San Gregorio di Nazianzo, Dottore della Chiesa,
Saint Grégoire de
Nazianze
Patriarche de
Constantinople, docteur de l'Église (+ 390)
Basile
de Césarée et Grégoire de Nazianze sont tous deux nés en Cappadoce.
Basile dans une famille de dix enfants qui deviendront presque tous des saints.
Saint Grégoire est né dans le foyer d'un juif converti qui deviendra évêque.
Ils se rencontrent à Athènes, lors de leurs études, et désormais ils se lient d'une
grande amitié. La même foi et le même désir de perfection animent les deux
étudiants. De retour en Cappadoce, ils font des projets monastiques, mais
l'Eglise a besoin d'évêques dynamiques en cette période troublée par les
hérésies. Basile devient évêque de Césarée.
Grégoire, évêque de Nazianze, le siège épiscopal de son père, puis de
Constantinople. La forte personnalité de Basile en fait un évêque de premier
plan qui défend la foi trinitaire. Il rédige également des règles monastiques,
qui sont encore en vigueur dans les monastères "basiliens". Saint
Grégoire est plus fragile. Chassé de Constantinople, il finira solitaire,
composant d'admirables poèmes que la liturgie utilise encore.
- Saints Basile le Grand et Grégoire Nazianze, évêques et docteurs de l'Eglise (VaticanNews)
Mémoire des saints Basile le Grand et Grégoire de Naziance, évêques et docteurs
de l'Église. Basile, évêque de Césarée en Cappadoce, appelé Grand pour sa
doctrine et sa sagesse, enseigna aux moines la méditation des Écritures, le
labeur de l'obéissance et la charité fraternelle. Il organisa leur vie par des
règles qu'il avait lui-même rédigées. Par ses écrits excellents, il
instruisit les fidèles et se distingua par son souci pastoral des pauvres et
des malades. Il mourut le premier janvier 379. Grégoire, son ami, évêque
successivement de Sasimes, de Constantinople et de Naziance, défendit avec
beaucoup d'ardeur la divinité du Verbe, ce qui lui valut d'être appelé le
Théologien. Il mourut le 25 janvier 390. L'Église se réjouit de célébrer la
mémoire conjointe de si grands docteurs.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saints_356.html
BENOÎT XVI
AUDIENCE GÉNÉRALE
Salle Paul VI
Mercredi 8 août 2007
Saint Grégoire de
Nazianze
Chers frères et sœurs!
Mercredi dernier, j'ai
parlé d'un grand maître de la foi, le Père de l'Eglise saint Basile.
Aujourd'hui, je voudrais parler de son ami Grégoire de Nazianze, lui aussi,
comme Basile, originaire de Cappadoce. Illustre théologien, orateur et
défenseur de la foi chrétienne au IV siècle, il fut célèbre pour son éloquence
et avait également, en tant que poète, une âme raffinée et sensible.
Grégoire naquit au sein
d'une noble famille. Sa mère le consacra à Dieu dès sa naissance qui eut lieu
autour de l'an 330. Après une première éducation familiale, il fréquenta les
écoles les plus célèbres de son temps: il fut d'abord à Césarée de Cappadoce,
où il se lia d'amitié avec Basile, futur Evêque de cette ville, puis il
séjourna dans d'autres métropoles du monde antique, comme Alexandrie d'Egypte
et surtout Athènes, où il rencontra de nouveau Basile (cf. Oratio 43, 14-24: SC
384, 146-180). En réévoquant son amitié avec lui, Grégoire écrira plus tard:
"Alors, non seulement je me sentais empli de vénération pour mon grand Basile,
pour ses mœurs sérieuses et la maturité et la sagesse de ses écrits, mais j'en
encourageais également d'autres, qui ne le connaissaient pas encore, à en faire
autant... Nous étions guidés par le même désir de savoir... Telle était notre
compétition: non pas qui était le premier, mais qui permettait à l'autre de
l'être. On aurait dit que nous avions une unique âme et un seul corps"
(Oratio 43, 16.20: SC 384, 154-156.164). Ce sont des paroles qui sont un peu
l'autoportrait de cette noble âme. Mais l'on peut également imaginer que cet
homme, qui était fortement projeté au-delà des valeurs terrestres, a beaucoup
souffert pour les choses de ce monde.
