Abstract
Letters and discourses of great men throw valuable side-lights, not only on their own personal character and history, but also on the religious, political, and economic aspects of the times in which they lived. |Pope St. Gregory the Great was born 186 years after the Great Doctor of the North African Church. St. Gregory was religiously brought up and constantly yearned for a life of contemplation in the cloister. For a few years after his conversion St. Augustine was permitted to live in seclusion in close union with God. In the lives of these two Pastors of souls, we find that, although each desired to remain in a monastery, circumstance« necessitated their return to active life.