CrucisPope St. Gregory VII
Pope St. Gregory VII was born Hildebrand about 1015 in Tuscany, Italy, and rose to become the driving force of the great movement of Church reform in the eleventh century, first as a trusted adviser to several popes and then, from 1073, as pope himself. He gave his name to the "Gregorian Reform," a sweeping effort to purify the Church of the corruption of the age, above all the buying and selling of church offices, the marriage and concubinage of clergy, and the domination of the Church by lay rulers.
His insistence that bishops and abbots be invested by the Church and not by secular princes brought him into a titanic struggle over lay investiture with the Emperor Henry IV. In a famous episode Gregory excommunicated the emperor, who was forced to seek absolution by standing barefoot in the snow at Canossa in 1077; but the conflict resumed, and Henry later drove Gregory from Rome. He died in exile at Salerno on 25 May 1085, declaring, "I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile." He was canonized and is celebrated on 25 May.
Selected quotes
“God does not measure success as the world does; the servant who is faithful unto exile has already won the only victory that endures.”
“Better to be afflicted for righteousness than to prosper in compromise; the peace bought by surrendering truth is no peace at all.”
“The cross of exile is lighter than the chains of a guilty conscience; I would rather lose all than betray what God has entrusted to me.”