Post #5936

A young man, deeply saddened to see the freedom of the Church oppressed by the laity and the corrupt customs of the clergy, wore the Benedictine monastic habit in the abbey of Cluny, where the observance and austerity of life under the rule of St. Benedict was then at its peak vigor, and gave himself to the service of divine majesty with such ardent piety that he was elected Prior by the holy fathers of that monastery. But by assigning him divine providence to greater things, Hildebrand was drawn for the salvation of many from Cluny; and first elected abbot of the monastery of St. Paul of Rome outside the walls, and then created cardinal of the Roman Church on the 6th of March 1059 by Pope Nicholas II, he supported very important missions under the Supreme Pontiffs Leo IX, Victor II, Stephen IX, Nicholas II and Alexander II; St. Peter Damian called the man of the most holy and most pure council. As Pope Victor II sent his legate in France, he miraculously forced the bishop of Lyon, guilty of simony, to confess his crime. In the Council of Tours he forced Berengar to abjure the heresy a second time. With his energy he stifled the schism of Cadalus. After Alexander II died, he was elected Supreme Pontiff with unanimous consent, despite his resistance and his tears, on April 22 in the year of Christ 1073; on the 22nd of May the newly elected pope received his priestly ordination, and on the 30th of June the episcopal consecration. He shone like sun in the house of God. In fact, powerful in deeds and words, he worked so zealously to restore ecclesiastical discipline, to propagate the faith, to restore freedom to the Church, to eradicate errors and corruption, that from in the time of the Apostles there seems to have been no Pontiff who has sustained more fatigue and harassment for the Church of God, or who fought more strongly for its freedom. He freed several provinces from the plague of simony. Against the impious efforts of the emperor Henry IV he showed himself in all respects a strong and intrepid athlete, and he was not afraid to rise like a wall in defense of the house of Israel; and this same Henry IV having fallen into the most serious crimes, he excommunicated him, deprived him of the kingdom and released his peoples from the oath of fidelity. While he was celebrating the sacrifice of the Mass, pious people saw a dove descending from heaven, alighting on his right shoulder and covering his head with its wings; which means that he allowed himself to be guided in the government of the Church by the Holy Spirit, not by human reasons. Besieged in Rome by the army of the iniquitous Henry IV, he extinguished a fire caused by his enemies with a sign of the cross. Finally freed from his hands by Robert Guiscard, head of the Normans, he went to Cassino in June 1083; and then from there he went to Salerno to consecrate the church of St. Matthew the Apostle. One day, while he was speaking to the people of that city, exhausted by so many trials, he fell ill, predicting his death. The dying Gregory's last words were: “I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.” (Psalm 44:8). It is not possible to repeat the sufferings courageously sustained, or the wise decrees made in many councils held in Rome: a truly holy man, victor of crimes, and the most valiant defender of the Church. He had completed twelve years of pontificate, when he went to heaven, to Salerno on the 25th of May in the year of health 1085, famous for many miracles in life and after death; his sacred body was buried with honor in the cathedral basilica of Salerno. He was canonized in 1606 by Pope Paul V. In 1954, at the behest of Pope Pius XII, his body was first transported to Rome for a few days to be exposed to the public, and then it was rearranged in the Salerno Cathedral in a silver case, where it still stands today.