For the facts of his biography we have an outline of his early years in his eulogy on Origen, and incidental notices in the writings of Eusebius, of Basil of Caesarea and Jerome. Gregory of Nyssa’s untrustworthy panegyric represents him as having wrought miracles of a very startling description; but nothing related by him comes near the astounding narratives given in the Martyrologies, or even in the Breviarium Romanum, in connexion with his name.
The principal works of Gregory Thaumaturgus are the Panegyricus in Origenem (Εἰς Ὠριγένην πανηγυρικὸς λόγος), which he wrote when on the point of leaving the school of that great master (it contains a valuable minute description of Origen’s mode of instruction), a Metaphrasis in Ecclesiasten, characterized by Jerome as “short but useful”; and an Epistola canonica, which treats of the discipline to be undergone by those Christians who under pressure of persecution had relapsed into paganism, but desired to be restored to the privileges of the Church. It gives a good picture of the conditions of the time, and shows Gregory to be a true shepherd (cf. art Penance). The Ἔκθεσις πίστεως (Expositio fidei), a short creed usually attributed to Gregory, and traditionally alleged to have been received by him immediately in vision from the apostle John himself, is probably authentic. A sort of Platonic dialogue of doubtful authenticity “on the impassivity and the passivity of God” in Syriac is in the British Museum.
Editions: Gerhard Voss (Mainz, 1604), Fronto Ducäus (Paris, 1622), Migne, Patr. Graec. x. 963.
Translations: S. D. F. Salmond in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vi.; Lives, by Pallavicini (Rome, 1644); J. L. Boye (Jena, 1709); H. R. Reynolds (Dict. Chr. Biog. ii.); G. Krüger, Early Chr. Lit. 226; Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk. vii. (where full bibliographies are given).
GREGORY, ST, OF NAZIANZUS (329–389), surnamed
Theologus, one of the four great fathers of the Eastern Church,
was born about the year A.D. 329, at or near Nazianzus,
Cappadocia. His father, also named Gregory, had lately become
bishop of the diocese; his mother, Nonna, exercised a
powerful influence over the religious convictions of both father
and son. Gregory visited successively the two Caesareas,
Alexandria and Athens, as a student of grammar, mathematics,
rhetoric and philosophy; at Athens he had for fellow-students
Basil (q.v.), who afterwards became bishop of Caesarea, and
Julian, afterwards emperor. Shortly after his return to his
father’s house at Nazianzus (about the year 360) Gregory
received baptism. He resolved to give himself to the service of
religion; but for some time, and indeed more or less throughout
his whole life, was in a state of hesitation as to the form which
that service ought to take. Strongly inclined by nature and
education to a contemplative life spent among books and in the
society of congenial friends, he was continually urged by outward
circumstances, as well as by an inward call, to active pastoral
labour. The spirit of refined intellectual monasticism, which
clung to him through life and never ceased to struggle for the
ascendancy, was about this time strongly encouraged by his
intercourse with Basil, who induced him to share the exalted
pleasures of his retirement in Pontus. To this period belongs
the preparation of the Φιλοκαλία, a sort of chrestomathy compiled
by the two friends from the writings of Origen. But the
events which were stirring the political and ecclesiastical life of
Cappadocia, and indeed of the whole Roman world, made a career
of learned leisure difficult if not impossible to a man of Gregory’s
position and temperament. The emperor Constantius, having
by intrigue and intimidation succeeded in thrusting a semi-Arian
formula upon the Western bishops assembled at Ariminum
in Italy, had next attempted to follow the same course with the
Eastern episcopate. The aged bishop of Nazianzus having
yielded to the imperial threats, a great storm arose among the
monks of the diocese, which was only quelled by the influence
of the younger Gregory, who shortly afterwards (about 361) was
ordained to the priesthood. After a vain attempt to evade his
new duties and responsibilities by flight, he appears to have
continued to act as a presbyter in his father’s diocese without interruption
for some considerable time; and it is probable that
his two Invectives against Julian are to be assigned to this period.
