Sicily to found six more. He later said those were the happiest years of his life. He was pulled back out. For roughly six years he served as the pope's representative at the imperial court in Constantinople, learning how empires actually work. He came home to Rome, and in 590 plague killed Pope Pelagius II. The city elected Gregory. He tried to refuse. He called the office a burden and began signing his letters servus servorum Dei — servant of the servants of God. Popes still use the title. He governed like a man who expected no help. He fed Rome out of the church's own estates, kept careful accounts of grain and the poor who received it, and negotiated peace with the Lombard king Agilulf when the emperor in Constantinople would not. In 596 he sent the monk Augustine and about forty companions to convert the English. Bede preserved the story behind it: Gregory seeing fair-haired boys for sale in the Roman market and asking who they were. Angles, he was told. Not Angles but angels, he answered. He wrote the Pastoral Rule, a short and practical book on how a pastor should live and how differently he must speak to the proud man and the frightened one. It became the standard handbook for bishops for a thousand years; King Alfred had it put into English. His Moralia on Job, thirty-five books long, was the most-copied commentary of the early Middle Ages. His Dialogues — four books of stories about Italian holy men, including the only life we have of Benedict — gave him his Eastern name. In Greek churches he is Gregory the Dialogist, and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is called by his name. He was ill for most of his working life: gout, and a stomach complaint that often kept him off his feet. He wrote about it plainly in his letters. He died on 12 March 604. Sources: Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People; Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule and Dialogues; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. IV; The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).
628 quotations across 33 books
Where this voice is quoted
when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together?
“When the dust was hardened into earth, and the clods were bound together. 18. For the sacred language describes, after its custom, things still future, as though already passed: observing, namely, in itself, that which is said by it; Who made the things that are…”
when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket?
“When they couch in their dens, and lie in wait in their caves. 26. For when the holy Apostles did not at all rise up against the limbs of the devil in the voice of bold preaching, and, not being yet strengthened after the Lord's…”
“Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?
“Knowest thou the time when the wild goats bring forth in the rocks, or hast thou observed the hinds when they calve? 36. The southern part of the world calls birds, which inhabit the streams of the Nile, 'ibices.'”
They crouch down and bring forth their young; they deliver their newborn.
“They bow themselves for the birth, and bring forth, and utter roarings. 47. For they roar in truth, whilst by bending themselves down, they bring forth the souls of their hearers in the conversation of light; because they cannot release us from eternal punishments, except…”
Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?
“[ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE WILD ASS AS CHRIST] But all these things which have been said of the wild ass, can be understood in another way also.”
I made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling.
“[ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE WILD ASS AS CHRIST - continued] To Whom I have given a house in the solitude, and His tabernacle in the land of saltness. 68.”
He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.
“[ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE WILD ASS AS CHRIST - continued] He scorneth the multitude of the city. 69. That is, He despises the customs of human conversation. For having been made a Man amongst men, He refused to observe the practice of men.”
He roams the mountains for pasture, searching for any green thing.
“[ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE WILD ASS AS CHRIST - continued] He looketh around on the mountains of His pasture. 78. Mountains we understand to be all the lofty ones of this world, who were swollen in their hearts with earthly loftiness.”
Can you hold him to the furrow with a harness? Will he plow the valleys behind you?
“Wilt thou bind the rhinoceros with thy band to plough? Or will he break the clods of the valleys after thee? 3.”
Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him?
“Wilt thou have confidence in his great strength, and wilt thou leave to him thy labours? [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION] 33.”
The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork.
“The wing of the ostrich is like the wings of the heron, and of the hawk. 11. Who can be ignorant how much the heron and the hawk surpass all other birds in the swiftness of their flight?”
For God has deprived her of wisdom; He has not endowed her with understanding.
“God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath He given her understanding. 26. Although to deprive is one thing, and not to give is another, yet His first expression 'deprived,' He repealed by subjoining, 'hath not given.'”
Do you give strength to the horse or adorn his neck with a mane?
“Wilt thou give the horse strength, or wilt thou surround his neck with neighing. [MORAL INTERPRETATION] 74. Upon every soul, over which the Lord mercifully rules, He confers, above all things, the strength of faith: of which Peter says, Your adversary the devil, as a…”
Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?
“Wilt thou rouse him as the locusts? 45. By the name 'locusts' is sometimes signified the Jewish people, sometimes the converted Gentiles, sometimes the tongue of flatterers, but sometimes, by comparison, the Resurrection of the Lord, or the life of preachers.”
He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle.
“He diggeth up the earth with his hoof. He exulteth boldly, he goeth on to meet the armed men. 53. By the 'hoof of the horse,' the strength of labour is usually understood.”
He laughs at fear, frightened of nothing; he does not turn back from the sword.
“He mocketh at fear, and yieldeth not to the sword. [MORAL INTERPRETATION] 80. He mocketh at fear, because he is not so far alarmed by fear of any temptation, as to keep silence.”
A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and lance.
“Over him will rattle the quiver, the spear will shake, and the shield. 62. In Holy Scripture by the word 'quiver' is designated, sometimes the just and hidden counsel of God; but sometimes the clandestine machination of the wicked.”
At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor. He catches the scent of battle from afar— the shouts of captains and the cry of war.
“When he heareth the trumpet, he saith, Vah. He smelleth the battle afar off, the exhortation of the captains, and the howling of the army. 69.”
Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread his wings toward the south?
“Doth the hawk get feathers by thy wisdom, stretching her wings toward the South? 92. That the hawk casts off its old feathers every year, as the new grow up, and gets a plumage without intermission, hardly any one is ignorant.”
Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?
“Will the eagle mount up at thy command, and make for thee her nest in high places. 94. In Holy Scripture, by the word 'eagle' are sometimes designated malignant spirits, the spoilers of souls, sometimes the powers of the present world, but sometimes either the…”
He dwells on a cliff and lodges there; his stronghold is on a rocky crag.
“She abideth in the rocks. And she dwelleth in the abrupt flints, and in the inaccessible rocks. 97. In Holy Scripture, when a 'rock' is mentioned in the singular number, who else is understood but Christ?”
From there he spies out food; his eyes see it from afar.
“From thence she beholdeth her food. Her eyes behold afar off. 100. That is, from these choirs of Angels he directs the eyes of his mind to contemplate the glory of the Majesty on high: and, not seeing it, he is still hungry: and seeing…”
His young ones feast on blood; and where the slain are, there he is.”
“Her young ones suck up blood. And wheresoever the carcase shall be, she is immediately present. 104. As if it were plainly said; She herself indeed feeds on the contemplation of His Godhead, but because her hearers cannot understand the mysteries of the Godhead, they…”
“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.
“I who have spoken lightly, what can I answer? 1. The higher holy men advance with God, in the dignity of virtues, the more accurately do they discover that they are unworthy; because while they become close to the light, they find out whatever escaped…”
I have spoken once, but I have no answer—twice, but I have nothing to add.”
“One thing have I spoken, which I would I had not said; and another, to which I will add no further. 3. If we examine the former words of blessed Job, we find that he has said nothing wickedly.”