. Life.
Gregory has left many autobiographical writings, and his
descriptions of his life are filled with lyricism and drama. He was by nature
inclined to silence and retirement, and he constantly sought isolation so that
he could devote himself to prayer. However, he was called by the will of God and
the wills of others to words, deeds, and pastoral work during a period of
extreme confusion and turmoil. Throughout his life, which was full of both
sorrow and accomplishments, he was constantly forced to overcome his natural
desires and wishes.
Gregory was born about 330 at Arianzum, his father's estate
near Nazianzus, "the smallest of cities" in southwestern Cappadocia. His father,
who in his youth had belonged to the sect of Hypsistarians, was the bishop of
Nazianzus. Gregory's mother was the dominant personality in the family. She had
been the "teacher of piety" to her husband and "imposed this golden chain" on
her children. Both his heritage and his education developed Gregory's
emotionalism, excitability, and impressionability, as well as his stubbornness
and his strength of will. He always maintained warm and close relations with his
family and frequently reminisced about them.
From his earliest youth Gregory cherished a "flaming love for
study." "I tried to make the impure sciences serve the true ones," he said. In
accordance with the customs of those times Gregory's years of study were years
of wandering. He received a thorough education in rhetoric and philosophy in his
native Nazianzus, in both Cappadocian Caesarea and Palestinian Caesarea, in
Alexandria, and finally in Athens. He deferred his baptism until his
maturity.
In Alexandria Gregory was probably taught by Didymus. In Athens
he became very close to Basil, whom he had earlier met in Caesarea in Cappadocia
and who was his exact contemporary. Gregory always looked back on his years in
Athens with pleasure: "Athens and learning." As he later described it, it was in
Athens that he, like Saul, "sought knowledge and found happiness." This
happiness was his friendship with Basil, who caused him more joy and more pain
than anyone else. "We became everything for each other. We were comrades, table
companions, and brothers. Our love of learning was our only goal, and our warm
affection for each other grew constantly. We had all things in common, and a
single soul bound together that which our two bodies separated." Theirs was a
union of trust and friendship. The temptations of "ruinous Athens" did not
distract them. They knew only two paths, one leading to the church and their
religious instructors, and the other leading to the teachers of the secular
sciences. They valued their calling as Christians more highly than anything. "We
both had only one exercise, which was virtue, and only one goal, which was to
renounce the world for as long as we had to live in it, and to live for the
future." During this period of ascetic discipline they studied both philosophy
and religion.
Gregory always remained a "lover of learning." "I am the first
of the lovers of wisdom," he said. "I never prefer anything over my studies, and
I do not want Wisdom to call me a poor teacher." He referred to philosophy as
the "struggle to win and possess that which is more precious than anything." In
this he included secular learning as well: "We derive something useful for our
orthodoxy even from the worldly sciences. From that which is inferior we learn
about that which is superior, and we transform that frailty into the strength of
our teaching." Gregory continued to defend erudition later in his career.
"Everyone who has a mind will agonize that learning is our highest good. I mean
not only our most noble form of learning, which despises embellishment and
verbal prolixity and concerns itself only with our salvation and the
contemplation of beauty, but also worldly learning, which many Christians
incorrectly abhor as false, dangerous, and distant from God. But we will not set
up creation against its Creator. Learning should not be scorned, as some people
think. On the contrary, we should recognize that those who hold such an opinion
are stupid and ignorant. They want everyone to be just like themselves, so that
the general failing will hide their own imperfections, and their ignorance will
not be exposed." These ideas were spoken by Gregory at Basil's funeral. He never
tried to forget the lessons of Athens, and he later denounced Julian the
Apostate for prohibiting Christians from teaching rhetoric and the secular
sciences.
In Athens Gregory was taught by Himerius and Prohaeresius, who
was probably a Christian. Most likely he was not a pupil of Libanius. He studied
ancient literature, oratory, history, and especially philosophy. In 358 or 359
he returned home. Basil had already left Athens, and the city had become empty
and depressing. Gregory was baptized, and decided to renounce the career of a
rhetor. He was attracted by the ideal of silence and dreamed of retiring to the
mountains or desert. He wanted to "hold pure communion with God and be fully
illuminated by the rays of the Spirit, without anything earthly or clouded to
bar the Divine light, and to reach the Source of our effulgence and to stay all
desires and aspirations. In doing this our mirrors are superseded by the truth."
The images of Elijah and John the Baptist attracted him. But at the same time he
was overpowered by his "love for Divine books and the light of the Spirit, which
is acquired by studying the word of God. Such studies are impossible in the
silence of the desert." This was not all that kept Gregory in the world, because
he loved his parents and considered that it was his duty to help them with their
affairs. "This love was a heavy load and dragged me down to earth."