De retour chez lui,
Grégoire reçut le Baptême et s'orienta vers la vie monastique: la solitude, la
méditation philosophique et spirituelle le fascinaient: "Rien ne me semble
plus grand que cela: faire taire ses sens, sortir de la chair du monde, se
recueillir en soi, ne plus s'occuper des choses humaines, sinon celles
strictement nécessaires; parler avec soi-même et avec Dieu, conduire une vie
qui transcende les choses visibles; porter dans l'âme des images divines
toujours pures, sans y mêler les formes terrestres et erronées, être
véritablement le reflet immaculé de Dieu et des choses divines, et le devenir
toujours plus, en puisant la lumière à la lumière...; jouir, dans l'espérance
présente, du bien à venir et converser avec les anges; avoir déjà quitté la
terre, tout en restant sur terre, transporté vers le haut par l'esprit"
(Oratio, 2, 7: SC 247, 96).
Comme il le confie dans
son autobiographie (cf. Carmina [historica] 2, 1, 11 de vita sua 340-349: PG
37, 1053), il reçut l'ordination sacerdotale avec une certaine réticence, car
il savait qu'il aurait dû faire ensuite le Pasteur, s'occuper des autres, de
leurs affaires, et donc ne plus se recueillir ainsi dans la pure méditation:
toutefois, il accepta ensuite cette vocation, et accomplit le ministère
pastoral en pleine obéissance acceptant, comme cela lui arrivait souvent dans
la vie, d'être porté par la Providence là où il ne voulait pas aller. (cf. Jn
21, 18). En 371, son ami Basile, Evêque de Césarée, contre la volonté de
Grégoire lui-même, voulut le consacrer Evêque de Sasimes, une petite ville
ayant une importance stratégique en Cappadoce. Toutefois, en raison de diverses
difficultés, il n'en prit jamais possession et demeura en revanche dans la
ville de Nazianze.
Vers 379, Grégoire fut
appelé à Constantinople, la capitale, pour guider la petite communauté
catholique fidèle au Concile de Nicée et à la foi trinitaire. La majorité
adhérait au contraire à l'arianisme, qui était "politiquement
correct" et considéré comme politiquement utile par les empereurs. Ainsi,
il se trouva dans une situation de minorité, entouré d'hostilité. Dans la petite
église de l'Anastasis, il prononça cinq Discours théologiques (Orationes 27-31:
SC 250, 70-343) précisément pour défendre et rendre également intelligible la
foi trinitaire. Il s'agit de discours demeurés célèbres en raison de la sûreté
de la doctrine, de l'habilité du raisonnement, qui fait réellement comprendre
qu'il s'agit bien de la logique divine. Et la splendeur de la forme également
les rend aujourd'hui fascinants. Grégoire reçut, en raison de ces discours,
l'appellation de "théologien". Ainsi, il fut appelé par l'Eglise
orthodoxe le "théologien". Et cela parce que pour lui, la théologie
n'est pas une réflexion purement humaine, et encore moins le fruit uniquement
de spéculations complexes, mais parce qu'elle découle d'une vie de prière et de
sainteté, d'un dialogue assidu avec Dieu. Et précisément ainsi, elle fait
apparaître à notre raison la réalité de Dieu, le mystère trinitaire. Dans le
silence de la contemplation, mêlé de stupeur face aux merveilles du mystère
révélé, l'âme accueille la beauté et la gloire divine.
Alors qu'il participait
au second Concile œcuménique de 381, Grégoire fut élu Evêque de Constantinople
et assura la présidence du Concile. Mais très vite, une forte opposition se
déchaîna contre lui, jusqu'à devenir insoutenable. Pour une âme aussi sensible,
ces inimitiés étaient insupportables. Il se répétait ce que Grégoire avait déjà
dénoncé auparavant à travers des paroles implorantes: "Nous avons divisé
le Christ, nous qui aimions tant Dieu et le Christ! Nous nous sommes mentis les
uns aux autres à cause de la Vérité, nous avons nourri des sentiments de haine
à cause de l'Amour, nous nous sommes divisés les uns les autres!" (Oratio
6, 3: SC 405, 128). On en arriva ainsi, dans un climat de tension, à sa
démission. Dans la cathédrale bondée, Grégoire prononça un discours d'adieu
d'un grand effet et d'une grande dignité (cf. Oratio 42: SC 384, 48-114). Il
concluait son intervention implorante par ces paroles: "Adieu, grande
ville aimée du Christ... Mes fils, je vous en supplie, conservez le dépôt [de
la foi] qui vous a été confié (cf. 1 Tm 6, 20), souvenez-vous de mes
souffrances (cf. Col 4, 18). Que la grâce de notre Seigneur Jésus Christ soit
avec vous tous" (cf. Oratio 42, 27: SC 384, 112-114).
