Gregory of Agrigentum

Origins and early life

Gregory was born, according to his Life, in a village near the Sicilian city of Agrigentum (Akragas), the son of pious parents named Chariton and Theodota, and was baptised by the local bishop. A studious child, he mastered his letters and church chant early, and at about twelve was given over to the clergy under the guidance of the archdeacon Donatus, spending some ten years in the service of the Agrigentine church. Seized with a longing to venerate the holy places, he departed secretly for Jerusalem, where the patriarch received him kindly, ordained him deacon, and, at his request, blessed him to enter a monastery on the Mount of Olives.

Monastic and conciliar years

From the Mount of Olives Gregory passed to the discipleship of a desert elder, who for some four years formed him in humility and the monastic life before sending him back into the world as one destined to be a light to the Church. He dwelt for a time again at Jerusalem, then came to Constantinople, where he was received into the monastery of the Holy Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus. His gifts drew the notice of the patriarch, and the Life relates that he took part in the Fifth Ecumenical Council (Constantinople, 553) — one of several chronological difficulties in his biography (see below). He then journeyed to Rome to venerate the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul.

Bishop of Agrigentum, trial and vindication

While Gregory was at Rome the see of Agrigentum fell vacant, and a delegation of its elder clergy and leading citizens came to the Pope with a list of candidates. The Pope set their list aside and, by divine inspiration, chose Gregory himself, consecrating him bishop of his native city. For a few years he shepherded his people ably — a defender of the poor and the wronged, a wise preacher, and a healer of the sick — while living as strictly as a monk. But envious men resolved to destroy him. While the bishop was serving in church they smuggled a bribed prostitute into his private chambers, and then, before the crowd escorting him home, led her out and accused him of the deadly sin of fornication. He was placed under guard; at the trial the woman gave false witness — and in the very act of her slander fell into a fit of demonic frenzy, whereupon the judges charged him instead with sorcery. He was sent for judgment to Rome and shut up in prison.

There he bore his humiliation in constant prayer, and his gifts of healing became so renowned that pious Romans gathered at the prison to be taught and cured. After about two years a clairvoyant elder named Mark, who had known Gregory from his youth and disbelieved the charges, persuaded the Pope to convene a council. Clergy of Agrigentum came, with all the accusers and the woman; from Constantinople came three bishops and the dignitary Marcian, who fell mortally ill on the road and was carried, dying, to Gregory's prison, where the saint's prayer healed him. At the council, when the slanderers again produced the deranged woman as their proof, Gregory prayed over her and cast out the demon; restored to her senses, she told the whole truth. The plotters were put to shame and condemned — Marcian would have had them executed, but Gregory begged their pardon. Restored in honour to his cathedral and surrounded by the love of his flock, he guided the church of Agrigentum until his peaceful repose.

Hymnographic and literary legacy

Gregory is remembered as an exegete: a lengthy Greek commentary on Ecclesiastes, in ten books, is transmitted under his name and enjoyed wide circulation in Byzantium. His anonymous Greek Life, ascribed to a "Leontius, abbot of the monastery of Saint Sabas in Rome," is the source of the whole narrative above.