Gregory of Ostia

Holy Hierarch Gregory of Ostia was bishop of Ostia near Rome and a papal legate in Navarre and Castile, where he reposed in 1044. Tradition shows him as abbot of the monastery of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Rome, then bishop of Ostia and cardinal.

He is said to have been sent to the kingdom of Pamplona around 1039 and to have spent some five years in Spain. He reposed on 9 May 1044 at Logroño, during a pastoral visit in which he succeeded in halting an invasion of locusts. According to tradition his body was loaded on a donkey, which collapsed at Sorlada; a church was built there, and the holy relics are kept in a chest covered with silver. History and legend are mingled in the accounts of him.

From the 17th to the 19th century he was greatly venerated in Navarre as a protector against the pests that ravaged the fields, and "Saint Gregory's water" was blessed in his name. He is commemorated on 9 May, by the Western calendar (new style), and honored as a saint of the undivided Church.