The person under consideration in this chapter already has “become Gregory”; he is an individual who imbibed and adopted the wisdom of familial elders along with that of the ecclesiastical fathers. As of the year 573 this individual was amply qualified to convey that wisdom to congregants and readers. Without doubt he desired to begin extolling the benefits saintly virtutes could afford people in this world and the next. But no matter how ready and able he was, nothing could have prepared him fully for Death's next foray. This chapter's opening narrative will address how Death brought Gregory to Tours where it tormented him and his new congregants throughout the first four years of his episcopacy. Next the chapter will address how these dire circumstances of the early episcopacy impacted Gregory's nascent writing program. Finally, it will examine the end product of Gregory's “making,” a distinctive, saint-based pastoral agenda which the bishop tendered in order to help the faithful escape that eternal kind of death at Last Judgment.

Death and the Bishop

In late 573 Death was anticipating a banner year forthcoming; a scuffle between Kings Sigibert and Guntram was about to intensify into one of the most violent episodes of Merovingian civil warfare ever. But first things first; in early August, Death singled out Bishop Eufronius of Tours. News of Eufronius's demise likely caused mixed emotions for the Auvergnat deacon, Gregory. On the one hand, Eufronius was a relation with whom he probably had become increasingly acquainted since the pilgrimage to Martin's basilica in 563, and so Gregory grieved. On the other hand, Gregory had reason to regard Tours as every bit and more the family see that Langres and Lyons had been, and so he likely aspired to take the city’s episcopal seat. As Raymond Van Dam has elaborated, there was never a guarantee Gregory would become the bishop of Tours. But presumably he had taken steps to improve his chances of securing the see, particularly by making himself occasionally visible at King Sigibert's court after the latter took control of Tours in 568.