Gregory was born in 329 AD in Arianza, a small village of Nazianzus in Cappadocia in Asia Minor. His parents were Saint Gregory the Elder (329-374), Bishop of Nazianzus, and Saint Nonna, a daughter of Christian parents. Gregory studied theology and rhetoric at Caesarea, Alexandria and Athens and became friends with his compatriot Saint Basil the Great. He retired with Saint Basil to live a monastic life in near the river Iris in Pontus on the Black Sea but was recalled by his father who ordained him a priest in 361. In 372 he was made Bishop of Sasima and afterwards administered the Church of Nazianzus as coadjutor with his father. In 381 Gregory became the Patriarch of Constantinople, the See that had become tainted with the heresy of Arius. He restored it to the catholic faith which caused a great division among the bishops and led Gregory to resign his See and retire to live a quiet life, occupying himself with reading and writing works in defence of the true faith, for which he earned the title ‘Gregory the Theologian.’ He died circa 389 and his body was translated from Cappadocia to Constantinople in 950. Before the fall of Constantinople, his relics were conveyed to Rome and placed under an altar in the Vatican Basilica of Saint Peter.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
Side by side with Athanasius, a second Doctor of the Church comes forward at this glad Season, offering to the Risen Jesus the tribute of his learning and eloquence. It is Gregory of Nazianzam — the friend of Basil; the great Orator; the admirable Poet, whose style combines energy of thought with a remarkable richness and ease of expression; the one among all the Gregories who has merited and received the glorious name of Theologian on account of the soundness of his teachings, the sublimity of his ideas and the magnificence of his diction. Holy Church exults at being able to offer us so grand a Saint during Easter Time, for no one has spoken more eloquently than he on the Mystery of the Pasch. Let us listen to the commencement of his second Sermon for Easter, and then judge for ourselves:
“I will stand upon my watch,” says the admirable Prophet Habacuc (Habacuc ii. 1). I, also, on this day, will imitate him. I will stand on the power and knowledge granted me by the favour of the Holy Ghost, that I may consider and know what is to be seen, and what will be told unto me. And I stood and I watched: and lo! a man ascending to the clouds, and he was of exceeding high stature, and his face was the face of an Angel, and his garment was dazzling as a flash of lightning. And he lifted up his hand towards the East, and cried out with a loud voice. His voice was as the voice of a trumpet, and around him stood, as it were, a multitude of the heavenly host, and he said: ‘Today is salvation given to both the visible and the invisible world. Christ has risen from the dead: do you also rise. Christ had returned to himself: do you also return. Christ has freed himself from the tomb: be you set free from the bonds of sin. The gates of Hell are opened and death is crushed. The old Adam is laid aside, and the new one is created. Oh! if there be a new creature formed in Christ, be made new!’ Thus did he speak. Then did the other Angels repeat the Hymn they first sang when Christ was born on this earth, and appeared to us men: ‘Glory be to God in the highest, and peace on earth, in men of good will!’ I join my voice with them, and speak these things to you: oh that I could have an Angel’s voice to make myself heard throughout the whole earth! It is the Pasch of the Lord! The Pasch! in honour of the Trinity. I say it a third time: the Pasch! This is our Feast of Feasts, our Solemnity of Solemnities. It is as far above all the rest, not only of those which are human and earthly, but of those even which belong to Christ and are celebrated on his account — yes, it as far surpasses them all, as the sun surpasses the stars. Commencing with yesterday, how grand was the Day, with its torches and lights! But how grander and brighter is all on this morning! Yesterday’s light was but the harbinger of the great Light that was to rise. It was but as foretaste of the joy that was to be given to us. But today, we are celebrating the Resurrection itself, not merely in hope, but as actually risen, and drawing the whole earth to itself.”
