The Frankish bishop and historian St. Gregory of Tours (538-594) was a Christian leader who wrote a valuable history of the Franks.

The son of a prominent family in the territory of the Arverni in south-central France, Gregory was born on Nov. 30, 538. His father had been a Roman senator, and relatives of his mother had held high offices in the Church. As a boy, he studied not only the Bible and the lives of the Christian martyrs but also the secular literature of his time. At 25 he became a deacon in the Church. In 573, while he was in Tours to seek a cure at the tomb of St. Martin for a mysterious sickness he had contracted, Gregory was asked by the people to stay and become their bishop.

Two years later the city of Tours came under the control of Chilperic, a cruel and callous king of the...