The phrase "great esteem" means having a high regard or admiration for someone or something. It signifies holding someone or something in a very high and positive opinion. Full definition
She called on them to celebrate pathfinders like Mary Toliman, an Aboriginal woman held in great esteem in the 19th century as a midwife and bush nurse, and May Yarrowick, an Aboriginal nurse who trained in obstetric nursing in Sydney in 1903 and is believed to be Australia's first Indigenous woman to qualify in Western nursing. (croakey.org)
But while it is true that Eastern Christians generally value their married clergy, it is equally true that a majority of these believers hold monasticism in even greater esteem. (firstthings.com)
He was held in great esteem at the imperial court of China, and he still knows it today. (dogtime.com)