Subsequently (about 372), under a pressure which he somewhat
resented, he allowed himself to be nominated by Basil as bishop
of Sasima, a miserable little village some 32 m. from Tyana;
but he seems hardly, if at all, to have assumed the duties of this
diocese, for after another interval of “flight” we find him once
more (about 372–373) at Nazianzus, assisting his aged father,
on whose death (374) he retired to Seleucia in Isauria for a period
of some years. Meanwhile a more important field for his activities
was opening up. Towards 378–379 the small and depressed
remnant of the orthodox party in Constantinople sent him
an urgent summons to undertake the task of resuscitating their
cause, so long persecuted and borne down by the Arians of the
capital. With the accession of Theodosius to the imperial
throne, the prospect of success to the Nicene doctrine had dawned,
if only it could find some courageous and devoted champion.
The fame of Gregory as a learned and eloquent disciple of Origen,
and still more of Athanasius, pointed him out as such a defender;
nor could he resist the appeal made to him, although he took the
step reluctantly. Once arrived in Constantinople, he laboured
so zealously and well that the orthodox party speedily gathered
strength; and the small apartment in which they had been
accustomed to meet was soon exchanged for a vast and celebrated
church which received the significant name of Anastasia, the
Church of the Resurrection. Among the hearers of Gregory
were to be found, not only churchmen like Jerome and Evagrius,
but also heretics and pagans; and it says much for the sound
wisdom and practical tact of the preacher that he set himself
less to build up and defend a doctrinal position than to urge
his flock to the cultivation of the loving Christian spirit which
cherishes higher aims than mere heresy hunting or endless disputation.
Doctrinal, nevertheless, he was, as is abundantly
shown by the famous five discourses on the Trinity, which earned
for him the distinctive appellation of θεολόγος. These orations
are the finest exposition of the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity
as conceived by the orthodox teachers of the East, and they
were directed especially against the Eunomians and Macedonians.
“There is perhaps no single book in Greek patristic literature
to which the student who desires to gain an exact and comprehensive
view of Greek theology can be more confidently
referred.” With the arrival of Theodosius in 380 came the
visible triumph of the orthodox cause; the metropolitan see
was then conferred upon Gregory, and after the assembling
of the second ecumenical council in 381 he received consecration
from Meletius. In consequence, however, of a spirit of discord
and envy which had manifested itself in connexion with this
promotion, he soon afterwards resigned his dignity and withdrew
into comparative retirement. The rest of his days were spent
partly at Nazianzus in ecclesiastical affairs, and partly on his
neighbouring patrimonial estate at Arianzus, where he followed
his favourite literary pursuits, especially poetical composition,
until his death, which occurred in 389 or 390. His festival is
celebrated in the Eastern Church on the 25th and 30th of January,
in the Western on the 9th of May (duplex).
His extant works consist of poems, epistles and orations. The poems, which include epigrams, elegies and an autobiographical sketch, have been frequently printed, the editio princeps being the Aldine (1504). Other editions are those of Tollius (1696) and Muratori (1709); a volume of Carmina selecta also has been edited by Dronke (1840). The tragedy entitled Χριστὸς πἀσχων usually included is certainly not genuine. Gregory’s poetry did not absorb his best energies; it was adopted in his later years as a recreation rather than as a serious pursuit; thus it is occasionally delicate, graphic, beautiful, but it is not sustained. Of the hymns none have passed into ecclesiastical use. The letters are entitled to a higher place in literature. They are always easy and natural; and there is nothing forced in the manner in which their acute, witty and profound sayings are introduced. Those to Basil introduce us to the story of a most romantic friendship, those to Cledonius have theological value for their bearing on the Apollinarian controversy. As an orator he was so facile, vigorous and persuasive, that men forgot his small stature and emaciated countenance. Forty-five orations are extant. Gregory was less an independent theologian than an interpreter. He was influenced by Athanasius in his Christology, by Origen in his anthropology, for, though teaching original sin and deriving human mortality from the Fall, he insists on the ability of the human will to choose the good and to co-operate in the work of salvation with the will of God. Though possessed neither of Basil’s gift of government nor of Gregory of Nyssa’s power of speculative thought, he worthily takes a place in that triumvirate of Cappadocians whom the Catholic Church gratefully recognizes as having been, during the critical struggles in the latter half of the 4th century, the best defenders of its faith. The Opera omnia were
