Gregory’s Dialogues was an early attempt at hagiography, “writing about the saints,” which emphasized the fantastic and miraculous, turning the saints into sort of superheroes. During his papacy, veneration of the body parts, clothing, and so on of saints was encouraged; it would become a major feature of medieval piety. For centuries no church could be established without the relic of a saint to be placed in it. Though Gregory did not claim to be a theologian, some of his beliefs became essentials