'''Gregory I''', also known as '''Gregory the Great''', served as [[Pope]] of Rome from [[September 3]], 590, until his death on [[March 12]], 604. His family had large land holdings in Italy, which he sold to help the poor. After turning his home into a monastery named for St. Andrew, Pope Pelagius II appointed him as an ambassador to Constantinople; however, Gregory disliked the worldly atmosphere of the court and never learned Greek. After his consecration as Bishop of Rome, he negotiated a peace with the Lombards, who besieged Rome, and he dispatched St. [[Augustine of Canterbury]] to evangelize Britain. He is known in the East as '''Gregory the Dialogist''' for his four-volume ''Dialogues'', in which he wrote of the lives and miracles of the [[saints]] of Italy and of the after-life. It is the primary source of the life of St. [[Benedict of Nursia]]. His other writings include the ''Moralia on Job'', a commentary on the Book of Job; his ''Homilies on Ezekiel''; the ''Pastoral Rule'', which served as the prime manual for priests in the West for many years; and a great number of other sermons. He added the commemoration of the Apostle Andrew to the embolism on the Lord's Prayer in the ancient Roman Mass; ss a result, it is sometimes called the [[Liturgy of St. Gregory the Great|Liturgy of St. Gregory]]. In the East, he is also erroneously credited with devising the [[Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts]].