Il retourna à Nazianze
et, pendant deux ans environ, il se consacra au soin pastoral de cette
communauté chrétienne. Puis, il se retira définitivement dans la solitude, dans
la proche Arianze, sa terre natale, où il consacra à l'étude et à la vie
ascétique. Au cours de cette période, il composa la plus grande partie de son
œuvre poétique, surtout autobiographique: le De vita sua, une relecture en vers
de son chemin humain et spirituel, le chemin exemplaire d'un chrétien qui
souffre, d'un homme d'une grande intériorité dans un monde chargé de conflits.
C'est un homme qui nous fait ressentir le primat de Dieu, et qui nous parle
donc également à nous, à notre monde: sans Dieu, l'homme perd sa grandeur, sans
Dieu, le véritable humanisme n'existe pas. Ecoutons donc cette voix et
cherchons à connaître nous aussi le visage de Dieu. Dans l'une de ses poésies,
il avait écrit, en s'adressant à Dieu: "Sois clément, Toi, l'Au-Delà de
tous" (Carmina [dogmatica] 1, 1, 29: PG 37, 508). Et, en 390, Dieu
accueillait dans ses bras ce fidèle serviteur qui, avec une intelligence aiguë,
l'avait défendu dans ses écrits et qui, avec tant d'amour, l'avait chanté dans
ses poésies.
* * *
J’accueille avec plaisir
les pèlerins francophones, particulièrement les membres du pèlerinage organisé
par les Chanoines réguliers de Saint-Augustin, le groupe de Mende ainsi que les
pèlerins venus d’Égypte. Que le Seigneur vous aide à grandir dans une
connaissance authentique de sa personne pour que vous puissiez en vivre et en
témoigner parmi vos frères! Avec ma Bénédiction apostolique.
© Copyright 2007 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Gregory the Theologian (= Gregory of Nazianzus): fresco from Kariye Camii, Istanbul.
AUDIENCE GÉNÉRALE
Salle Paul VI
Mercredi 22 août 2007
Saint Grégoire de
Nazianze
Chers frères et sœurs,
Dans le cadre des
portraits des grands Pères et Docteurs de l'Eglise que je cherche à offrir dans
ces catéchèses, j'ai parlé la dernière fois de saint Grégoire de Nazianze,
Evêque du IV siècle, et je voudrais aujourd'hui encore compléter ce portrait
d'un grand maître. Nous chercherons aujourd'hui à recueillir certains de ses
enseignements. En réfléchissant sur la mission que Dieu lui avait confiée,
saint Grégoire de Nazianze concluait: "J'ai été créé pour m'élever jusqu'à
Dieu à travers mes actions" (Oratio 14, 6 de pauperum amore: PG 35, 865).
De fait, il plaça son talent d'écrivain et d'orateur au service de Dieu et de
l'Eglise. Il rédigea de multiples discours, diverses homélies et panégyriques,
de nombreuses lettres et œuvres poétiques (près de 18.000 vers!): une activité
vraiment prodigieuse. Il avait compris que telle était la mission que Dieu lui
avait confiée: "Serviteur de la Parole, j'adhère au ministère de la
Parole; que jamais je ne néglige ce bien. Cette vocation je l'apprécie et je la
considère, j'en tire plus de joie que de toutes les autres choses mises
ensemble" (Oratio 6, 5: SC 405, 134; cf. également Oratio 4, 10).
Grégoire de Nazianze
était un homme doux, et au cours de sa vie il chercha toujours à accomplir une
oeuvre de paix dans l'Eglise de son temps, lacérée par les discordes et les
hérésies. Avec audace évangélique, il s'efforça de surmonter sa timidité pour
proclamer la vérité de la foi. Il ressentait profondément le désir de
s'approcher de Dieu, de s'unir à Lui. C'est ce qu'il exprime lui-même dans
l'une de ses poésies, où il écrit: parmi les "grands flots de la mer de la
vie, / agitée ici et là par des vents impétueux, / ... / une seule chose
m'était chère, constituait ma richesse, / mon réconfort et l'oubli des peines,
/ la lumière de la Sainte Trinité" (Carmina [historica] 2, 1, 15: PG 37,
1250sq.).
Grégoire fit resplendir
la lumière de la Trinité, en défendant la foi proclamée par le Concile de
Nicée: un seul Dieu en trois personnes égales et distinctes - le Père, le Fils
et l'Esprit Saint -, "triple lumière qui en une unique / splendeur se
rassemble" (Hymne vespéral: Carmina [historica] 2, 1, 32: PG 37, 512).
Dans le sillage de saint Paul (1 Co 8, 6), Grégoire affirme ensuite, "pour
nous il y a un Dieu, le Père, dont tout procède; un Seigneur, Jésus Christ, à
travers qui tout est; et un Esprit Saint en qui tout est" (Oratio 39, 12:
SC 358, 172).
