Any attempt to imagine and describe pastoral care in the early church encounters a great many obstacles. This chapter first deals with three paradigms of the pastoral ideal as it was articulated in the fourth century. Gregory Nazianzen, John Chrysostom, and Cicero Ambrose agree that the character of the pastor is a crucial prerequisite for his work. Next, the chapter deals with the way people experienced care from holy people and monastics, and from resorting to the shrines of martyrs and the holy places. In broad terms there is continuity with the paradigms of pastoral care articulated by Nazianzen, Chrysostom and Ambrose. At the same time, Gregory no longer draws explicitly upon Platonism or Stoicism, and late antiquity has begun to fade. From a pastoral perspective the implementation of moral discipline attached first of all to catechetical preparation for baptism. As a consequence of the Constantinian revolution the church tended to tighten discipline at this level.