GREGORIO di AGRIGENTO, bishop, saint. — Born at Pretorion, near Agrigento, around the middle of the sixth century;
according to his biographer, he soon went to Carthage and from there to Palestine, where he entered one of the monasteries of the Sabaites and devoted himself to the study of the Scriptures. He then went to Antioch and Constantinople, and subsequently to Rome, where he entered the monastery of S. Saba.
When the see of Agrigento became vacant and discord arose among the electors, the Pope sent G. there as bishop. After accusations had been brought against him, G. was summoned by Pope Gregorio to Syracuse and then to Rome, before August 591; in 598 he was again in his see, and he is also mentioned in 603. A Greek commentary on Ecclesiastes, in ten books, is preserved under his name (PG 98, 1181-1228); other works
have not survived. He was venerated in the Eastern Church and is commemorated in the Menaia and in the Constantinopolitan Synaxarion on 23 November; he entered the Roman Martyrology only with Baronio.