Sigrid Grabner

“The plague was still ravaging Rome, and Gregory ordered the procession to make the circuit of the city, the marchers chanting the litanies. An image of the Blessed Mary ever Virgin was carried in the procession. It is said that this image is still in the church of Saint Mary Major in Rome, that it was painted by Saint Luke, who was not only a physician but a distinguished painter. . . . And lo and behold! The poisonous uncleanness of the air yielded to the image. . . the passage of the picture brought about a wonderful serenity and purity in the air. . . . Then the pope saw an angel of the Lord standing atop the castle of Crescentius, wiping a bloody sword and sheathing it. Gregory understood that that put an end to the plague, as, indeed, happened. Thereafter the castle was called the Castle of the Holy Angel.”
― Sigrid Grabner, In the Eye of the Storm: A Biography of Gregory the Great

“Knowledge is a virtue,” he would later say, “and this virtue is guarded by humility. In all that we know, we are to remain humble in spirit; otherwise the wind of our own conceit will carry away the knowledge we have gathered for ourselves.”
― Sigrid Grabner, In the Eye of the Storm: A Biography of Gregory the Great