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Daily Feed St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop and Doctor: ca. 329-389 A.D.Feast day, January 2Birth, family background and studiesSt. Gregory was born at Nazianzus, Cappadocia, Turkey, in ca. 329 A.D., to St. Gregory Nazianzen the Elder and St. Nonna. Gregory's two other siblings, Caesarius and Gorgonia, are also saints. Gregory studied first at Caesarea, Cappadocia (where he met St. Basil), then in the rhetorical school at Caesarea, Palestine, and then for ten years more at Athens (where St. Basil and Julian the Apostate were also studying). Gregory returns to Nazianzus When about 30 years old, St. Gregory joined St. Basil at Pontus on the Iris River, where the two chose to live the contemplative life as hermits. This decision was however short-lived for Gregory. St. Gregory's father, now about 80 years old, and the bishop of Nazianzus, called for Gregory to return home to help manage the diocese and the estate. Reluctantly, Gregory obeyed and was ordained in about 362 A.D. Gregory worked for his father and managed to prevent a schism in the diocese. When his father made compromises with Arianism, his father fell into heresy. But Gregory was able to bring his father back to orthodoxy before his father died in 374 A.D. Consecrated as bishop of Sesima In ca. 372 A.D., St. Basil, now metropolitan of Caesarea, named St. Gregory as bishop of Sesima, a newly created see in the middle of territory beset by Arianism. Although St. Gregory was consecrated as bishop, he never went to Sesima, to the dismay of St. Basil, but rather remained as coadjutor to his father. This severely strained the friendship between the two as Gregory chose to remain and help his father in Nazianzus. Prevaling over Arianism at Constantinople When St. Gregory's father died in 374 A.D., Gregory continued to administer the see until a new bishop was chosen. He however suffered a breakdown in 375 A.D. and spent the next five years retiring to a monastery in Seleucia, Isauria (near modern Baghdad, Iraq) where he lived in much prayer and study. While in Seleucia, in 379 A.D., Gregory was called to help the Church of Constantinople. That Church had been under Arian dominance during the reign of Emperor Valens. But with Valens now dead, a group of orthodox bishops wanted Gregory to revitalize orthodoxy in Constantinople. Gregory went and met opposition. But he prevailed over the Arians, and in 380 A.D., the newly baptized Emperor Theodosius decreed that all his subjects must be orthodox. Theodosius ordered the Arian leaders to submit or leave, and then named Gregory archbishop of Constantinople. Resigning as bishop, retirement and death Just a few months after Gregory's installation as bishop of Constantinople, hostilities began anew and the validity of his election was questioned at the Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. (at which St. Gregory also presided). Fearing then that this present unrest would lead to bloodshed, Gregory left the office of bishop in 382 A.D. and retired to a private life - living a quiet life of prayer, meditation, penance and great austerity at Nazianzus. He devoted the last years of his life to writing until his death in 389 A.D. He died on January 25, 389 at the age of fifty-nine years. Cappadocian Father and Doctor of the Church St. Gregory Nazianzen is ranked along with St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa as one of the "three Cappadocian Fathers". Besides his sermons, his writings include: Five Theological Orations, a compilation of Origen's writings which he did with Basil, and a poem entitled De Vita Sua. Proclaimed a Doctor of the Church, St. Gregory is often surnamed "the Theologian" for his eloquent defense of orthodoxy and the decrees of the Council of Nicea in his sermons and treatises (notably his celebrated sermons on the Trinity). References of this article
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