Saint Gorgonia, Sister of Saint Gregory the Theologian (St. Justin Popovich)

St. Gorgonia of Nazianzus (Feast Day - February 23)

By St. Justin Popovich

 

Among the chosen Christian families, in which all or almost all of their members have dedicated themselves to the Lord, is the holy family of our Holy Father Gregory the Theologian. In this holy family, holy parents were also celebrated with holiness: the father Gregory and the mother Nonna, and their holy children: Gregory the Theologian, his brother Caesarius and his blessed sister Gorgonia.

Blessed Gorgonia would have been born in the small town of Nazianzus, near Caesarea of Cappadocia, but according to her brother Gregory, her true homeland was the Jerusalem Above, a city in heaven to which all true Christians aspire and in which Christ is king and all the saints of the heavenly Church are citizens. firstborn. As for her nobility, adds Saint Gregory, it consisted in preserving the image of God in the soul and in reaching the likeness of God through virtue (η της εικονος τηρησις και η προς το αρχετυπον εξ). Her parents were a new Abraham and Sarah, that is, Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus, and his holy wife Nonna. Saint Nonna was born and raised in the house of Christian parents, while Gregory was initially a pagan and an idolater. Saint Nonna converted him to the faith of Christ with her faith, virtue and wisdom, because he was a man of good and gentle nature. Converted to Christianity by Saint Nonna, he was so famous after his holy baptism in faith and virtuous living that he was elected bishop of the Church in Nazianzus, where he served as a bishop wisely and reverently until his blessed death in 374. Blessed Nonna was a model of Christian virtues and piety, an excellent wife and godly mother, an ornament and praise to the female race. She nurtured so much piety towards the temple of God that, according to her son Saint Gregory, she never turned her back on the east where the Sanctuary and the Holy Altar are, nor did she ever talk in the temple during the holy services. With such virtues and her unceasing prayers to God, she raised such holy and virtuous children and dedicated them to God.

The Alphabet of Virtues (St. Gregory the Theologian)

By St. Gregory the Theologian

 

Always begin with God and always end with Him.

Beneficial to your life is this: end your day well.

Come to know all the good works of the righteous.

Dreadful it is for one to be hungry, but more terrible is illegal wealth.

Emulation of God is to be learned by a benefactor.

From God ask that you be compassionate, in as much as you also are compassionate.

Governed firmly and restrained must the human flesh be.

Paradise and Hell According to Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian

Saint Basil the Great refers to the fire of the Three Children in the furnace to interpret Psalm 28/29:7, where it says the fire was split or divided in two. It did not burn for those who were in the midst of the furnace, but for those who were outside the furnace the same flames did burn. In a similar way, says Basil, after the Great Judgment the righteous will experience the fire of the presence of the Lord as light and delight, while sinners will experience the fire of the presence of the Lord as burning and punitive.

 

Epistle 12 To His Nephew Nicobulus Who Mocked His Wife (St. Gregory the Theologian)

 

Nicobulus was Saint Gregory's nephew by marriage, the husband of Alypiana, daughter of his sister Gorgonia. This Nicobulus was a man of great wealth and ability, but much disinclined for public life. Gregory constantly writes to one and another high official to get him excused from appointments which had been thrust upon him. In his Epistle 12 below, written in 365 A.D., St. Gregory the Theologian wrote mockingly and instructively to his nephew to stop criticizing his wife and to focus on the positive aspects of his wife, which would serve him to count his marriage as a blessing.

Epistle 12

You joke to me about Alypiana being little and unworthy of your size, you tall and immense and monstrous fellow both in form and strength. For now I understand that soul is a matter of measure, and virtue of weight, and that rocks are more valuable than pearls, and crows more respectable than nightingales.

The Life, Works and Thought of Saint Gregory the Theologian (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

Saint Gregory the Theologian

 

By Fr. George Florovsky

I. 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.

The Incorrupt Right Hand of Saint Gregory the Theologian

 

The Church of Saint Nicholas Kopanon is located north of the city of Ioannina, near Limnopoula in the north exit of the town, on the way to Perama. In this area women used to wash clothes and beat the rugs in the water. This is why the church got the name of Kopanon (beaten). In this church is treasured the incorrupt right hand of Saint Gregory the Theologian.

