Editing Pope Gregory I (section)

==Famous quotes and anecdotes==
[[File:Westminster Cathedral Non Angli sed Angeli si Christiani.jpg|thumb|upright|19th-century [[mosaic]] in [[Westminster Cathedral]], ''Non Angli sed Angeli'']]
* ''Non {{strong|Angli}}, sed {{strong|angeli}}, si forent Christiani.''– "They are not [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]], but [[angel]]s, if they were Christian".{{sfn|Zuckermann|2003|p=117}} [[Aphorism]], summarizing words reported to have been spoken by Gregory when he first encountered pale-skinned English boys at a [[slave market]], sparking his dispatch of [[Augustine of Canterbury|St. Augustine of Canterbury]] to England to convert the English, according to [[Bede]].{{sfn|Bede|1999|loc=Book II Ch. I}} He said: "Well named, for they have angelic faces and ought to be co-heirs with the angels in heaven."{{sfn|Hunt|Poole|1905|p=115}} Discovering that their province was [[Deira]], he went on to add that they would be rescued ''de ira'', "from the wrath", and that their king was named [[Ælla of Deira|Aella]], ''Alleluia'', he said.{{efn|name=Earliest}}
* ''Locusta'', literally, "[[locust]]". However, the word sounds very much like "''loco sta''", meaning, "Stay in place!" Gregory himself wanted to go to England as a missionary and started out for there. On the fourth day of the journey, as they stopped for lunch, a locust landed on the edge of the Bible which Gregory was reading. He exclaimed, ''locusta!'' (locust). Reflecting on it, he understood it as a sign from Heaven whereby God wanted him to ''loco sta'', that is, remain in his own place. Within the hour an emissary of the pope{{efn|name=BenPel}} arrived to recall him.<ref>''Vita'' by the "anonymous monk of Whitby", Chapter 9; see Colgrave's edition below; Colgrave, Bertram, "The Earliest Life of St Gregory the Great, written by a Whitby Monk", in ''Celt and Saxon'', 1964, Cambridge UP, [https://books.google.com/books?id=X_w8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA124 pp 123-124]</ref>{{sfn|Hunt|Poole|1905|p=115}}
* ''Pro cuius amore in eius eloquio nec mihi parco'' – "For the love of whom (God) I do not spare myself from His Word."<ref>Dudden pg 317</ref>{{sfn|Gregory|n.d.|loc=Cod. Sang. 211}} The sense is that since the creator of the human race and redeemer of him unworthy gave him the power of the tongue so that he could witness, what kind of a witness would he be if he did not use it but preferred to speak infirmly?
* "For the place of heretics is very pride itself...for the place of the wicked is pride just as conversely humility is the place of the good."{{sfn|Richards|1980|p=228}}
* "Whoever calls himself universal bishop, or desires this title, is, by his pride, the precursor to the Antichrist."<ref>Letter of Pope Gregory I to John the Faster.</ref>
* ''Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt'' – "Things are not to be loved for the sake of a place, but places are to be loved for the sake of their good things." When Augustine asked whether to use [[Roman Rite|Roman]] or [[Gallican Rite|Gallican]] customs in the Mass in England, Gregory said, in paraphrase, that it was not the place that imparted goodness but good things that graced the place, and it was more important to be pleasing to the Almighty. They should pick out what was "pia", "religiosa" and "recta" from any church whatever and set that down before the English minds as practice.{{sfn|Bede|1999|loc=Book I section 27 part II}}
* "For the rule of justice and reason suggests that one who desires his own orders to be observed by his successors should undoubtedly keep the will and ordinances of his predecessor."<ref>Gregory the Great. ''The Letters of Gregory the Great''. Trans. John R. C. Martyn. 3 vols. (2004). Book VI, Epistle XII.</ref> In his letters, Gregory often emphasized the importance of giving proper deference to last wills and testaments, and of respecting property rights.
* "Compassion should be shown first to the faithful and afterwards to the enemies of the church."{{sfn|Richards|1980|p=232}}
* "At length being anxious to avoid all these inconveniences, I sought the haven of the monastery... For as the vessel that is negligently moored, is very often (when the storm waxes violent) tossed by the water out of its shelter on the safest shore, so under the cloak of the Ecclesiastical office, I found myself plunged on a sudden in a sea of secular matters, and because I had not held fast the tranquillity of the monastery when in possession, I learnt by losing it, how closely it should have been held."<ref>Pope Gregory I, ''Moralia, sive Expositio in Job'', published by Nicolaus Kessler Basel, 1496.</ref> In ''Moralia, sive Expositio in Job'' ("Commentary on Job," also known as ''Magna Moralia''), Gregory describes to the Bishop Leander the circumstances under which he became a monk.
* "Illiterate men can contemplate in the lines of a picture what they cannot learn by means of the written word."{{sfn|Barasch|2013|p=}}
*''Age quod agis'' (Do what you are doing).<ref>H. Ev. 2.37.9; Dial. 4.58.1</ref> Through the centuries, this would become a repeated maxim of Catholic mystics and spiritual directors encouraging one to keep focus on what one is doing in trying to serve the Lord.
*"Repentance is weeping for what one has done and not doing what one weeps for."<ref>H. Ev. 2.34.15</ref>