INTRODUCTION

I. THE LIFE OF GREGORY OF NYSSA

READERS to whom the subject is unfamiliar, should be quite clear in their minds from the outset as to the distinction between the three Gregories who played an important part in the Church history of Asia Minor.

(1) Gregory Thaumaturgus (i. e. "Worker of Wonders").¹

He was born of heathen parents at Neo-Caesarea in Pontus ; having gone to Palestine for his education, he came under the influence of Origen, then living at Caesarea, and was converted to Christianity. He became bishop of his native city in 240, and carried out the work of evangelising the district most thoroughly. Basil, brother of Gregory of ^[6] Nyssa, was brought up on the family estate at Annesi, near Neo-Caesarea, by his grandmother Macrina, who used to repeat to him the very words used by Gregory Thaumaturgus.² Gregory of Nyssa wrote the life of Gregory Thaumaturgus, and to the latter's influence may be ascribed the strong element of Origenism in his writings. Through the same channel Origen's teaching reached Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, who during their stay at their monastery in Pontus compiled the Philocalia, or collection of choice passages from Origen.

(2) Gregory of Nazianzus was the friend and contemporary of Basil at the University of Athens, in the pioneer monastery in Pontus, and later on as brother bishop. Soon after Basil became bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia in 370 he forced his friend to accept the see of Sasima, a dusty village where the post changed horses. In 379 he went to Constantinople as orthodox bishop; his sermons preached there have become famous. He died about 390. ^[7] 

(3) Gregory of Nyssa was the younger brother of Basil and author of the present book. A brief sketch of his life must now be given.

He came of a race of landed proprietors, who had estates in Cappadocia and Pontus and had won honourable distinction by their steadfast devotion to the faith under persecution. His parents, Basil and Emmelia, had ten children, of whom four sons and five daughters survived infancy. The eldest child, Macrina, is the subject of this biography; the other four daughters all made satisfactory marriages. St. Basil the Great was the eldest son. Next to him came Naucratius, who was killed on a hunting expedition in Pontus. Gregory and Peter, the two youngest sons, became bishops eventually of Nyssa and Sebaste. It would be difficult to find in the whole of Church history a family so uniformly brilliant.

Gregory was born about 335, probably at Caesarea. Apparently he showed no special promise as a boy, nor did he share Basil's educational advantages. See p. 51 of ^[8] this book, where Macrina, speaking of his fame, says: "You that have little or no equipment within yourself for such success." His first serious religious impressions seem to have dated from a service at the chapel of the Forty Martyrs. As he slept in an arbour near the chapel he dreamed that the martyrs beat him with rods. When he awoke, he was filled with remorse, and soon afterwards became a Reader. But presently, much to the disgust of Gregory of Nazianzus, he deserted his post in order to become a professor of rhetoric.³

About this time he married a lady named Theosebeia, if this is the true interpretation of some difficult passages. But his growing seriousness, and the example of his brothers and sister, led him before long to espouse the ascetic life and become a member of the monastery in Pontus, where he spent some quiet and studious years. Indeed, he was by nature far better fitted to be a student than a man of affairs. A striking example of the ^[9] simplicity of his character is afforded by the methods he adopted in order to heal a quarrel between his brother Basil and their uncle Gregory. He actually forged a letter purporting to come from the latter and asking for a reconciliation. In Basil's 58th Epistle may be read the crushing rebuke administered by the elder brother.

In 370 Basil had become bishop and metropolitan of Caesarea. He found the post one of great difficulty, especially in view of the opposition of some of his suffragans. In 372, wishing to strengthen his position by surrounding himself with men whom he could trust, he forced his friend Gregory to accept the bishopric of Sasima, and his brother that of Nyssa. We need not recount in detail the troubles that pursued Gregory during his episcopate. He was deposed and banished in 376, but was recalled on the death of the Emperor Valens in 378.

On January 1, 379, Basil died; in September of the same year Gregory attended a Council at Antioch, after which he determined to visit his sister Macrina in the monastery at Annesi. ^[10] The visit is described at length in the present book. When the funeral ceremonies were over, he returned to his diocese, only to find a sad state of confusion. Having introduced a certain measure of order, he set out on his travels once more, and visited Babylon with a view of reforming the Church there. After this he went to the holy places of Palestine, where nothing but disillusionment awaited him. In 381 he was present at the Council of Constantinople, and on several subsequent occasions we find him at that city. His death occurred about 395.

Gregory of Nyssa is a figure of great importance in the history of Christian doctrine and the eventual triumph of Nicene orthodoxy. For a sketch of his doctrinal system the reader is referred to J. H. Srawley's edition of The Catechetical Oration, uniform with the present volume.