In order to learn something of the history of this sacred relic, we must introduce Konstantinos T. Kazantzis. Kazantzis was born in Ioannina in 1864 and died in Kerkyra in 1927. He studied law at the University of Athens. At the Universities of Berlin and Munich he specialized in public law and was awarded a doctorate. After his studies in Germany he returned to Ioannina, but slavery was now for him, after his long stay in Europe, unbearable. Thus he followed the first wave of immigrants from Greece and the Balkans in general to America. This is where he began to write. The quality of his little literary work is excellent.

Funeral Oration for Saint Basil the Great (St. Gregory the Theologian)

 

 

Saint Basil the Great died on January 1, 379. A serious illness, in addition to other causes, prevented Saint Gregory the Theologian from being present at his funeral (Epist. 79). In this Oration, § 2, Saint Gregory, alluding to his illness in disparaging terms, alleges his labors at Constantinople as a more pressing reason for his absence: and says that he undertook the task according to the judgment of Saint Basil. This implies that Saint Gregory went to Constantinople before the death of Saint Basil, or that he had then been influenced by his friend's advice and was on the point of setting out — more probably the former, as we may be sure that, if Saint Gregory had been still at Seleucia, no reason but physical incapacity would have kept him from his friend's side. His pressing duties at Constantinople and the difficulties of the long journey were the "other causes" of his letter to Saint Gregory of Nyssa: and we know that he suffered from serious illness at Constantinople. Saint Gregory left Constantinople in June 381, and this Oration probably dates soon after his return to Nazianzus, probably delivered on the anniversary of Saint Basil's death. The Oration, as all critics are agreed, is one of great power and beauty. Its length (62 pages folio), the physical weakness of the speaker, and the limits of the endurance of even an interested audience, incline us to suppose that it was not spoken in its present form. We cannot well set aside expressions which clearly point to actual delivery, but it may have been amplified later.

Funeral Oration of Saint Basil the Great, 

Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia

Oration 43

By St. Gregory the Theologian

1. It has then been ordained that the great Basil, who used so constantly to furnish me with subjects for my discourses, of which he was quite as proud as any other man of his own, should himself now furnish me with the grandest subject which has ever fallen to the lot of an orator. For I think that if anyone desired, in making trial of his powers of eloquence, to test them by the standard of that one of all his subjects which he preferred (as painters do with epoch-making pictures), he would choose that which stood first of all others, but would set aside this as beyond the powers of human eloquence. So great a task is the praise of such a man, not only to me, who have long ago laid aside all thought of emulation, but even to those who live for eloquence, and whose sole object is the gaining of glory by subjects like this. Such is my opinion, and, as I persuade myself, with perfect justice. But I know not what subject I can treat with eloquence, if not this; or what greater favour I can do to myself, to the admirers of virtue, or to eloquence itself, than express our admiration for this man. To me it is the discharge of a most sacred debt. And our speech is a debt beyond all others due to those who have been gifted, in particular, with powers of speech. To the admirers of virtue a discourse is at once a pleasure and an incentive to virtue. For when I have learned the praises of men, I have a distinct idea of their progress: now, there is none of us all, within whose power it is not to attain to any point whatsoever in that progress. As for eloquence itself, in either case, all must go well with it. For, if the discourse be almost worthy of its subject — eloquence will have given an exhibition of its power: if it fall far short of it, as must be the case when the praises of Basil are being set forth, by an actual demonstration of its incapacity, it will have declared the superiority of the excellences of its subject to all expression in words.

Saint Gorgonia as a Model for our Lives

St. Gorgonia (Feast Day - February 23)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Gorgonia was from Cappadocia and lived in the fourth century. She was the fruit of holy parents, Gregory the Bishop of Nazianzus and Nonna, as well as the sister of Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint Caesarius. She was a model wife and mother. From her marriage she bore five children, two boys and three girls, whom she raised "in the education and admonition of the Lord." For reasons only God knows she left this vain world prematurely, at the age of thirty-eight. Her brother Saint Gregory the Theologian in his funeral oration describes her God-pleasing life, which although brief, it was worthy of wonder and worthy of imitation. We will offer below some brief excerpts from this wonderful oration:

Did Gregory the Theologian Refer to the Writings of Dionysius the Areopagite?

