Pope Pelagius II was born with the given name of Pelagius in the year A.D., and died in 590 A.D. He began his reign as Pope in the year 579 A.D. and ended his reign in the year 590 A.D., during the Early Middle Ages. Pelagius II was from Gothic, and his papal number is: 63 out of 267 officially recognized Roman Catholic Popes.

Summary: Pope who faced plague, Lombards, and the eve of Gregory the Great.

Pelagius II ruled during a bleak period marked by Lombard aggression, strained relations with Constantinople, and the plague that devastated Rome. In these conditions, the practical responsibilities of the papacy grew ever heavier, and the bishop of Rome increasingly acted as a civic leader as well as an ecclesiastical one.

He also engaged questions involving the title of the patriarch of Constantinople and concerns about Roman primacy, anticipating themes that would become more defined in later centuries. His pontificate forms an important bridge between the collapsing structures of late antiquity and the more assertive papal leadership of Gregory the Great.

Pelagius II died during plague, leaving behind a Church prepared for one of its greatest shepherds.