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
From where then does wisdom come, and where does understanding dwell? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the air.
“Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Seeing that it is hid from the eyes of all living. It deserves to be especially considered, that it is asked by the holy man, whence Wisdom cometh.”
But God understands its way, and He knows its place.
“God understandeth the way thereof; and He knoweth the place thereof. This Wisdom coeternal with God has 'a way' in one sense, and in another sense 'a place;' but only a 'place,' if a person understand it a place not local.”
when He set a limit for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt, then He looked at wisdom and appraised it; He established it and searched it out.
“When He made a decree for the rain, and a way for the sounding tempests, then did He see it and declare it; He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. By 'rain' the sayings of those that preach are used to be denoted.”
And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”
“And unto man He said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is Wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.' As though it were spoken in plain speech; 'Man, turn back to thine own self; sift thoroughly the secrets of thine own heart.”
When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,
“When I went out to the gate of the city, and in the street they prepared me a chair. It was the custom of the ancients, that the elders should sit together in the gates, and judge the cases of those entering in, that so…”
the young men saw me and withdrew, and the old men rose to their feet.
“The young men saw me and hid themselves, and the old men rose up and stood. If we give heed to the history, the things that he said we believe, if to the allegory, we see the things that he foretold; for those use to…”
For those who heard me called me blessed, and those who saw me commended me,
“The ear hearing me, blessed me; and the eye seeing, gave witness to me. [HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION] Whereas blessed Job avouches himself to be 'blessed by those that heard him,' and to 'have witness given to him by those that saw him,' what he was in…”
I served as eyes to the blind and as feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.
“I was an eye to the blind, and a foot was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out.”
I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.
“I was a father of the poor, and the cause, which I knew not, I searched out. [HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION] For very often men give much to the poor, not because they love those poor, but because if they do not give, they dread the indignation…”
Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.
“In the night season my bone is pierced with pangs, and they that eat me sleep not. If we mark the history by itself, the case appears plain, because the body of the holy man, through the hollows of ulcers, a swarming multitude of worms…”
Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
“I know that Thou wilt deliver me to death, where is the house appointed for all living. In the preceding part of this work the point was treated of, that before the Coming of the Lord even the righteous did descend to the abodes of…”
I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
“I was a brother to dragons, and a companion to ostriches. The term 'dragons' is used to denote the cruel spirits who plot our destruction, or those persons who in the Holy Church imitate those spirits by living corruptly.”
For what is the allotment of God from above, or the heritage from the Almighty on high?
“For what portion would God have in me from above, and what inheritance would the Almighty have from on high?”
If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has rushed to deceit, let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.
“If I have walked in vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit, let Him weigh me in an even balance, and let God know mine integrity.”
If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,
“If mine heart has been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door. Though it sometimes happens that the sin of fornication is not at all different from the guilt of adultery, seeing that Truth saith; Whoso looketh on…”
If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me,
“If I despised to submit to judgment with my man-servant or with my maid-servant, when they contended with me.”
what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?
“For what shall I do, when God riseth up to judge; and when He seeketh, what shall I answer Him?”
Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?
“Did not He Who made me in the womb make him? And did not One make us in the womb? To persons possessed of power, the equality of creation kept in the thoughts is great goodness of humility.”
if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless—
“Or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof. That is to say, reckoning that he prejudiced his pitifulness, if he ate alone what the Lord of all created in common.”
if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,
“If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, even when I saw myself uppermost in the gate.”
if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor, so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my…
“If I saw the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath secretly rejoiced, and I have kissed my hand with my mouth; which is an exceeding iniquity, and denial against the Most High God.”
this would also be an iniquity to be judged, for I would have denied God on high.
“Which is the chiefest iniquity, and denial against the Most High God. For it is clear that he does deny Him, when setting at nought His grace, he claims to himself the powers of good practice.”
If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—
“If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found me. That we are disciples of Almighty God, the keeping of charity is the only proof.”
I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for his life with a curse—
“Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. For he would sin, if he were to desire that to be done by God, which he himself either could not at all be able to do, or if he…”
if the men of my house have not said, ‘Who is there who has not had his fill?’—
“If the men of my tabernacle said not, O that we had of his flesh, that we might be satisfied! [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION] Which same sentence may also be taken in mystery of the voice of our Redeemer.”