description which he gives
stops at the hands.

"His figure was of ordinary height, and was well made; his face was a
happy medium between the length of his father's and the roundness of his
mother's face, so that with a certain roundness it seemed to be of a very
comely length, his beard being like his father's, of a rather tawny
colour, and of moderate length. He was rather bald, so that in the middle
of his forehead he had two small neat curls, twisted towards the right;
the crown of his head was round and large, his darkish hair being nicely
curled and hanging down as far as the middle of his ear; his forehead was
high, his eyebrows long and elevated; his eyes had dark pupils, and
though not large were open, under full eyelids; his nose from the
starting-point of his curving eyebrows being thin and straight, broader
about the middle, slightly aquiline, and expanded at the nostrils; his
mouth was red, lips thick and sub-divided; his cheeks were well-shaped,
and his chin of a comely prominence from the confines of the jaws; his
colour was swarthy and ruddy, not, as it afterwards became, unhealthy
looking; his expression was kindly; he had beautiful hands, with tapering
fingers, well adapted for writing."

The description goes on to say that Gregory wore the _penula_ (cloak) of
chestnut colour, and over it the sacred pall, and that in his hands he
carried the book of the Gospel. We learn, further, that he did not have
the round nimbus, but a rectangular or square one, with which it was the
custom to adorn the heads of portraits of eminent people in their
life-time. John considers this a sure proof that the painting was
executed during the life of the saint; if it had been done after his
death, he would have been given a circular nimbus.

In the same monastery were portraits of his father and mother, Gordianus
and Silvia. But of course all have been destroyed.

The portrait (_frontispiece_) here reproduced is a reconstruction from
John the Deacon's description, made by Angelo Rocca, Bishop of Tagaste,
and a noted archaeologist of his time (1597). He combined the three
portraits in one.

Another reconstruction from John the Deacon's description may be seen in
_Rassegna Gregoriana_ for June, 1903. This follows the description more
closely than does that of Rocca.

At a later date there grew up the custom of representing St. Gregory
always with a dove. According to John the Deacon it was already customary
in his da