Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

Gregory was born about 540 into a Roman senatorial family and about 573 was prefect of the city. He then gave away his wealth, turned the family house on the Caelian Hill into the monastery of St Andrew and became a monk. Pope Pelagius II sent him as envoy to Constantinople. Elected pope in 590, during plague and floods, he fed the city from the Church's estates, negotiated with the Lombards and in 596 sent the monk Augustine with companions to the English. He called himself “servant of the servants of God”. His Pastoral Rule, Dialogues and sermons were read for centuries; in the East he is called the Dialogist. He died on 12 March 604; his feast is the day of his consecration, 3 September 590.