St. Gregory VII

Their story

Hildebrand was born around 1020 in Tuscany, Italy, to a family of modest means. He was educated in Rome, became a monk, and for more than twenty years served several popes as a trusted adviser, working for the reform of the Church. In 1073, at the funeral of Pope Alexander II, the crowds in Rome acclaimed him as the next pope, and he took the name Gregory VII. The Church at that time was weakened by serious abuses. Church offices were often bought and sold, many clergy did not live holy lives, and kings and nobles appointed bishops and abbots as if they were their own officials. Gregory set out to free the Church from this control and to call the clergy to holiness. His reforms brought him into fierce conflict with the German king and emperor Henry IV, who declared the pope deposed. Gregory responded by excommunicating Henry. In January 1077 Henry came to the castle of Canossa in Italy and stood barefoot in the snow for three days as a penitent, and Gregory absolved him. The peace did not last. Henry later marched on Rome, and the Normans who came to rescue Gregory plundered the city, turning the people against the pope. Gregory was forced into exile in Salerno, where he died on May 25, 1085. His last words are said to have been, "I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile." He was canonized in 1728. His reforms shaped the Church for centuries.