Hierarch Saint Gregory the Dialogist, Pope of Rome

Saint Gregory the Dialogist, Pope of Rome (c. 540 – 604), was born into a wealthy Roman senatorial family and served as urban prefect of Rome in his youth. After his father's death, he used the family fortune to found monasteries and became a monk himself, establishing a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew in the family villa.

Under Pope Pelagius II, he served for years in Constantinople as apocrisiarius (papal legate). Elected pope in 590 after Pelagius's death — though he resisted the office for seven months — he left a vast literary legacy, most famously the "Dialogues" on the lives and miracles of Italian holy men (hence his Eastern epithet "the Dialogist"), a commentary on Job, and numerous homilies.

He is credited with shaping the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, still celebrated during Great Lent in the Orthodox Church. In 596 he dispatched a mission led by Augustine of Canterbury to evangelize the pagan Anglo-Saxons, launching the Christianization of England. He reposed on March 12, 604.