In his Oration on the Theophany of Christ, Gregory the Theologian writes in section 6:

"But when I say God, I mean Father, Son, and Holy Spirit... This then is the Holy of Holies, which is hidden even from the Seraphim, and is glorified with the thrice-repeated Holy, meeting in one ascription of the title Lord and God, as one of our predecessors has most beautifully and loftily pointed out."

The question is: Who is the "predecessor" Gregory is referring to? Some believe Gregory is referring to Athanasius the Great, while others believe he is referring to Dionysius the Areopagite.

Treatise on the Art of Letter Writing (St. Gregory the Theologian)

Letter 51 of St. Gregory the Theologian is addressed to Nicobulus the Younger, his great-nephew. Gregory considered Nicobulus "the most important of the relatives I care about." He had studied under Gregory in Cappadocia and then hoped to study overseas, desiring "excellence in speaking" through "the fiery force of rhetoric" as his greatest ambition, to make a name for himself "both in assemblies and in court." His model in this of course was his great-uncle himself. In this letter, Nicobulus the Younger, having requested of his great-uncle a treatise on letter writing, Gregory responds with a short letter about the art of writing a letter.

"My Own Crowned Champion, the Famous Mamas" (St. Gregory the Theologian)

In the 370s or early 380s, Saint Gregory the Theologian in his Oration 44: On the New Lord's Day refers to the festival of the martyr Mamas, in whose church this oration was delivered, in Caesarea of Cappadocia, which fell on the first Sunday after Easter that year. This is what he says of Saint Mamas at the close of his oration:

What else is there to say? Now the martyrs go outside and lead the procession, and, with their shrines splendid, they summon together Christ’s faithful people, and proclaim their victorious contests. One of them is also my own crowned champion (mine indeed, even though he does not dwell at my home; let grudging subside; those I am referring to know what I mean), the famous Mamas, both shepherd and martyr. Once he used to milk deer which jostled one another, in order to nourish the righteous man with unfamiliar milk. But now he tends the flock of a capital city, and today, with the many thousands thronging from all around, he inaugurates a springtime distinguished by the beauties of virtue, one worthy both of shepherds and victory orations. To put it more briefly, this is a Spring of the world, a Spring of the spirit, a Spring for the souls, a Spring for the bodies, a Spring visible, a Spring invisible. May we, who have been rewarded with the bounty of it in this life, also partake of it in the other as well, and be escorted new to the new life, in Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be all glory, honor, and power together with the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

The Miracle of Saint Mamas and Emperor Julian the Apostate

The historian Sozomen and Saint Gregory the Theologian tell us, that Julian the Apostate and his brother Gallus, while being educated at Caesarea, lived pious Christian lives, and diverted themselves, as youths, in building churches to the martyrs, particularly one to Saint Mamas; but that while Gallus’s part advanced, that of Julian fell down again every day. While Sozomen identifies the church as the one containing the tomb of Saint Mamas, Gregory doesn't identify it. The miracle is seen as reflecting the story of Cain and Abel, where God accepted the offering of Abel, while rejected that of Cain.

Oration 15: On the Maccabees (St. Gregory the Theologian)

Second Paschal Oration of St. Gregory the Theologian

This Oration was not, as its title would perhaps lead us to suppose, delivered immediately after the first; but an interval of many years elapsed between them, and the two have no connection with each other. Chronologically they are the first (Oration 1) and last (Oration 45) of Saint Gregory's Sermons. The Second was delivered in the Church of Arianzus, a village near Nazianzus, where he had inherited some property, to which he withdrew after resigning the Archbishopric of Constantinople, and then, finding the administration even of the little Bishopric of Nazianzus too much for his advancing years and declining strength, he retired to Arianzus about the end of A.D. 383, dying there in 389 or 390. "The exordium of this discourse is quite in the style of the Bible; the Orator here describes and puts words into the mouth of the Angel of the Resurrection. His object is to show the importance of the day's solemnities, and to explain allegorically all the circumstances of the ancient Passover, applying them to Christ and the Christian life. Two passages are borrowed verbatim from the discourse on the Nativity, preached at Constantinople" (Benoît).

