Gregory the Great

A Roman prefect's career abandoned for a monk's cell, Gregory was pulled from his monastery to become pope in 590, as plague, flood, and Lombard armies pressed on Rome. He fed the city from the church's estates, negotiated with invaders, and still produced the Moralia on Job, the Dialogues, and the Pastoral Rule — the West's manual for bishops for a thousand years. Struck by the sight of English boys in the slave market ('not Angles but angels,' he punned), he sent Augustine of Canterbury to evangelize England in 596. The first monk to be pope, he signed himself 'servant of the servants of God.'

Seeing fair-haired English boys in Rome's slave market, he punned 'not Angles but angels' — and later sent the mission that converted England.

Gregory the Great has 567 commentary entries in HolyStudy’s verse-by-verse Church Fathers commentary. Open any Gospel chapter, tap a verse, and choose the Church Fathers tab.