Grégoire a profondément
souligné la pleine humanité du Christ: pour racheter l'homme dans sa totalité,
corps, âme et esprit, le Christ assuma toutes les composantes de la nature
humaine, autrement l'homme n'aurait pas été sauvé. Contre l'hérésie d'Apollinaire,
qui soutenait que Jésus Christ n'avait pas assumé une âme rationnelle, Grégoire
affronte le problème à la lumière du mystère du salut: "Ce qui n'a pas été
assumé, n'a pas été guéri" (Ep 101, 32: SC 208, 50), et si le Christ
n'avait pas été "doté d'une intelligence rationnelle, comment aurait-il pu
être homme?" (Ep 101, 34: SC 208, 50). C'était précisément notre
intelligence, notre raison qui avait et qui a besoin de la relation, de la
rencontre avec Dieu dans le Christ. En devenant homme, le Christ nous a donné
la possibilité de devenir, à notre tour, comme Lui. Grégoire de Nazianze
exhorte: "Cherchons à être comme le Christ, car le Christ est lui aussi
devenu comme nous: cherchons à devenir des dieux grâce à Lui, du moment que
Lui-même, par notre intermédiaire, est devenu homme. Il assuma le pire, pour
nous faire don du meilleur" (Oratio 1, 5: SC 247, 78).
Marie, qui a donné la
nature humaine au Christ, est la véritable Mère de Dieu (Theotókos: cf Ep. 101,
16: SC 208, 42, et en vue de sa très haute mission elle a été
"pré-purifiée" (Oratio 38, 13: SC 358, 132, comme une sorte de
lointain prélude du dogme de l'Immaculée Conception). Marie est proposée comme
modèle aux chrétiens, en particulier aux vierges, et comme secours à invoquer
dans les nécessités (cf. Oratio 24, 11: SC 282, 60-64).
Grégoire nous rappelle
que, comme personnes humaines, nous devons être solidaires les uns des autres.
Il écrit: ""Nous sommes tous un dans le Seigneur" (cf. Rm 12,
5), riches et pauvres, esclaves et personnes libres, personnes saines et
malades; et la tête dont tout dérive est unique: Jésus Christ. Et, comme le
font les membres d'un seul corps, que chacun s'occupe de chacun, et tous de
tous". Ensuite, en faisant référence aux malades et aux personnes en
difficulté, il conclut: "C'est notre unique salut pour notre chair et
notre âme: la charité envers eux" (Oratio 14, 8 de pauperum amore: PG 35,
868ab). Grégoire souligne que l'homme doit imiter la bonté et l'amour de Dieu,
et il recommande donc: "Si tu es sain et riche, soulage les besoins de
celui qui est malade et pauvre; si tu n'es pas tombé, secours celui qui a chuté
et qui vit dans la souffrance; si tu es heureux, console celui qui est triste;
si tu as de la chance, aide celui qui est poursuivi par le mauvais sort. Donne
à Dieu une preuve de reconnaissance, car tu es l'un de ceux qui peuvent faire
du bien, et non de ceux qui ont besoin d'en recevoir... Sois riche non
seulement de biens, mais également de piété; pas seulement d'or, mais de
vertus, ou mieux, uniquement de celle-ci. Dépasse la réputation de ton prochain
en te montrant meilleur que tous; fais toi Dieu pour le malheureux, en imitant
la miséricorde de Dieu" (Oratio 14, 26 de pauperum amore: PG 35, 892bc).
Grégoire nous enseigne
tout d'abord l'importance et la nécessité de la prière. Il affirme qu'il
"est nécessaire de se rappeler de Dieu plus souvent que l'on respire"
(Oratio 27, 4: PG 250, 78), car la prière est la rencontre de la soif de Dieu
avec notre soif. Dieu a soif que nous ayons soif de Lui (cf. Oratio 40, 27: SC
358, 260). Dans la prière nous devons tourner notre coeur vers Dieu, pour nous
remettre à Lui comme offrande à purifier et à transformer. Dans la prière nous
voyons tout à la lumière du Christ, nous ôtons nos masques et nous nous
plongeons dans la vérité et dans l'écoute de Dieu, en nourrissant le feu de
l'amour.