An Interpretation of Certain Sayings of St. Gregory the Theologian Found in Paschal Hymns (Abba Dorotheos of Gaza)

In Abba Dorotheos of Gaza's Ascetic Works, Teaching 16 is "An Interpretation of Certain Sayings of Saint Gregory the Theologian Found in Paschal Hymns." These hymns are no longer sung at Easter, since they have been superseded by the famous Canon by Saint John the Damascene, though he may have used them for inspiration. Abba Dorotheos seems to be basing his remarks on a troparion which was, indeed, sung at Easter when he was alive and elements of which are to be found in a homily preached by Saint Gregory the Theologian on Easter day, 383 A.D. (S.C. vol. 92, p. 458). The troparion was published by S. Petrides in Byzantinische Zeitschrift 1904, 421-3).

Angels - Illumined with the First Rays from God (St. Gregory the Theologian)

By St. Gregory the Theologian

(Oration 38, On the Theophany, 8-10)

But when I say God, I mean Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For Godhead is neither diffused beyond these, so as to bring in a mob of gods; nor yet is it bounded by a smaller compass than these, so as to condemn us for a poverty-stricken conception of Deity; either Judaizing to save the Monarchia, or falling into heathenism by the multitude of our gods. For the evil on either side is the same, though found in contrary directions. This then is the Holy of Holies, which is hidden even from the Seraphim, and is glorified with a thrice repeated Holy, meeting in one ascription of the title Lord and God, as one of our predecessors has most beautifully and loftily pointed out.

Oration on Holy Pentecost (St. Gregory the Theologian)

Oration 41: On Holy Pentecost

By St. Gregory the Theologian

I. Let us reason a little about the Festival, that we may keep it spiritually. For different persons have different ways of keeping Festival; but to the worshiper of the Word a discourse seems best; and of discourses, that which is best adapted to the occasion. And of all beautiful things none gives so much joy to the lover of the beautiful, as that the lover of festivals should keep them spiritually. Let us look into the matter thus. The Jew keeps festival as well as we, but only in the letter. For while following after the bodily Law, he has not attained to the spiritual Law. The Greek too keeps festival, but only in the body, and in honor of his own gods and demons, some of whom are creators of passion by their own admission, and others were honored out of passion.

A Poem on the Publican and the Pharisee (St. Gregory the Theologian)

By St. Gregory the Theologian

Two men, I am taught, went up to the temple, an overweening Pharisee who considered himself before all with God, and a publican whose heart within him was heavy because of unholy gains. The Pharisee recounted in detail his fast, his tithings according to the law, comparing himself with the men of old, and making light of the publican in his words. The publican, however, wept, beat his breast with his hands, and, afraid to raise his eyes to the broad heaven, throne of almighty God, he turned his humble gaze to the pavement. Standing afar off, he prayed thus: "Be merciful, be merciful to thy servant who is weighed down with evil. Not the law, not tithing, nor good works will save me, nor is my assailant mistaken. I am ashamed to touch the temple with my unholy feet. Let thy grace and thy pity flow on my unworthiness, for this is the one hope, O King, thou hast provided for miserable sinners."

Church of Saint Gregory the Theologian in Gelveri of Central Anatolia

Church of Saint Gregory the Theologian in Gelveri

Following the death of Saint Gregory the Theologian in 389, he was buried either at his estate in Arianzos or in Nazianzos itself or in nearby Gelveri. Oddly, for someone of Gregory's importance, the location of his burial seems to have gone unrecorded. In the early tenth century Niketas the Paphlagonian, in his Encomium to Saint Gregory the Theologian, relates that he was buried in his father's mausoleum, his body covered by a single stone. Before this we have no other text addressing his death and burial, and it seems as if he died unnoticed, with no Oration composed in his honor.

History of the Relics of Saint Gregory the Theologian

Reliquary of St. Gregory the Theologian in Nea Karvali

By John Sanidopoulos

Following the death of Saint Gregory the Theologian in 389, he was buried either at his estate in Arianzos or in Nazianzos itself or in nearby Gelveri. Oddly, for someone of Gregory's importance, the location of his burial seems to have gone unrecorded. In the early tenth century Niketas the Paphlagonian, in his Encomium to Saint Gregory the Theologian, relates that he was buried in his father's mausoleum, his body covered by a single stone. Before this we have no other text addressing his death and burial, and it seems as if he died unnoticed, with no Oration composed in his honor.