Gregory of Agrigento

He is the probable subject of two semi-legendary saint's lives and possible author of a commentary on Ecclesiastes, although both of these identifications have been questioned.

[3] In 590,[c] two factions with their respective candidates for the vacant see of Agrigento traveled to Rome to seek the pope's decision.

In November 592, the pope wrote to Bishop Maximian of Syracuse demanding that he send Gregory's accusers and some documentation to Rome without delay.

[1] Its full title is An Account of the Life of Saint Gregory, Bishop of the Church of Agrigento.

[14] Albrecht Berger assigns it to the period between 750 and 828 on the grounds that it relies on the Donation of Constantine (unknown before the mid-8th century).

[14] John Martyn, arguing from correspondences between the biography and the papal letters, assigns it an early date of around 640.

[14] For Martyn, it is "an important, contemporary document on the cities, clergy and people of Agrigento, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople and Rome during" the papacy of Gregory I and one of very few 7th-century sources on Sicily.

The biography depicts the Sicilian episcopate as supporting Gregory against the papacy and in general has an anti-papal tone.

[6] Morcelli, in his Latin edition, argued that the anti-papal tone stemmed from some pamphlets directed against Gregory I that circulated in Rome after his death.

[16] It was one of only 14 texts out of 148 that Simeon left intact and did not rework,[17] and one of only seven that he promised the reader would give them pleasure to read.

[2] The popularity of Gregory's cult can be gauged by the large number of surviving iconographic representations of him.

[15] The hagiography supplies a list of works by Gregory, one of which was dedicated to Saint Andrew, described as "chief" (koryphaios) of the apostles.