The rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, constrains the growth of competing movements, particularly Christianity.

589 CE: GEONIM

Beginning of the period of the Geonim, heads of the academies in Babylon.

590 CE: PAPACY OF GREGORY THE GREAT

Pope St. Gregory I…better known historically as Gregory the Great, was pope from September 590 until his death.

He is also known as Gregory the Dialogist in Eastern Orthodoxy because of his Dialogues. He was the first of the popes to come from a monastic background. Gregory is a Doctor of the Church and one of the six Latin Fathers. He is considered a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Gregory is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers.

[This is the same Gregory who codified the pejorative version of Mary Magdalene (i.e. the vilification that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute)].

Jewish traditions, in the very rare cases where they encounter the issue, do not “buy–into” the pejorative version of the Magdalene saga. If anything, they are intrigued by the female disciple Mary Magdalene.

As noted above, Gregory’s actions mystify. He comes perilously close to undermining Christendom itself with his undermining of pivotal Mary Magdalene, the asserted “sole witness” (of the “resurrection” of Jesus).]