Dans une poésie, qui est
en même temps une méditation sur le but de la vie et une invocation implicite à
Dieu, Grégoire écrit: "Tu as une tâche, mon âme, / une grande tâche si tu le
veux. / Scrute-toi sérieusement, / ton être, ton destin; / d'où tu viens et où
tu devras aller; / cherche à savoir si la vie que tu vis est vie / ou s'il y a
quelque chose de plus. / Tu as une tâche, mon âme, / purifie donc ta vie: /
considère, je te prie, Dieu et ses mystères, / recherche ce qu'il y avait avant
cet univers / et ce qu'il est pour toi, / d'où il vient, et quel sera son
destin. / Voilà ta tâche, /mon âme, / purifie donc ta vie" (Carmina
[historica] 2, 1, 78: PG 37, 1425-1426). Le saint Evêque demande sans cesse de
l'aide au Christ, pour être relevé et reprendre le chemin: "J'ai été déçu,
ô mon Christ, / en raison de ma trop grande présomption: / des hauteurs je suis
tombé profondément bas. / Mais relève-moi à nouveau à présent, car je vois /
que j'ai été trompé par ma propre personne; / si je crois à nouveau trop en
moi, / je tomberai immédiatement, et la chute sera fatale" (Carmina
[historica] 2, 1, 67: PG 37, 1408).
Grégoire a donc ressenti
le besoin de s'approcher de Dieu pour surmonter la lassitude de son propre moi.
Il a fait l'expérience de l'élan de l'âme, de la vivacité d'un esprit sensible
et de l'instabilité du bonheur éphémère. Pour lui, dans le drame d'une vie sur
laquelle pesait la conscience de sa propre faiblesse et de sa propre misère,
l'expérience de l'amour de Dieu l'a toujours emporté. Ame, tu as une tâche -
nous dit saint Grégoire à nous aussi - , la tâche de trouver la véritable
lumière, de trouver la véritable élévation de ta vie. Et ta vie est de
rencontrer Dieu, qui a soif de notre soif.
***
Je salue cordialement les
pèlerins francophones présents ce matin, en particulier les pèlerins du diocèse
d’Obala, au Cameroun, les appelant, à l’exemple de saint Grégoire de Nazianze,
à trouver dans l’écoute de la Parole de Dieu et dans la charité envers les
pauvres la volonté de servir toujours davantage le Christ et l’Église.
© Copyright 2007 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Gregory of Nazianzus in Constantinople. Григорий Богослов приезжает в Константинополь. http://www.pravoslavieto.com/life/01.25_sv_Grigorij_Bogoslov.htm
Saints Basile et saint
Grégoire
Évêques et docteurs de
l'Eglise
Depuis la réforme du
calendrier par Paul VI, en célébrant ensemble saint Basile le Grand, évêque de
Césarée et saint Grégoire de Nazianze, évêque de Sazimes puis patriarche de
Constantinople, l’Eglise veut souligner la vertu de leur amitié exemplaire.
Saint Basile de Césarée
et saint Grégoire de Nazianze naquirent en Cappadoce, vers 330, l’un à Césarée
de Cappadoce et l’autre à Arianze ; tous les deux appartenaient à des familles
éminemment chrétiennes puisque le premier, fils et petit-fils de saintes, était
le frère de saint Grégoire de Nysse, de saint Pierre de Sébaste et de sainte Macrine
la Jeune, tandis que le second était le fils de Grégoire l’Ancien, évêque de
Nazianze. Les deux amis qui avaient reçu une solide éducation, se rencontrèrent
à l’école de Césarée mais ne lièrent indéfectiblement qu’à l’école d’Athènes
quand Basile revint de l’école de Constantinople et Grégoire de celle
d’Alexandrie. Ensemble, ils furent moines, près de Néo-Césarée, dans le Pont,
où ils composèrent ensemble la Philocalie et écrivirent deux règles
monastiques.
Basile fut élu évêque de
Césarée (370), en même temps qu’il était fait métropolite de Cappadoce et
exarque du Pont ; quand il créa de nouveaux sièges épiscopaux, il fit confier à
Grégoire qu’il consacra, celui de Sazimes (371). En 379, Grégoire fut désigné
pour réorganiser l’Eglise de Constantinople dont il fut nommé patriarche par
l’empereur Théodose I° et confirmé par le concile de 381 ; la légitimité de sa
nomination étant contestée, il démissionna et, après avoir un temps administré
le diocèse de Nazianze, il se retira dans sa propriété d’Arianze où il mourut
en 390.
