Gregory of Utrecht

c.707-c.775. Missionary and abbot. Son of noble Frankish parents, he was educated at the abbey of Pfalzel where his widowed mother was abbess. Hearing Boniface speak on the apostolic life in 722, he immediately joined him and remained associated with him as a fellow-laborer for more than thirty years, accompanying him to Rome in 738, where Gregory acquired valuable manuscripts. He became abbot of St. Martin's at Utrecht in 750, establishing there a kind of missionary college to which students flocked from almost all the German tribes and even England. He was appointed administrator of the diocese of Utrecht, but was never consecrated bishop, and following the death of Boniface was commissioned by Pope Stephen III to convert the Frisians. His biography as recorded by his pupil Liudger, first bishop of Munster, stresses his contempt of riches, seriousness, forgiveness, and charity.