Saint Gregory VII

Saint Gregory VII, formerly the monk Hildebrand, was pope from 1073 to 1085. He fought simony, that is, the buying and selling of church offices, and defended the freedom of the Church from secular power; the renewal of the Church in the eleventh century is called the Gregorian reform after him. The Church commemorates him on May 25.

He came from Tuscany; Sovana is regarded as his birthplace. The year of his birth is not known; dates between 1020 and 1030 are given. As a boy he came to Rome, to the monastery of Saint Mary on the Aventine, which was headed by his uncle. He became a Benedictine monk, although it is not known when and where he took his vows. He was chaplain to Pope Gregory VI, and when Gregory ceased to be pope in 1046, he went with him into exile in Germany.

In 1049 he returned to Rome with Pope Saint Leo IX. For nearly a quarter of a century he served successive popes as advisor, administrator of the property of the Apostolic See, and legate; he also became archdeacon of the Roman Church. On April 22, 1073, during the funeral of Alexander II, the people of Rome began to call for him to be pope, and the cardinals elected him that same day. He took the name Gregory.

The synods over which he presided forbade simony, required the clergy to live in chastity, and opposed the granting of church offices by secular rulers, known as investiture. This led to a bitter conflict with the German king Henry IV. In 1076 the bishops assembled by the king at Worms refused Gregory their obedience, and the pope excommunicated Henry. Duke Bolesław II of Poland took the pope’s side and at Christmas 1076 was crowned king of Poland in Gniezno. In January 1077 Henry waited for three days as a penitent at the castle of Canossa and received absolution, but the conflict went on.

In 1084 Henry’s troops took Rome, and the pope took refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo. He was freed by his ally, the Norman duke Robert Guiscard, but Guiscard’s soldiers cruelly plundered the city. The anger of the Romans turned against the pope as well; he had to leave Rome and went by way of Monte Cassino to Salerno. There he consecrated the new cathedral and addressed to the whole Church a letter that was also his testament. He died in Salerno on May 25, 1085. Chroniclers handed down his last words: “I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile.” Their authenticity is uncertain, but according to John Paul II they express a deep historical truth.

He rests in the cathedral of Salerno. In 1606 Pope Paul V approved his veneration as a saint, and in 1728 Benedict XIII extended his commemoration to the whole Church. In 1985, on the nine hundredth anniversary of his death, John Paul II visited his tomb and recalled that Gregory VII wanted the Church to be holy, united, and free.