Quant à saint Basile, son
activité comme prêtre, apôtre de la charité et prince de l’Eglise, lui a
procuré de son vivant le surnom de Grand. Une importance particulière s’attache
à sa lutte victorieuse contre l’arianisme si puissant sous le règne de
l’empereur Valens. l’Empereur ne put porter atteinte qu’à la position
extérieure de saint Basile en partageant la Cappadoce en deux provinces (371),
ce qui amenait aussi le partage de la province métropolitaine (une cinquantaine
d’évêchés suffragants). Pour assurer de façon durable l’orthodoxie mise en
péril en Orient, saint Basile chercha, par l’entremise de saint Athanase et par
une prise directe de contact avec le pape Damase, à nouer de meilleures
relations et à obtenir une politique unanime des évêques d’Orient et
d’Occident. L’obstacle principal à l’union souhaité entre les épiscopats
d’Orient et d’Occident était le schisme mélécien d’Antioche ; les tentatives de
saint Basile pour obtenir la reconnaissance de Mélèce en Occident demeurèrent
sans résultat puisque le Pape ne voulait pas abandonner Paulin. Basile fut
moins comme un spéculatif qu’un évêque d’abord attaché à l’exploitation
pratique et pastorale des vérités de la foi.
SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/01/02.php
.jpg)
SAINT GRÉGOIRE de
NAZIANZE
Évêque, Docteur de l'Église
(312-389)
La mère de saint Grégoire
dut la naissance de ce fils à ses prières et à ses larmes. Elle se chargea
elle-même de sa première éducation et lui apprit à lire, à comprendre et à
aimer les Saintes Écritures. L'enfant devint digne de sa sainte mère, et
demeura pur au milieu des séductions.
"Un jour, raconte-t-il
lui-même, j'aperçus près de moi deux vierges d'une majesté surhumaine. On
aurait dit deux soeurs. La simplicité et la modestie de leurs vêtements, plus
blancs que la neige, faisaient toute leur parure. A leur vue, je tressaillis
d'un transport céleste. "Nous sommes la Tempérance et la Chasteté, me
dirent-elles; nous siégeons auprès du Christ-Roi. Donne-toi tout à nous, cher
fils, accepte notre joug, nous t'introduirons un jour dans les splendeurs de
l'immortelle Trinité." La voie de Grégoire était tracée: il la suivit sans
faiblir toute sa vie.
Il s'embarqua pour
Athènes, afin de compléter ses études. Dieu mit sur le chemin de Grégoire, dans
la ville des arts antiques, une âme grande comme la sienne, saint Basile. Qui
dira la beauté et la force de cette amitié, dont le but unique était la vertu!
"Nous ne connaissions que deux chemins, raconte Grégoire, celui de
l'église et celui des écoles." La vertu s'accorde bien avec la science;
partout où l'on voulait parler de deux jeunes gens accomplis, on nommait Basile
et Grégoire.
Revenus dans leur patrie,
ils se conservèrent toujours cette affection pure et dévouée qui avait
sauvegardé leur jeunesse, et qui désormais fortifiera leur âge mûr et consolera
leur vieillesse. Rien de plus suave, de plus édifiant que la correspondance de
ces deux grands hommes, frères d'abord dans l'étude, puis dans la solitude de
la vie monastique et enfin dans les luttes de l'épiscopat.
A la mort de son père,
qui était devenu évêque de Nazianze, Grégoire lui succède; mais, au bout de
deux ans, son amour de la solitude l'emporte, et il va se réfugier dans un
monastère. Bientôt on le réclame pour le siège patriarcal de Constantinople. Il
résiste: "Jusqu'à quand, lui dit-on, préférerez-vous votre repos au bien
de l'Église?" Grégoire est ému; il craint de résister à la Volonté divine
et se dirige vers la capitale de l'empire, dont il devient le patriarche
légitime. Là, sa mansuétude triomphe des plus endurcis, il fait l'admiration de
ses ennemis, et il mérite, avec le nom de Père de son peuple, le nom glorieux
de Théologien, que l'Église a consacré. Avant de mourir, Grégoire se retira à
Nazianze, où sa vie s'acheva dans la pratique de l'oraison, du jeûne et du
travail.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie
des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_gregoire_de_nazianze.html
Gregory of Nazianzus (russian icon), 16th century, http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Images/ii535&37.htm
Heureux prélude
Bien peu de gens honorent
les Maccabées, sous prétexte que leur lutte n’a pas eu lieu après le Christ,
eux qui sont pourtant dignes d’être honorés de tous parce que leur endurance
s’est exercée pour la défense des institutions de leurs pères ! Et que
n’auraient fait les hommes qui ont subi le martyre avant la passion du Christ,
s’ils avaient été persécutés après le Christ et l’avaient imité dans sa mort
pour nous ? Car ceux qui, sans l’aide d’un pareil exemple, ont fait preuve
d’une si grande vertu, comment ne se seraient-ils pas montrés plus nobles encore
dans des dangers affrontés après cet exemple ?
