Saint Gregory of Nyssa in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Gregory was the brother of Basil the Great, illustrious in speech and a zealot for the Orthodox faith. For this reason he also became a leader of the Church of Christ. And when he came together with those who composed the Second Ecumenical Synod in Constantinople (381 AD), who opposed the impious heresies, he was found to be a champion of the Fathers, routing the heretics by the power of his words and by the proofs he brought forth from the Holy Scriptures. For he prevailed, employing every form of rational argument and flourishing in virtue. He reached a ripe old age and departed to the Lord. In bodily appearance he was almost like his brother Basil.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa belongs to the great company of the Fathers and Teachers of our Church, together with his brother Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom. His greatness was manifested especially at the Second Ecumenical Synod, “at which he became the principal exponent of Cappadocian Trinitarian and Pneumatological theology and was recognized as a great theological figure” (Stylianos Papadopoulos). It is not accidental that the Seventh Ecumenical Synod, (787 AD) characterized him as the “Father of Fathers.”

References to Saint Thekla in the Writings of Gregory of Nyssa

Saint Thekla, to whom a famous martyrium near Seleucia was dedicated in the time of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, was celebrated in the early Church as an archetypical virgin and martyr. In the two places where she is mentioned in Gregory of Nyssa's writings, this is how she is presented.

1. Homily 14 on the Song of Songs

(A commentary on Song of Songs 5:13, which reads: "His jaws are like bowls of spice pouring forth perfumes. His lips are lilies, dropping abundant myrrh.")

For the myrrh that flows from the mouth and fills the receptive soul is an image for the mortification of the body, since it is often observed that in the improper usage of the inspired text the term 'myrrh' signifies death. Therefore the pure and perfect eye, which makes of the jaw a bowl that pours and gushes perfumes out of itself, this eye blossoms with lilies in the form of words that proceed from the mouth of those who have been beautified by the divine radiance; for so does the text identify those who are pure and who breathe out the perfume of virtue, from whom there is unendingly distilled the drop of myrrh that fills the mind of its recipients — that is to say, disdain for the material life, which appears when everything that people work for in this life becomes inoperative and dead on account of their desire for transcendent goods.

January: Day 10: Teaching 2: Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa

January: Day 10: Teaching 2:
Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa
 
(We Must Value the Holy Orthodox Faith)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, glorified today by the Church, was the younger brother of Basil the Great (born around 332) and, like him, was raised by his parents in the spirit of Christian piety. Appointed Bishop in Nyssa (of Cappadocia) in 372, Gregory became a "zealous defender of Orthodoxy" and a strict denouncer of Arianism, which is what aroused the slander of the Arians against him. Thus, they accused him of embezzling church funds and considered his consecration as a bishop illegal. The Arian bishops condemned Gregory to exile, in which he spent about three years and returned only after the death of Emperor Valens, after the persecution of the Orthodox had ceased.

The life of Saint Gregory was spent in constant labor. In 381 and 382 he defended the Orthodox teaching on the Holy Spirit against heretics; in 394 he established peace between two Arabian bishops who were disputing the see. When Gregory was not traveling, he tirelessly cared for his flock: he would preach to them for several days in a row, write discourses on the books of the Old and New Testaments, and care for the sick and the poor.

On the Resurrection of Lazarus (St. Gregory of Nyssa)

By St. Gregory of Nyssa

 

It is not the Human Nature that raises up Lazarus, nor is it the power that cannot suffer that weeps for him when he lies in the grave: the tear proceeds from the Man, the life from the true Life. 

 

(Against Eunomius, Bk. 5)

* * *