St. Gregory Nazianzus
(C. 328/29 – C. 389/90 AD)
Historical Note
St. Gregory was the second of the three great Cappadocians. He was born
around the years 328-329 AD nearby the town of Nazianzus. His father,
also named Gregory, had been a heretic (the sect of the Hypsistarii) but
after his conversion effected through his pious wife was consecrated bishop
of Nazianzus.
St. Gregory and St. Basil became the closest of friends while studying
together in Caesarea, Alexandria and Athens. Yet they were altogether
different in temperament, with St. Basil having a tendency towards
arrogance and volatility while St. Gregory was mild, gentle and sensitive. It
was their true Christian friendship that perhaps kept them together despite a
number of quarrels and exchanges of severe letters.
It was not until 360 AD that St. Gregory was baptized. At the demand of
his aging father’s congregation, and to some extent against his will, St.
Gregory was ordained to the priesthood on Christmas 361 AD. Excepting
for a short stay at St. Basil’s monastery on the Iris River, St. Gregory
assisted his father in Nazianzus.
In 371 AD, St. Gregory was consecrated bishop of Sasima by St. Basil who
sought his assistance in his dispute against the Emperor Valens and the
bishop of nearby Tyana. It was a miserable desert village crossroad in
Cappadocia and St. Gregory never took charge of it, remaining in
Nazianzus assisting his father until his death in 374 AD. St. Gregory’s
abandonment of Sasima was the cause of an unhappy estrangement
between him and St. Basil.
St. Gregory then withdrew to a retreat in Seleucia and, after hearing of St.
Basil’s death in 379 AD, was invited by the Nicene party to be their bishop
in Constantinople, a long-time stronghold of the Arians. Despite his
instinctive longing for solitude he accepted and in the small chapel of the
Anastasis delivered his famous discourses on the Trinity to the beleaguered
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