Voici Éléazar, prémices
de ceux qui sont morts avant le Christ, comme Étienne l’a été de ceux qui sont
morts après le Christ. C’est un saint homme et un vieillard, aux cheveux
blanchis et par la vieillesse et par la prudence. Auparavant il sacrifiait pour
le peuple et priait, mais maintenant c’est lui-même qu’il offre à Dieu en
sacrifice très parfait, victime expiatoire de tout le peuple, heureux prélude
de la lutte, exhortation parlante et silencieuse. Il offre aussi les sept
enfants, l’accomplissement de son éducation, en sacrifice vivant,
saint, capable de plaire à Dieu (Rm 12, 1), plus splendide et plus pur que
tout sacrifice conforme à la Loi. Car il est parfaitement juste et légitime de
porter au compte du père les actions des enfants. Imitons Éléazar, qui a montré
le meilleur exemple en parole et en acte.
St Grégoire de Nazianze
Saint Grégoire de
Nazianze († v. 390), docteur de l’Église, est le premier après saint Jean à
avoir été surnommé le « Théologien » pour la profondeur de ses
discours sur Dieu. / Discours 15,1.3.12, trad. R. Ziadé, Les
martyrs Maccabées : de l’histoire juive au culte chrétien, Leyde, Brill, 2007,
p. 301-302, 311.
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/daily-prayer/mardi-16-novembre/meditation-de-ce-jour-1/
Heureux, par diverses
voies
Heureux celui qui mène
une vie tranquille, sans se mêler à ceux dont les voies sont terrestres, et qui
a élevé son esprit vers Dieu.
Heureux celui qui, mêlé à
la multitude, ne se tourne pas vers une multitude de choses, mais a adressé à
Dieu tout son cœur.
Heureux celui qui, au
prix de tout ce qu’il possédait, a acheté le Christ, a la croix pour seule
possession et la porte bien haut.
Heureux celui qui, maître
de ses légitimes possessions, tend la main de Dieu à ceux qui en ont besoin.
Heureux celui qui,
exerçant le pouvoir sur le peuple, avec de purs et grands sacrifices conduit le
Christ aux terriens.
Toutes ces vies
remplissent les pressoirs célestes, qui sont là pour accueillir le fruit de nos
âmes.
St Grégoire de Nazianze
Saint Grégoire de Nazianze
(† v. 390), docteur de l’Église, est le premier après saint Jean à avoir été
surnommé le « Théologien » pour la profondeur de ses discours sur
Dieu. / Les Béatitudes des divers modes de vie, trad. G. Bady, in
Dominicat, Paris, Cerf/Magnificat, 2020, p. 420-421.
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/daily-prayer/mardi-1-novembre/meditation-de-ce-jour-1/
Digne de le
recevoir ?
Se lancer dans la
théologie, je sais que c’est téméraire. Nul n’est digne du Dieu suprême, à la
fois victime et grand prêtre, s’il n’a pas commencé par s’offrir lui-même à
Dieu en offrande vivante, bien plus, s’il ne s’est pas fait le temple saint et
vivant du Dieu vivant. Sachant cela, comment pourrais-je me charger
témérairement de m’occuper de la parole de Dieu ou approuver celui qui s’en
charge sans réfléchir ? Le désirer n’est pas louable ; s’en charger
est redoutable.
Il faut donc commencer
par se purifier soi-même, ensuite s’entretenir avec l’Être pur. Sinon nous en
viendrions à subir le sort de Manoué et à dire, en imaginant que nous sommes en
présence de Dieu : « Femme, c’en est fait de nous, nous avons vu
Dieu » (Jg 13, 22) ; ou, comme le célèbre centurion, nous
implorerions la guérison en refusant de recevoir chez nous le guérisseur. Aussi
longtemps qu’on est le centurion qui commande une centurie de malices et
davantage, et qu’on reste au service d’un César qui gouverne l’univers des
réalités terre à terre, que chacun de nous dise à son
tour : « Je ne suis pas digne que tu entres sous mon
toit. » Mais, lorsque je verrai Jésus, bien que je sois petit comme
le célèbre Zachée par la stature spirituelle, et que je grimperai moi aussi
dans le sycomore en mortifiant mes membres terrestres et en réduisant à rien le
corps de ma bassesse, alors aussi je recevrai Jésus chez moi, je l’entendrai
dire : « Aujourd’hui le salut est arrivé pour cette
maison » (Lc 19, 9).
St Grégoire de Nazianze
Cappadocien, saint
Grégoire de Nazianze († 390) a été surnommé « le Théologien » pour la
profondeur de ses discours sur Dieu. / Discours 20, 1.4, trad. J. Mossay et G.
Lafontaine, Paris, Cerf, 1980, Sources Chrétiennes 270, p. 59.63-65.
