The Mass of Saint Gregory

Its symbolic emphasis on papal authority and divine intervention reflects Counter‑Reformation themes of spiritual legitimacy.

The Mass of Saint Gregory portrays the saint presiding at the altar while a vision of the crucified Christ appears above it, a motif that underscores the doctrine of the Real Presence. The composition includes a standing priest, an ornate altar, and the spectral figure of Christ, all identified in the sources as central iconographic elements of the miracle of the Mass. The work, dated to 1490 and attributed to the Spanish school, was painted for devotional use and originally housed in a Spanish church before entering the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its symbolic emphasis on papal authority and divine intervention reflects Counter‑Reformation themes of spiritual legitimacy.