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History
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Pope St. Gregory I (the Great) was born in 540 A.D. of Christian Roman parents of considerable wealth. Bede (c.673 - 735 A.D.) records how Gregory wanted to leave the worldly life, ignoring pastoral duties which, he felt, interfered with his contemplations. He reluctantly became Pope in 590, and was both influential and successful, acknowledging the authority of the Emperor in secular matters but ensuring that the Church had a prominent place in current affairs. In 596 he sent missionaries to bring Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons, forming a bond between Gregory and insular monasticism that would remain strong. His writings were widespread - it is possible that he sent some of his own works to Britain with Augustine of Canterbury in 596 - and formed the basis of most monastic libraries. Outside the cloister, Gregory's works were also used in secular teaching: both his Dialogi and the Cura Pastoralis were translated into Anglo-Saxon by 894, and Alfred the Great (d 899) ensured the promulgation of the latter. The influence of his work on other writers was considerable. Gregory died in Rome in 604, greatly mourned.
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