Gregory the Great on Action and Contemplation in Monasticism

Introduction

The first monk to become a pope was St. Gregory (d. 604), and throughout his reign he longed for the monastic lifestyle. Largely due to his influence and inspiration, Benedictine monasticism was transformed into "the conquering army of the Roman Church," according to Cayré. When occasion demanded it, Gregory ordained monks as priests and assigned them apostolic duties. In terms of spirituality, his writings on the contemplative and active lives, the levels of spiritual advancement, and on contemplation itself are highly significant. More than most other Fathers of the Church, St. Gregory devoted a large portion of his writing to pastoral issues — particularly guidelines for pastors, the basic qualifications for candidates seeking ordination, and the essential functions of an apostle with respect to preaching. This paper examines the themes of action and contemplation, the ways in which these two modes of life work together, and how they affect the vocation of monks and nuns according to Gregory the Great.

Contemplation and Action in Gregory's Thought

Within the first five months of his pontificate, Gregory carried out two significant tasks that compelled him to take a definitive position on this issue. The first was a personal examination of his own life; the second was the writing of a book that would become "the most widely read single text in the history of pastoral care" for centuries to come: the Rule of Pastoral Care. These two endeavors helped Gregory forge a meaningful synthesis of the contemplative and active lives.

The biblical passage he drew upon was the story of Leah and Rachel. The beautiful Rachel represented the contemplative life — Gregory's true first love — yet she was slow to bear children. Leah, by contrast, proved to be the mother of many. Another interpretive layer Gregory applies is that Rachel represented "spirit" while Leah represented "flesh." Christians often mistakenly read Paul's writings as asserting that the spirit is superior to and wholly separate from the body or flesh — understood in spiritual terms as the material or worldly realm — but Gregory moved quickly beyond this reading. He understood instead that "one moves not only through the flesh to reach the spirit; one must return back again to the carnal to become truly spiritual." Following the narrative arc of the biblical story, "Jacob starts from Leah, achieves Rachel, and then returns to Leah — activity comes before contemplation, yet contemplation must be expressed as a form of service to one's neighbors."

Gregory thus concluded that the two modes of life are not mutually exclusive, as some in the Church had taught. Each form continuously sustains the other: the contemplative life equips and grounds the active life, keeping it rooted in love of neighbor. Equally, contemplation prevents the soul from becoming spiritually proud or irrelevant. Although all people living on earth must engage the active life (represented by Leah), they may look forward to and aspire toward the contemplative life (represented by Rachel). For anyone who doubts this, Gregory points to the supreme example of the harmony between contemplation and service: Christ in the flesh.

The Relationship Between the Two Lives

Of the two lives, the active form is necessary for salvation, according to St. Gregory, since no one can be saved without good works. Nevertheless, the theological virtues are essential for ultimate fulfillment. Gregory's distinction — the active life as the domain of the moral virtues and the contemplative life as the domain of the theological virtues — must be understood in light of the fact that in the latter, the theological virtues are far more directly expressed. Between the two, Gregory holds that "the contemplative life is greater in merit than the active . . . . Although the active life is good, the contemplative is better." Yet this superiority does not render the active life dispensable; rather, the two remain bound together in a dynamic and reciprocal relationship throughout the Christian life.

Conclusion

Gregory the Great's synthesis of action and contemplation left an enduring mark on Western Christian spirituality. His insistence that the two modes of life are mutually reinforcing rather than mutually exclusive shaped the theology and practice of monasticism for centuries. By grounding his position in the allegorical reading of Leah and Rachel and in the example of Christ himself, Gregory offered both monks and laity a spirituality that honored the demands of service without sacrificing the life of prayer. His legacy, transmitted through figures such as Bede and Isidore of Seville, continued to animate the Christian communities of the early medieval period and beyond.