Dialogues (Pope Gregory I)

Miniature of Gregory the Great writing, from a 12th-century copy of his Dialogues

The Dialogues (Latin : Dialogi) of Gregory the Great 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. ^[1] His focus is on miraculous events in the lives of monastics.

The second book is devoted to a life of Saint Benedict. ^[2]

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. ^[3] From this, the author himself is sometimes known as Gregory the Dialogist. ^[4]

Pope Zachary (r. 741–752) translated the Dialogues into Greek. ^[5]

References

1. Moorhead, John (2002). "The figure of the deacon Peter in the Dialogues of Gregory the Great". Augustinianum. 42 (2): 469–479. doi:10.5840/agstm20024227.
2. Meyvaert, Paul (2004). "The Authentic Dialogues of Gregory the Great". Sacris Erudiri. 43: 55–130. doi:10.1484/j.se.2.300121.
3. Moorhead, John (July 2003). "Taking Gregory the Great's Dialogues Seriously". The Downside Review. 121 (424): 197–210. doi:10.1177/001258060312142404. S2CID   169438580.
4. Demacopoulos, George (2010). "Gregory the Great and a Post-Imperial Discourse": 120–137. doi:10.7916/D88S505K.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
5. Ivan Havener (1989), "The Greek Prologue to the Dialogues of Gregory the Great: The Critical Text", Revue bénédictine, 99 (1–2): 103–117, doi:10.1484/J.RB.4.01416 .

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, as of 2022 ^[update] including the preface and book 2, at the Bibliotheca Augustana

Translations

• Gardner, Edmund Garratt (1911). The dialogues of Saint Gregory, surnamed the Great; pope of Rome & the first of that name. Divided into four books, wherein he entreateth of the lives and miracles of the saints in Italy and of the eternity of men's souls. London: Warner.
• Zimmerman, ODO John (1959). Saint Gregory the Great: Dialogues. New York: Catholic University of America Press. ISBN   9780813211398.
• Zimmerman, John (2021). Saint Gregory the Dialogist: The Dialogues - Miracles of the Italian Fathers. Arizona: SAGOM Press. ISBN   9781945699382.