Gregorio Magno e le Province orientali di Palestina e Arabia

Several letters written by Pope Gregory deal with people and problems of Palestine and Sinai, in particular with reference to the monastic life in Jerusalem and to pilgrims and pilgrimage to the Holy Sites. Pope Gregory sends offerings for the pilgrim hostels in Jerusalem and Sinai, and in two occasions deals with the disputes existing among Amos the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Superior of the monastery of the Nea Church. Scholars have already discussed these topics, but only recently I. Shahid has pointed out the possibility of identifying Alamundaros, the personage referred to in the letter to Innocentio Praefecto Praetorio Africae (X,16): De Anamundaro autem quae scripsistis fecimus, sed voluntatem utinam sequatur effectus, quia quantum ad nos pertinet, afflictis intercessionis nostrae solacium non negamus. Anamundarus could be al-Munthir/Alamundarus, the king of the Christian Arab Confederation of the Beni Ghassan sent to exile in Sicily by Emperor Mauritius. A recent discovery of a Greek inscription in Jerash with the name of Marianos, Bishop of Arabia, to whom Pope Gregory writes another letter (XI, 20: Gregorius Mariano episcopo Arabia) permits the historical identification already proposed by P.-L. Gatier. The precise year for the VIth indiction given in the inscription can be either 572, 587 or 602—only two years before the death of the Pope.