Category:Saint Gregory, Bishop

Memorial: 4 January Profile: Governor and leading citizen in the area of Autun, France. Married, and the father of Saint Tertricus of Langres. Great-uncle of Saint Gregory of Tours. Widower; after his wife’s death, he devoted himself to God. Priest. Reluctant bishop of Langres, France at age 57. Though he was known as a strict and severe civil authority, he was a gentle, understanding and charitable minister. Died: 539 of natural causes Canonized: Pre-Congregation

ST. GREGORY, Bishop.

ST. GREGORY was one of the principal senators of Autun, and continued from the death of his wife a widower till the age of fifty-seven, et which time, for his singular virtues, he was consecrated Bishop of Langres, which see he governed with admirable prudence and zeal thirty-three years, sanctifying his pastoral labors by the most profound humility, assiduous prayer, and extraordinary abstinence and mortification. An incredible number of infidels were converted by him from idolatry, and worldly Christians from their disorders. He died about the beginning of the year 541, but some days after the Epiphany. Out of devotion to St. Benignus, he desired to be buried near that Saint's tomb at Dijon; this was executed by his virtuous son Tetricus, who succeeded him in his bishopric.

excerpt from Lives of the Saints,1894 by Alban Butler, Benziger Brothers edition, 1894