Gregory at first allowed himself to be arrested, but losing heart from the
brutal treatment he received, escaped to a secret place of safety. St.
Gregory was then deposed as bishop in absentia by the Synod of Nyssa. He
managed to regain his see two years later after the death of the Emperor
Valens, and was received with joy by the local populace.
After St. Basil died in 379 AD, a new era of activity began for St. Gregory
of Nyssa. He was highly regarded by the Emperor Theodosius and his see
is named in one of his edicts as a center of Catholic communion in the East.
In 380 AD, he was elected as Bishop of Sebaste and attended the Council
of Constantinople in 381 AD where he defended St. Gregory Nazianzus
and was looked upon as the heir to St. Basil’s thought. His reputation grew
to such an extent that he was chosen to preach the funeral panegyrics of the
Princess Pulcheria and the Empress Flaccilla in Constantinople in 385 AD.
After attending a synod at Constantinople in 394 AD, St. Gregory
disappeared from the scene. He may have journeyed to Arabia at the behest
of this Synod to repress ecclesiastical disorders there and died soon
afterwards.
Extracts
Virginity (370 AD):
14
“Just as in the time of Mary, the Mother of God, the Death who had reigned from
Adam until then found, when he came to her and dashed his forces against the fruit
of her virginity as against a rock, that he was himself shattered against her, so too
in every soul that passes through this life in flesh that is protected by virginity, the
strength of Death is shattered and annulled, when Death finds no place in which to
fix his sting.”
Against Eunomius (Inter 380-384 AD):
Bk 3
“Let (Eunomius) first show, then, that the Church has believed in vain that the
Only-begotten Son truly exists, not made such through adoption by a Father falsely
so-called, but existing as such according to nature, by generation from Him Who
Is, not estranged from the nature of Him who begot Him…And let no one interrupt
me and say that what we confess should be confirmed by constructive reasoning. It
suffices for the proof of our statement that we have a tradition coming down to us
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