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
You will come to the grave in full vigor, like a sheaf of grain gathered in season.
“Thou shalt come to thy grave in fulness, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. For what is denoted by the name of the grave, saving a life of contemplation?”
If only my request were granted and God would fulfill my hope: that God would be willing to crush me, to unleash His hand and cut me off!
“Oh that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Even that He That hath begun would destroy me. Let him let loose His hand, and cut me off!”
Is my strength like that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze?
“Neither is my strength the strength of stones, nor is my flesh of brass? For what have we here denoted by 'brass' and 'stones' save the hearts of the insensate, who oftentimes even receive the strokes of the Most High, and yet they are not…”
darkened because of the ice and the inflow of melting snow,
“Over those that fear the frost, the snow rushes down. For the frost congeals below, but the snow falls down from above. And often there are persons, who, while they fear temporal adversities, expose themselves to the severity of everlasting visitation.”
For now you are of no help; you see terror, and you are afraid.
“For now ye are come, to see my stroke, and are afraid. As though he said in plain words, 'I feared God then, when, buoyed up with prosperity, I felt no hurts of the scourge.”
Teach me, and I will be silent. Help me understand how I have erred.
“Teach me, and I will hold my tongue, and cause me to understand wherein I have erred. It seems doubtful under the scale of what pointing this should hang, whether it be joined to what he had brought in, Did I say, or whether the…”
How painful are honest words! But what does your argument prove?
“Wherefore have ye detracted from the words of truth; when there is none of you that is able to convict them?”
You would even cast lots for an orphan and barter away your friend.
“Yea ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye strive to overthrow your friend. For he shews what great weakness he considers himself to be of, who calls himself 'fatherless.'”
But now, please look at me. Would I lie to your face?
“But fulfil what ye have begun; give ear, and see if I lie. For because he does not fear to endure adversities, let him say, But fulfil what ye have begun; and because he does not withhold the announcements of the Truth from his very…”
Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?
“And ye shall not find iniquity in my tongue, nor shall foolishness sound through my jaws. As if it were expressed in plain words, 'The more exactly ye weigh your own words, the more truly ye estimate those of others, and when what ye say…”
“Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
“The life of man upon earth is a warfare. In this passage in the old Translation the life of man is not called 'a warfare' at all, but 'a trial,' yet if the meaning of either word be regarded, the sound that meets the ear…”
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.
“My days are past more swiftly than a web is cut off by the weaver. By a very suitable image the time of the flesh is compared to a web.”
The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.
“The eye of man shall not see me. For 'the eye of Man' is the pity of the Redeemer, which softens the hardness of our insensibility, when it looks upon us.”
When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,
“When I say my bed shall comfort me, I shall be eased in speaking with myself on my couch, then Thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions.”
then You frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
“Then Thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions. But lest anyone should be at pains to make out these words after the literal sense, it is of great importance to find out in how many ways the mind is affected by images…”
If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, so that I am a burden to You?
“I have sinned; what shall I do unto Thee, O Thou Preserver of men? Observe how he confesses the ill that he has done, but the good that he should present to God in compensation, he no where can find, in that all virtue whatever…”
Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?
“And why dost Thou not take away my transgression, and remove mine iniquity? By which same words, what else is intimated but the desire of the expected Mediator, concerning Whom John saith, Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
“Then answered Bildad, the Shuhite, and said, How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the breath of the words of thy mouth be multiplied?”
While the shoots are still uncut, they dry up quicker than grass.
“Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb. So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish.”
Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so the hope of the godless will perish.
“So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish. But as we have before said, who he is to whom Bildad likens 'a rush' or 'a flag,' he makes plain at the moment, where he adds, So are the…”
His confidence is fragile; his security is in a spider’s web.
“His own folly shall not satisfy him, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. For it is infinite folly to labour painfully, and pant after the breath of applause, to apply one's self to the heavenly precepts with hard toil, but to aim at…”
He leans on his web, but it gives way; he holds fast, but it does not endure.
“He leaneth upon his house, but it shall not stand; he shall prop it, but it shall not rise up.”
He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden.
“It is seen moist before the sun cometh, and his produce issueth forth in his springing up. Oftentimes in Holy Writ the Lord is represented by the title of the Sun, as it is said by the Prophet, But unto you that fear My Name…”
His roots wrap around the rock heap; he looks for a home among the stones.
“His roots will be wrapped about the heap of rocks, and he will dwell among the stones. For what do we understand by the name of 'roots' save the hidden thoughts, which issue forth out of sight, but rise up in the display of works…”
If he is uprooted from his place, it will disown him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’
“If He destroy him from his place, then He shall deny him, saying, I have not known thee. The hypocrite is 'destroyed from his place,' when he is parted from the applause of the present life, by death intervening.”