Gregory continued to lead a severe and ascetic life even amid
the worldly distractions of his parents' home. He tried to combine a life of
detached contemplation with a life of service to society and spent his time in
fasting, studying the Word of God, prayer, repentance, and vigil. He was ever
more strongly drawn to the desert in Pontus where Basil was practicing extreme
asceticism. In his closeness to God Basil seemed to be "covered with clouds,
like the wise men of the Old Testament." Basil summoned Gregory to share his
silent labors, but Gregory was not immediately able to satisfy his own longing.
Even then his withdrawal was only temporary. He later recalled with joy and
light-hearted humor the time that he spent in Pontus, a time of deprivation,
vigilance, psalmody, and study. The friends read Scripture and the works of
Origen as their years of learning continued.
Gregory's studies ended when he returned from Pontus. His
father, Gregory the Elder, was managing to fulfill his duties as bishop but with
difficulty. He had neither the intellectual background nor the strength of will
necessary to make his way through the arguments and controversies that raged
around him. He needed someone to assist him and his choice fell on his son. This
was a "terrible storm" for the younger Gregory. Gregory the Elder had authority
over him both as his father and as his bishop, and he now bound his son even
more firmly to himself with spiritual ties. Gregory was forcibly and "against
his will" ordained by his father. "I was so grieved by this act of tyranny,"
Gregory wrote, "that I forgot everything: friends, parents, my native land and
people. Like an ox stung by a gadfly, I returned to Pontus, hoping to find a
cure for my grief in my devout friend." His feelings of bitterness were
mitigated by time.
Gregory's ordination took place at Christmas of 361 but he
returned to Nazianzus only at Easter of 362. He began his duties as presbyter by
reading his famous sermon which starts with the "It is the day of the
resurrection . . . Let us be illuminated by this celebration." In this sermon he
described his high ideal of priesthood. Gregory felt that contemporary prelates
were far from achieving this ideal, since most of them saw their offices as a
"means of subsistence." It seemed that less was expected from shepherds of souls
than from the shepherds of animals. It is consciousness of the high demands of
the priest's calling caused Gregory to flee from the duties he felt unworthy and
incapable of fulfilling.
Gregory remained in Nazianzus as his father's assistant for
almost ten years, hoping that he would manage to avoid being called to a higher
office. His hopes were in vain. In 372, once again against his will, Gregory was
assigned to the bishopric of a, "a place without water or vegetation, without
any civilized conveniences, a tiresome and cramped little village. There is dust
everywhere, the noise of wagons, tears, laments, tax collectors, instruments of
torture, and chains. The inhabitants are passing foreigners and vagrants."
The bitterness which Gregory felt at this new act of tyranny
against his desire to live in retirement was magnified by the fact it was
authorized by his closest friend, Basil. Gregory was indignant that Basil showed
no understanding for his longing for silence and peace, and that he had forced
him to become involved in his struggle to maintain his episcopal jurisdiction.
Basil had instituted the bishopric in Sasima in order to strengthen his own
position against Anthimus of Tyana. "You accuse me of lethargy and sloth,"
Gregory wrote to Basil in irritation, "because I have not taken possession of
your Sasima, because I do not act a bishop, and because I do not arm myself to
fight by your the way dogs will fight when you throw them a bone." Gregory
accepted his office sadly and unwillingly. "I have ceded to force, not to my own
convictions." "Once again I have been consecrated and the Spirit has been poured
out upon me, and again I weep and lament."
Gregory's joy in this friendship was never restored. Much later
at the funeral of his father he complained in Basil's presence that "in making
me a priest you handed me over to the turbulent and perfidious marketplace of
souls, to suffer the misfortunes of life." He reproached Basil further: "This is
the outcome of Athens, our study together, our life under one roof, our
companionship at one table, a single mind between the two of us, the marvels of
Greece, and our mutual vow to set aside the world. Everything shattered!
Everything is cast to the ground! Let the law of friendship vanish from the
world, since it respects friendship so little." Gregory ultimately went to
Sasima, but, by his own admission, "I did not visit the church which had been
given to me, I did not perform service there, I did not pray with the people,
and I did not consecrate a single cleric."
Gregory returned to his native city at the request of his
father to assist him in his duties as bishop. After his father died Gregory
temporarily took over the administration of the orphaned church. When it finally
became possible for him to escape from his pastoral work, he "went like a
fugitive" to Seleucia in Isauria. He stayed at the church of St. Thecla and
devoted himself to prayer and contemplation. But once again his withdrawal was
only temporary. In Seleucia he received the news of Basil's death, and this
peaceful interlude was ended when he was summoned to Constantinople to take part
in the struggle against the Arians.
