Hard by was the house of Sta. Silvia, mother of St. Gregory, of which the ruins still remain, opposite to the church of S. Giovanni e Paolo, and in the little garden which still exists, we may believe that he played as a child under his mother's care. Close to his mother's home he founded the monastery of St. Andrew, where he dwelt for many years as a monk, employed in writing homilies, and in the enjoyment of visionary conversation with the Virgin, whom he believed to answer him in person from her picture before which he knelt. "To this monastery he presented his own portrait, with those of his father and mother, which were probably in existence 300 years after his death; and this portrait of himself probably furnished that peculiar type of physiognomy which we trace in all the best representations of him."[160] During the life of penance and poverty which was led here by St. Gregory, he sold all his goods for the benefit of the poor, retaining nothing but a silver bason given him by his mother. One day a poor shipwrecked sailor came several times to beg in the cell where he was writing, and as he had no money, he gave him instead this one remaining treasure. A long time after, St. Gregory saw the same shipwrecked sailor reappear in the form of his guardian angel, who told him that God had henceforth destined him to rule his church, and become the successor of St. Peter, whose charity he had imitated.[161] "Un moine (A.D. 590) va monter pour la première fois sur la chaire apostolique. Ce moine, le plus illustre de tous ceux qui ont compté parmi les souverains pontifes, y rayonnera d'un éclat qu'aucun de ses prédécesseurs n'a égalé et qui rejaillera comme une sanction suprême, sur l'institut dont il est issu. Grégoire, le seul parmi les hommes avec le Pape Léon Ier qui ait reçu à la fois, du consentement universel, le double surnom de Saint et de Grand, sera l'eternel honneur de l'Ordre bénédictin comme de la papauté. Par son génie, mais surtout par le charme et l'ascendant de sa vertu, il organisera le domaine temporel des papes, il développera et régularisera leur souveraineté spirituelle, il fondera leur paternelle suprématie sur les royautés naissantes et les nations nouvelles qui vont devenir les grands peuples de l'avenir, et s'appeler la France, l'Espagne, l'Angleterre. A vrai dire, c'est lui qui inaugure le moyen âge, la société moderne et la civilisation chrétienne."--_Montalembert._