Pope Gregory I

Pope Saint Gregory I or Gregory the Great (ca. 540 – March 12, 604) was pope of the Catholic Church from September 3, 590 until his death. He is also known as Gregory Dialogus (the Dialogist) in Eastern Orthodoxy) because of the Dialogues he wrote. He was the first of the popes from a monastic background, and he formulated the program that the papacy would follow over the next two centuries: independence of the Emperor and an alliance with the Benedictine abbots and with the Merovingian kingdoms of the Franks. Though he was not really a theologian, Gregory is considered a Doctor of the Church; he was the true founder of the Early Medieval papacy.

Related Topics:
Saint - 540 - March 12 - 604 - Pope - Catholic Church - September 3 - 590 - Eastern Orthodoxy - Dialogue - Papacy - Benedictine - Abbot - Merovingian - Franks - Doctor of the Church

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Gregory was born to a patrician and thoroughly Christian Roman family (father, Gordianus, and mother, Silvia) that owned latifundia in the south and a domus on the Caelian Hill, the foundations of which support the Church of St. Andrew and St. Gregory. He pursued a secular political career, which climaxed in the position of Prefect of Rome, the highest civil honor, before he entered a Benedictine monastery that he had founded. He was a member of the embassy sent by Pelagius to Constantinople, about 579, where he remained six years, making the acquaintance of Leander of Seville, the brother of Isidore of Seville.

Related Topics:
Patrician - Latifundia - Domus - Caelian Hill - Prefect of Rome - Benedictine monastery - Pelagius - Constantinople - 579 - Leander of Seville - Isidore of Seville

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