Feast 3 September
Pope. Doctor. The Pastoral Rule. The mission to England.
Sacred art
The portrait kept with St. Gregory the Great is the image this library has of Gregory. The honour goes to the person, and through the person to God. It is not a machine, and it is not a substitute for the life written below.
Died 604. Gregorian chant bears his name whether or not every melody does. He called himself servant of the servants of God.
If it belongs to Gregory, it is here, with a door back into the story.
Alatri1228
A young woman, advised to steal a Host for a love charm, wraps it in cloth and later finds it turned to flesh. Bishop and pope are notified; the relic is still at Alatri.
Siena and RomeStigmata 1375; died 1380
A Dominican tertiary, mystic, and Doctor of the Church who received invisible stigmata, lived on the Eucharist for long periods, and told a pope to go home to Rome — and was obeyed.
Basilica of Bom Jesus, Old GoaDied 1552; body in Goa
The Jesuit missionary dies on Shangchuan Island. Lime is poured in the coffin to speed decay for a later transfer. Months later the body is found fresh. It has lain in Goa for centuries, reduced by relic-taking, still exposed on feast days.
San Severino MarcheDied 1721
A Franciscan, deaf, blind, and lame in his last years. After the beatification the relics were covered with a wax figure and laid in a glass coffin in San Severino. Healings at the tomb began at once. What you see is the wax over the relics.
Città di CastelloDied 1727; heart examined
Capuchin Poor Clare and stigmatic. After death the bishop had the heart opened and the sisters reported the instruments of the Passion in the tissue, matching notes sealed while she lived. A flood later destroyed the body. The monastery now shows a lifelike figure holding the relics.
Pagani, CampaniaDied 1787; shrine at Pagani
Doctor of the Church, founder of the Redemptorists, moral theologian of mercy. His remains are in the basilica at Pagani, a founder’s body in the house of his congregation.
San Crisogono, Trastevere, RomeDied 1837; body in San Crisogono
A housewife, mother of seven, tertiary, whose mystical sun — a luminous globe in which she saw the world — was examined by popes. The body, found intact, lies in a glass coffin in Trastevere.
