St Gregory Barbarigo

Gregory Barbarigo is one of those saints whose life looks quiet until you notice how much good is actually being held together by one disciplined, charitable man. Born in Venice in 1625 into an old noble family, he first appears in public affairs rather than in a sacristy. This life notes that while still young he accompanies the Venetian ambassador to the Congress of Munster, where the Thirty Years' War is finally brought to a close. There he meets the nuncio Fabio Chigi, later Pope Alexander VII, and that friendship changes the whole direction of his life. In 1657 Gregory is made bishop of Bergamo, in 1660 cardinal, and in 1664 bishop of Padua. From there the portrait becomes steadily pastoral. This life praises him as a second Charles Borromeo because he governs like a reforming bishop of the old school: visiting, guiding, correcting, and building.

He is hard only on himself and notably gentle with everyone else, especially the poor and the distressed. His almsgiving is immense, but he is not merely generous in passing. He also believes charity must be strengthened by institutions that outlast one lifetime. He founds a college, strengthens the seminary, equips it with its own printing press, and gathers a learned library rich in scripture and the fathers. That combination gives this life real force. Gregory is not remembered for visions or dramatic persecution, but for using rank, money, learning, and administrative power cleanly for the cure of souls. He dies peacefully in 1697 with the reputation of a shepherd who spent himself in a durable, orderly, and deeply charitable pastoral life.