In The Eye of the Storm: A Biography of Gregory the Great by Sigrid Grabner (Ignatius Press 2021: £14.99). There are only two Popes who have been granted the accolade of the title ‘Great’. One was Pope Saint Leo the Great (Pontiff 440-461). The other, is the subject of this impressive and readable book, monk, Prefect of Rome, and subsequently Pope from 590 to 604. This chosen instrument of God to lead the Church earned the title of ‘great’ because of his through his clear vision for the Church through financial and other reforms, his love and protection of the poor, his development of musical notation (Gregorian Chant) and his profound works of theology that still are relevant today but, above all, his profound leadership ( as he wrote to a friend) as Pontiff “in the eye of a storm at the helm of an old and rotten ship.”.