When Gregory went to Constantinople as a defender of the Word,
it was once again "not by my own will, but by the coercion of others." His work
in Constantinople was difficult. "The Church is without pastors, good is
perishing and evil is everywhere. It is necessary to sail at night and there are
no fires to show the way. Christ is sleeping." The see of Constantinople had
been in the hands of the Arians for some time. Gregory wrote that what he found
there was "not a flock, but only small traces and pieces of a flock, without
order or supervision."
Gregory began his ministry in a private house which was later
made into a church and given the name Anastasis to signify the "resurrection of
orthodoxy." Here he delivered his famous Five Theological Orations. His
struggle with the Arians was often violent. He was attacked by murderers, his
church was stormed by mobs, he was pelted with stones, and his opponents accused
him of brawling and disturbing the peace. His preaching, however, was not
without effect. "At first the city rebelled," he wrote. "They rose against me
and claimed that I was preaching many gods and not one God, for they did not
know the orthodox teaching in which the Unity is contemplated as three, and the
Trinity as one." Gregory was victorious through the strength of his oratory, and
towards the end of 380 the new emperor Theodosius entered the city and returned
all the churches to the orthodox believers.
Gregory was forced to struggle not only against the Arians, but
he also had to oppose the supporters of Apollinarius. He encountered further
resistance from orthodox prelates, especially Peter of Alexandria and the
Egyptian bishops. These at first accepted him, but then illegitimately
consecrated Maximus the Cynic as bishop of Constantinople. Gregory later
recalled the "Egyptian storm cloud" and Peter's duplicity with bitterness.
Maximus was driven out but found a temporary shelter in Rome with pope Damasus,
who had a poor understanding of Eastern affairs. Acceding to popular demand,
Gregory temporarily assumed the direction of the administration of the Church of
Constantinople until a Church council could be convoked. He wanted to withdraw
but the people held him back: "You will take the Trinity away with you."
At the Second Ecumenical Council, which opened in May of 381
under the direction of Meletius of Antioch, Gregory was appointed bishop of
Constantinople. He both rejoiced at and regretted his confirmation to the see,
"which was not entirely legal." Meletius died while the council was still in
session and Gregory replaced him as president. Gregory disagreed with the
majority of prelates on the question of the so-called "Antiochene schism," and
sided with Paulinus. The dissatisfaction which had long been building up against
him suddenly burst out. Some churchmen were dissatisfied with leniency, since he
had not requested the aid of the civil authorities against the Arians. Gregory
had always been guided by the rule that "the mystery of salvation is for those
who desire it, and not those who are coerced." Other prelates were disturbed by
the inflexibility of his doctrinal beliefs, and especially his uncompromising
confession of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Still others thought that his
conduct was unbecoming to the dignity of his rank. "I did not know," Gregory
said ironically, "that I would be expected to ride fine horses or to make a
brilliant appearance perched on a carriage, or that those who met me would treat
me with servility, or that everyone would make way for me as though I were a
wild beast." The question of the legality of Gregory's transfer from Sasima to
Constantinople was also raised at the council. It was obvious that this was a
pretext for intrigue against him. In great chagrin Gregory decided to give up
his see and to abandon the council. He was bitter about leaving the "place of
our victory" and his flock, which he had won to the truth by his actions and
words. This bitterness never left him.
On leaving Constantinople Gregory wrote to Bosporius, bishop of
Caesarea, "I will withdraw myself to God, who alone is pure and without deceit.
I will retire into myself. The proverb says that only fools stumble twice on the
same stone." He returned home exhausted both physically and morally and filled
with bitter memories: "Twice I have fallen into your snares and twice I have
been deceived." Gregory sought rest and isolation, but once again he was forced
to take over the administration of the widowed church in Nazianzus, "forced by
circumstances and fearing the attack of enemies." He had to struggle against the
Apollinarians [also referred to as Apollinarists in English] who had
illegitimately established their own bishop in Nazianzus, and intrigues and
quarrels began again.
In desperation Gregory asked Theodore, the metropolitan of
Tyana, to replace him with a new bishop and to remove this burden which was
beyond his strength. He refused to attend any councils. "It is my intention to
avoid all gatherings of bishops because I have never yet seen a productive
outcome of any synod, or any synod which resulted in deliverance from evils
rather than addition to them." He wrote to Theodore, "I salute councils and
conventions, but only from a distance because I have experienced much evil from
them." Gregory did not attain his freedom immediately. He was overjoyed when his
cousin Eulalius was finally invested as bishop of Nazianzus, and he retired from
the world to devote the rest of his life to writing. He traveled to desert
monasteries in Lamis and other places. He became weaker and frequently sought
relief by bathing in warm water springs. The lyrics he wrote as an old man were
filled with sadness. Gregory died in 389 or 390.
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