Orality in Dialogues of Gregory the Great

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: A, Central European University Budapest, course: Word and Text, language: English, abstract: Gregory the Great wrote his Dialogues, book II, on the Life of St. Benedict in 593 AD. He is the main authority and virtually unique source on the life of this saint. In fact, this book was written only fifty years after Benedict's death. At the time relatively close to saint's life, oral tradition was implemented into written records to a large extent. Gregory often, in citing his sources, mentions personal conversations with other people about Benedict and eyewitnesses of the events. Gregory was so strongly attached to the figure of St. Benedict that he indicated his respect and love by assigning him a central role in the Dialogues. This collection forms part of that vast corpus of lives of the saints which were produced in the late antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. The Dialogues consist of four books; the first and third deal with a number of holy persons and their miracles, with the single chapter devoted to each saint, while the fourth book deals with immortality of the soul.