Gregory was the obvious choice to succeed Pope Pelagius. Some, having fled from the infected cities, escaped themselves, but imparted the disease to the healthy ( Church History, IV.29). The ways in which the disease was communicated, were various and unaccountable: for some perished by merely living with the infected, others by only touching them, others by having entered their chamber, others by frequenting public places. His account is eerily similar to the pandemic we now face: And the plague had just taken the life of Pope Pelagius II in February of 590.Įvagrius Scholasticus, a church historian who died that year in Antioch, lost most of his family to the plague, which had spread throughout the empire. The Roman Empire in the West had fallen, the infrastructure of Rome lay in ruins, the Tiber was constantly flooding, and famine and the bubonic plague were decimating a population already in steep decline. Gregory the Great was indisputably amongst the greatest popes to lead the Church (AD 590-604), and he did so as his world was crumbling around him.
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