Daily Reading for March 12 • Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, 604
Gregory the Great, writing over five hundred years after Paul, composed one of the first manuals on pastoral care and Christian leadership. This work, sent by Gregory to Leander of Seville, was highly praised and enjoyed a wide readership, including Alfred the Great and Charlemagne. Claudia Rapp writes in Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity that “with Pastoral Care, finally, we have a proper and complete manual for priests, a how-to guide for the discharge of the priestly office.” Furthermore, in the words of Bede, Gregory’s Pastoral Care “describes in clear terms the qualities essential to those who rule the Church, showing how they should live; with what discernment they should instruct their various pupils; and with what constant awareness they should daily call to mind their own frailty.”
Gregory, pope from 590 to 604 CE and credited with the conversion of England through Augustine of Canterbury, portrays a leader who is a physician of souls. As a physician of souls, the leader must “‘preach the word, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine,’ and both by precept and example guide souls in the way of salvation.” Gregory reminds leaders not to take their role lightly or to neglect the duties of their office. In order to be a physician of souls, the leader must practice what is preached and be an example to others. Bede writes with great admiration for Gregory, “for while other popes devoted themselves to building churches and adorning them with gold and silver, Gregory’s sole concern was to save souls.” In other words, Gregory’s pastoral leadership was to heal, transform, restore wholeness, and lead others into deeper relationship with God.
From “The Word of the Cross: Mission, Power, and the Theology of Leadership” by Jennifer Strawbridge, in Anglican Theological Review, Vol. 91, No. 1 (Winter 2009): 71-72.