579

Popes

2. Benedict I (574–579)

Pontificate Under Active Lombard Siege

• Description: Benedict I's pontificate coincided with sustained Lombard military pressure across central Italy. Rome itself came under siege during his tenure, and famine conditions in the city were severe. Benedict I died in office in 579 — the combination of plague, famine, and Lombard encirclement defining a papacy with almost no room to maneuver. His successor would immediately dispatch the man who would change everything.
• Source: New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, List of Popes — https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12272b.htm

3. Pelagius II (579–590)

The Pope Who Sent Gregory to Constantinople

• Description: Pelagius II made the critical decision to ordain Gregory (the future Gregory I) as a deacon and dispatch him to Constantinople as apocrisiarius — papal legate — with instructions to secure military help against the Lombards. The mission ultimately failed: the emperor would not commit forces to Rome's defense. Pelagius II died of the plague in February 590, one of thousands of victims of the epidemic that was simultaneously devastating Rome. His pontificate illustrates the structural problem Gregory would inherit: a papacy entirely dependent on an imperial patron that was absent and indifferent.
• Source: New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, List of Popes — https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12272b.htm; Encyclopaedia Britannica, St. Gregory the Great — https://www.britannica.com/biography/St-Gregory-the-Great