No pope before had seriously thought about taking Christianity into faraway pagan lands. When he was a young deacon, Gregory had seen some fair-haired Anglo-Saxon boys at a Roman slave market. When he was told they were Anglo-Saxon, he said, "They're not Angles, they're angels." Now he was keen to expand papal powers and convert new peoples. He dispatched a mission to England that was remarkably successful. At Christmas 597, 10,000 Angles were baptised as Christians. Gregory's missionary successes made Rome the Holy City of the West. Pilgrims from Europe's northern territories came in their thousands. The religious gold rush was intensified by the ever-stronger belief in the sacred power of martyrs' tombs and relics. Guidebooks from the period ignore Rome's classical monuments, directing visitors instead to Christian sites associated with the lives of the martyrs. At the church of St Lorenzo, pilgrims could see the actual grill on which St Lawrence was roasted.


在此之前从未有哪任教皇认真考虑过将基督教传播到遥远的充斥着异教徒的国土上。当教皇格里高利还是一名年轻的执事时，他曾在罗马的奴隶市场见过一些被充做奴隶贩卖的金色安格鲁萨克逊男孩。当他得知这些男孩是盎格鲁萨克逊人时，他感叹道：“他们不是安格鲁人，他们是安琪儿。”那时格里高利热衷于扩张教皇的权势，积极吸纳新信徒，让他们皈依上帝。他派遣了使团去英国传教，取得了显著成效。到该年圣诞节时，已有5971万安格鲁人受洗成为基督教徒。格里高利教皇手下的传教士成功地将罗马打造成西方的神圣之城。成千上万的朝圣者从欧洲北部来到罗马。为了能膜拜殉道者的坟墓和殉道所在并从中汲取神圣力量，朝拜者的信念愈发坚定，这引发了一场宗教朝拜的狂潮，其狂热程度堪比后世的淘金热。这个时候的罗马旅行指南里并没有提及任何罗马城中的名胜古迹。指南里记载的是基督教的圣址以及与该圣址相关的殉道者的生平。在圣劳伦佐教堂里朝圣者可以看到当年对洛朗圣神施以烤刑的烤架。