Abstract

This article discusses the charity towards the poor that characterized the so-called cura animarum of Pope Gregory the Great. It draws its information first from the Registrum Epistularum and then from the Vita Gregorii Magni of John the Deacon. From the Registrum the author gathers information on the honesty and competence of the administrators of the ecclesiastical patrimony, and on the use of goodness and rigour in the exercise of power. From the Vita, the author highlights some hagiographic aspects related to donations to the poor. This article presents the theme of Pope Gregory’s charity by drawing on both historical and hagiographic sources, highlighting how certain events and aspects of his life flourished in later hagiographical legend.