Gregory I, known as Gregory the Great, served as bishop of Rome from 590 until his death in 604, becoming one of the most influential popes of late antiquity and the early medieval period. Born into a Roman senatorial family around 540, he converted his family estate into a monastery before being drawn into papal diplomacy and ultimately elected pope. His voluminous correspondence, preserved in the Registrum Epistolarum, reveals the broad scope of his administrative, pastoral, and theological concerns, from the organization of church property and the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to the suppression of simony and the care of the Roman poor. He is recognized as a Doctor of the Church and patron saint of musicians and teachers.