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/daily-prayer/lundi-18-septembre-2/meditation-de-ce-jour-1/
Confiance, tes péchés
sont pardonnés
Le bain du baptême
comporte le pardon des péchés qui ont été commis, non de ceux que l’on est en
train de commettre. Il faut que la purification ne soit pas feinte, mais
qu’elle t’imprègne ; que tu aies un éclat parfait, mais non une simple
coloration ; que la grâce ne couvre pas tes péchés, mais qu’elle t’en
débarrasse.
Hier, tu gisais sur un
lit, languissant et abattu ; aujourd’hui tu as trouvé un homme, qui est
aussi Dieu, ou plutôt un Dieu-homme. Tu as été soulevé de ta civière, ou plutôt
tu as soulevé ta civière et tu as, pour ainsi dire, marqué ce bienfait sur une
stèle ; veille à n’être pas jeté de nouveau par le péché sur une civière,
repos funeste du corps alangui par les plaisirs ; au contraire, marche comme
tu es, en te souvenant de la recommandation : « Te voilà guéri.
Ne pèche plus, il pourrait t’arriver quelque chose de pire » (Jn 5,
14), si tu te montrais mauvais après cette faveur.
St Grégoire de Nazianze
Cappadocien, saint
Grégoire de Nazianze († 390) a été surnommé « le Théologien » pour la
profondeur de ses discours sur Dieu. / Discours 40, 32-33, trad. P. Gallay,
Paris, Cerf, 1990, Sources Chrétiennes 358, p. 273-275.
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/daily-prayer/jeudi-4-juillet-2/meditation-de-ce-jour-1/
Icône
russe du xviiie siècle, représentant Jean
Chrysostome et Grégoire de Nazianze.
Святители
Иоанн Златоуст и Григорий Богослов. Икона XVIII в. Россия
John
Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzus.
Icon
02036 Svyatiteli Ioann Zlatoust i Grigorij Bogoslov. Ikona XVIII v. Rossiya
Saint Grégoire de
Nazianze
Naissance:
Deux hypothèses ont été proposées au sujet de la chronologie de sa carrière.
L'historiographie ancienne et la tradition byzantine rapportée par la Souda
(Suidae Lexicon, éd. A. ADLER, Leipzig, 1928, p. 541-543), font état de son
grand âge; il serait mort nonagénaire en 390. Les historiens modernes et
l'hagiographie récente adoptent une chronologie plus brève et placent sa
naissance vers 325/329. Cette chronologie courte s'appuie sur le postulat selon
lequel Grégoire aurait eu approximativement le même âge que S. Basile et sur
l'interprétation de plusieurs textes poétiques et ambigus. Cette hypothèse
explique mal les nombreuses allusions que Grégoire fait à son grand âge, dès
l'époque de son ordination sacerdotale (Or. 2, 12). D'autre part, il dit
formellement que sa mère, Nonna, était quinquagénaire en 325. La biographie
longue est notamment défendue par le bollandiste Daniel Papebroch (Acta
Sanctorum, Maii t. 2, p. 370D - 371F).
Études:
Grégoire est intentionnellement discret sur la période de ses études (De vita
sua, v. 108 et 211-212), et l'on ignore combien d'années il y a consacrées. Il
étudia à Césarée de Cappadoce, à Césarée de Palestine et à Alexandrie. En
Palestine, il fut, selon Saint Jérôme (De viris illustribus, 113), élève de
Thespesius et condisciple d'Euzoius, futur évêque arien de Césarée. A-t-il été
l'auditeur de S. Cyrille de Jérusalem, dans cette dernière ville, en 348 ou
349? Cela expliquerait l'importance des réminiscences de la VIe et de la IXe
Catéchèses de Cyrille dans l'Or. 28 (BERNARDI, Prédication, p. 185; SINKO, De
traditione, I, 12-18). Fut-il élève de Libanius à Antioche, comme l'affirme
Socrate (Hist. eccl., IV, 26)? C'est possible. D'Alexandrie, il gagna Athènes
avec une hâte qu'il fait remarquer sans l'expliquer en racontant les détails de
cette traversée mouvementée. Il ne fut pas étudiant pendant toute la durée de
son séjour dans les écoles d'Athènes. Il y enseigna. Lorsque Basile de Césarée
vint à Athènes comme étudiant, Grégoire l'accueillit et l'introduisit dans les
milieux athéniens. Il partageait les goûts de Basile pour la vie religieuse et
il décida de suivre lui aussi une vocation de type monastique mal précisé; on
ignore à quel moment, entre 354/355 et 363, il renonça à la carrière profane et
rentra au pays.
Carrière religieuse en Cappadoce:
Les Invectives contre Julien (Or. 4 et 5), composées sans doute vers 364, selon
M. