Feast Day ~ May 9
In holy Scripture, we are told many times that we cannot sit back and relax; we should never let down our guard; we should ever be watchful and attentive if we wish to properly prepare for eternal life. We are reminded that the battle against sin is a never-ending one while we are still in this life: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith. [I Peter 5:8]. Watch, therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. [Matthew 24:42].
This battle and the necessary watchfulness are true not only for individual Christians but also for the Church. Even though Christ has assured us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church which is founded upon the faith expressed by St. Peter (“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”), those who are entrusted with the preservation of this faith must be careful to protect its purity from the errors of the world.
The fourth century was a time when it appeared that Christians could celebrate and be content. A Christian Emperor, St. Constantine, had come to the throne of the Roman Empire in 306.
He had given Christianity legal protection in 313 and it soon became the preferred religion of the Empire. After intense persecution, it seemed as if Christians could now settle down to
comfortable respectability.
But the roaring lion was waiting in the wings to threaten the peace of the Church. He burst forth in the form of heresies – Donatism, Appolinarianism, and above all, Arianism. These heresies were distortions of Christian beliefs which challenged the meaning of basic Christian teachings. Among the saints of the Church who came forward to lead the battle against these adversaries was St. Gregory of Nazianzus, called “the Theologian”.
Gregory was born in 329 in Cappadocia to a Christian mother (St. Nonna) and a father (also named Gregory) who was baptized after the birth of his children. While the young Gregory and his siblings were being brought up in the faith, their father also grew in Christian understanding and commitment and was eventually ordained to the priesthood and then consecrated bishop to oversee the church in Nazianzus.
As one who showed academic promise, Gregory went to Athens to complete his education, there meeting among his fellow students, (St.) Basil and Julian, who would later become Emperor. Basil and Gregory became close friends and together came to the decision to devote their lives to Christ through monastic solitude, first at a monastery in Pontus.
Julian became Emperor in 361. He is known as the “Apostate” because he disavowed his Christian baptism and attempted to renew the old pagan religions in Rome. In contrast to this, Gregory and Basil promoted Orthodox Christianity in Cappadocia in a series of public debates with the followers of Arius. The convincing arguments of these two gifted orators helped to keep the local Christians from falling into error.
Julian the Apostate attempted to remove Christians and Christian literature from academic study, so Gregory and others used classical literary methods to introduce Christian themes in acceptable ways. The Arians were also composing hymns and poems to expound their heresy, so the writings of Gregory and others helped to combat those ideas. An example of this kind of writing is an autobiographical poem which Gregory wrote in a style similar to St. Augustine’s Confessions in which he laments some of the events of his life and his spiritual struggles. It is entitled “Concerning His Own Affairs” and ends with this prayer:
Thou art my strength, the Lord of all, the Unbegotten, the Beginning and the Father of the Beginning, who is the Immortal Son. Thou art the Great Light sprung from similar light, circling in a manner that is ineffable from One to One. O Son of God, Wisdom, King, Word, Truth, Image of the Archetype, Nature equal to the Begetter, Shepherd, Lamb, Victim, God, Man, High priest; and Spirit proceeding from the Father, light of my mind, who comest to the pure and makest God of man, look down in mercy. As the years run their course, grant that I may here and hereafter be mingled with the whole divinity. With hymns unending may I celebrate Thee in joy.
Gregory was called back to Nazianzus to assist his father with the care of the Christians in that city and was ordained to the priesthood by him. Gregory was so unhappy about what he considered to be a tyrannical act, against his will, on the part of his father that he fled back to the monastic peace of Pontus. When after some time, he realized that he must return and do his duty, Gregory wrote an oration on his return to Pontus as a way of explaining his actions, but also as an outline of the duties of the priesthood. This treatise has served for centuries as guidance for those who would be priests. When Basil became bishop of Caesarea Mazaca, he consecrated his friend Gregory as bishop of the small city of Zansima. However, Gregory remained in Nazianzus to continue helping his father, who died in 374.
Gregory received permission to return to the life of a hermit monk after his father’s death, but his solitude did not last. Upon the death of the Arian emperor Valens, Gregory was called to assist in the revitalization of the church in Constantinople which had been besieged by Arians from within and pagans from without for many years. Since the Arians had taken over all the church buildings, Gregory began his work from a small house chapel. Here he preached a series of sermons on the Trinity, expounding Orthodox theology, and soon all the churches of Constantinople returned to the fold of Orthodoxy.
When the Second Ecumenical Council met in Constantinople in 381, Gregory was elected to be the Archbishop, replacing the heretical Macedonius, but the following year, he requested, once again, to return to the simple life of a monk. His request was granted and he returned to Nazianzus where he lived until he fell asleep in the Lord in 391.
St. Gregory left us many writings which proclaim theological truth, particularly regarding the Holy Trinity. Because of this, he has been given the name “Theologian” by the Church. He is venerated with Ss. Basil and John Chrysostom as one of the “Three Holy Hierarchs” and with Ss. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa as one of the “Cappadocian Fathers”.
The twenty-first century is not unlike the fourth century. Christian truth is challenged by heresies and innovations and by the constant resurgence of paganism. We must be vigilant and watchful in order to preserve the purity of the faith. We give thanks to Almighty God for his saints who show us the way to Truth, particularly for St. Gregory the Theologian, and ask that he intercede for us.