Roman Plague of 590
The Roman Plague of 590 was a local plague that affected the city of Rome in the year 590. It followed from the great plague of Justinian that may have killed more than 100 million Europeans[1] that began in the 540s and spread to other parts of the world.[2]
During the plague, the bishop of Rome Pelagius II died and Gregory the Great was elected his successor. Gregory had previously served as a kind of papal ambassador called an apocrisiarius to the Byzantine court where he had likely been influenced by Byzantine practices. Constantinople, which was consecrated to the protection of the Mother of God (Theokotos) had a practice whereby processions would be done through city streets of masses of the faithful that would chant psalms and kyrie eleison to console God's wrath. Gregory had likely seen these many times during his stay in Constantinople.[3]
When the plague was in Rome in 590 and Gregory was still a deacon, he organized such a procession to take place in Rome wherein seven groups would hold processions through the streets of the city and ending at the basilica of Mary Major to ask for the Virgin's Mary protection. This was perhaps unusual at the time, since Rome was traditionally associated with St Peter's protection, but it may have been a result of Byzantine influence, since Constantinople was often put under Mary's protection during times of crisis.[3]
The seven processional groups were: 1) clergy, 2) abbots and monks, 3) abbesses and nuns, 4) men 5) married women 6) widows and 7) children.(also perhaps including the poor of Rome)[3]
The processions took place on April 25, 590.[3][4]
The reason for the processions was because plagues and other national disasters were typically interpreted at the time as being the chastisement of God for sinfulness, and therefore to appease God's wrath, these measures were taken. Eighty people collapsed during the processions as a result of being infected by plague. St Michael the Archangel supposedly appeared with a flaming sword standing on top of Hadrian's Mausoluem (which is today known as Castel Sant'Angelo precisely because of this story) and he sheathed it when the procession approached, which was interpreted to signify that God's wrath had been turned back, and the plague supposedly stopped at that moment, following which the faithful thanked the Mother of God.[4]