By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Gregory of Neocaesarea was a rare man. The mere fact that when he went to Neocaesarea he found few believers (17 Christians are mentioned), while when he left, he left few unbelievers (also 17 in number), reveals the zeal of his faith, the power of his word, the power of the miracles that God granted him. The Holy Hymnographer cannot help but apply to him the prophetic saying: “the zeal of God has consumed you, Gregory.” Seeking to find figures similar to Gregory, the ecclesiastical poet, Saint Theophanes, resorts to the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament. The Saint resembles Moses, he says, who, like him, received the tablets of faith on the mountain of mystical theophany, legislating piety to the people: “You have become a new Moses through your deeds, receiving the tablets of faith on the mountain of the mystical theophany, legislating piety to the peoples.” He resembles the Prophet Samuel, who ascended the mountain of theoria: “ascend on high, like Samuel, to theoria.” He resembles the Prophet Daniel, who, just as the gift of interpreting dreams was given to him, the mystery of faith was revealed to him in a dream: “for as the dream was to him (Daniel), so the mystery of faith was revealed to you.”
It is no coincidence that his life was written by Saint Gregory of Nyssa, brother of Basil the Great, who records specific incidents of his life, as well as his teachings, which he heard, when he was still a small child, from his grandmother Saint Macrina, a student and spiritual child of Saint Gregory of Neocaesarea himself. Saint Basil does the same in his discourses. He too commemorates today’s celebrant with great admiration, as he himself had heard similar incidents from his grandmother. And let us, in parentheses, emphasize the value of grandmothers and grandfathers, throughout time, who initiate their grandchildren into the teachings of our sanctified Christian tradition. Let us imagine the scene: Grandma Macrina, breathing the tradition of Saint Gregory the Wonderworker, that is, the tradition of Christ and our Church, having in her arms her miraculous, as it would later turn out, grandchildren, and passing on this living tradition to them. How much this sanctified grandmother contributed to her grandchildren rising to such statures for the Church, only God can know. Certainly, she was not without her share in this.
Our Hymnorapher certainly insists particularly – and this is logical – on the grace of miracle-working of Saint Gregory. He considers it as an abyss, because of the multitude of his miracles, which, however, came from his initiation into the mystery of the Holy Trinity and his steadfast spiritual attachment to Jesus Christ. “Having delved profoundly into all-wise theoria, Hierarch of Christ, you have been initiated into the divine revelation of the Trinity; and gazing steadfastly with the spirit upon Christ our God, you bring forth for us an abyss of miracles.” However, this theoretic aspect of Saint Gregory, the grace of his participation in God, did not come without preconditions. Saint Theophanes reminds us again that the theoria of God is the result of the science of praxis, that is, the practice of the virtues, by which the passions are subordinated to the nous. Thus, the pure nous is led to the vision of God. “What do I call you now, Gregory? Practitioner, because you have subdued the passions to the nous; theoretic, because I have reaped the fruit of wisdom.”
The Hymnographer insists here as well on the practical science of exercising virtues according to Saint Gregory. Keeping in mind not only his entire ascetic life but also the incident of his being slandered by the common woman, he presents him as an exemplar of prudence among other virtues, by which, as if she were literally his sister, he shamed his demon-driven fellow students. “Having acquired prudence as a sister, and as a fellow worker in good deeds, a dreadful serpent has raised against you, Gregory, those envious ones; whom, Father, you restrained, through your long-suffering towards the woman, who had been seized by passion, and now healed." May the prayers of Saint Gregory always accompany us, so that we may be saved from our various sins. This will be a confirmation of his miraculous work in us as well. "Your miracles within me, Gregory, manifest Your divine power, Father, and now lift me up, delivering me from the depths of my transgressions."
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