This is a sample of the fervid eloquence with which our saint preached the Mysteries of Faith. He was a man of retirement and contemplation. The troubles of the world in which he had been compelled to live damped his spirits. The duplicity and wickedness of men fretted his noble heart, and leaving to another the perilous honour of the See of Constantinople which he had reluctantly accepted a very short time previously, he flew back to his dear solitude, there to enjoy his God and the study of holy things. And yet, during the short period of his Episcopal government, notwithstanding all the obstacles that stood in his way, he confirmed the faith that had been shaken, and left behind him a track of light which continued even to the time when Saint John Chrysostom was chosen to fill the troubled Chair of Byzantium.
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We salute you, glorious Doctor of the Church, on whom both East and West have conferred the title of Theologian! Illumined by the rays of the glorious Trinity, you gave us to share in the light thus imparted to you, and a brighter was never granted to mortal eye. In you was verified that saying of our Saviour: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God” (Matthew v. 8). The purity of your soul prepared you to receive the divine light, and your inspired pen has transmitted to your fellow-men something of your own soul’s enraptured knowledge. Obtain for us the gift of Faith, which puts the creature in communication with its God. Obtain for us the gift of Understanding, which makes the creature relish what it believes. The object of all your labours was to guard the faithful against the seductive wiles of heresy by putting before them the magnificence of the divine dogmas. Oh pray for us that we may avoid the snares of false doctrines, and have our eye ever fixed on the ineffable light of the Mysteries of Faith, for as Saint Peter tells us, “it is as a lamp in a dark place that shines until the day dawn, and until the Day-Star arises in our hearts” (2 Peter i. 19).
Both East and West honour you as one of the sublimest preachers of divine Truth. Obtain, by your powerful intercession, that East and West may be once more united in the one Fold, and under the one Shepherd, before our Risen Jesus returns to our earth to separate the cockle from the good seed, and lead back to heaven the Church, His Spouse and our Mother, out of whose pale there is no salvation. Help us, during this Season, to contemplate the glories of our dearest Resuscitated. Oh for something of the holy enthusiasm for this Pasch, which inebriated you with its joys, and inspired you with such glowing eloquence! Jesus, the Conqueror of Death, was the object of your fervent affections even from your childhood, and when old age came, your heart beat with love for Him. Pray for us that we too may persevere in His service; that His divine Mysteries may ever be our grandest joy; that this year’s Pasch may ever abide in our souls; that the renovation it has brought us may be visible in the rest of our lives; and that it may, in each successive year of its return, find us attentive and eager to receive its graces, until the eternal Easter comes with its endless joy!Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Rome, St. Hermas, mentioned by the blessed Apostle St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans. Generously sacrificing himself, he became an offering acceptable to God and adorned with virtues took his departure for the heavenly kingdom.
In Persia, three hundred and ten holy martyrs.
At Caglio, on the Via Flaminia, the passion of St. Gerontius, bishop of Cervia.
In the castle of Windisch, the decease of St. Beatus, confessor.
At Constantinople, the translation of the Apostle St. Andrew and the Evangelist St. Luke, out of Achaia, and of Timothy, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, from Ephesus. The body of St. Andrew, long after, was conveyed to Amalfi where it is honoured by the pious concourse of the faithful. From his tomb continually issues a liquid which heals diseases.
At Rome, also the translation of St. Jerome, priest and doctor of the Church, from Bethlehem of Judaea to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Manger.
At Bari in Apulia, the translation likewise of the holy bishop Nicholas, from Myra, a town of Lycia.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
In the castle of Windisch, the decease of St. Beatus, confessor.
At Constantinople, the translation of the Apostle St. Andrew and the Evangelist St. Luke, out of Achaia, and of Timothy, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, from Ephesus. The body of St. Andrew, long after, was conveyed to Amalfi where it is honoured by the pious concourse of the faithful. From his tomb continually issues a liquid which heals diseases.
At Rome, also the translation of St. Jerome, priest and doctor of the Church, from Bethlehem of Judaea to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Manger.
At Bari in Apulia, the translation likewise of the holy bishop Nicholas, from Myra, a town of Lycia.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
