The ''Dialogues'' () of

Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Rom ...

is a collection of four books of miracles, signs, wonders, and healings done by the holy men of sixth-century Italy.

Summary

Writing in Latin in a time of plague and war, Gregory structured his work as a conversation between himself and Peter, a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

. His focus is on miraculous events in the lives of monastics. The second book is devoted to a life of

Saint Benedict Benedict of Nursia (; ; 2 March 480 – 21 March 547), often known as Saint Benedict, was a Great Church, Christian monk. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old ...

Reception

The ''Dialogues'' were the most popular of Gregory's works during the Middle Ages, and in modern times have received more scholarly attention than the rest of his works combined. From this, the author himself is sometimes known as Gregory the Dialogist.

Pope Zachary Pope Zachary (; 679 – March 752) was the bishop of Rome from 28 November 741 to his death in March 752. He was the last pope of the Byzantine Papacy. Zachary built the original church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, forbade the traffic of sla ...

() translated the ''Dialogues'' into

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

References

External links

Text

A critical edition of the entire Dialogues
in Latin with a Greek translation, in ''Sancti Gregorii Papae I, cognomento Magni, opera omnia jam olim ad manuscriptos codices Romanos, Gallicanos, Anglicanos emendata, aucta, & illustrata notis'', studio & labore Monachorum Ordinis Sancti Benedicti, e Congregatione Sancti Mauri, published by Carobolus and Pompeiatus in Venice in 1769.
Partial text of the Dialogues
including the preface and book 2, at the Bibliotheca Augustana

Translations

* * * {{Authority control 6th-century Christian texts Works by Pope Gregory I 6th-century books in Latin 590s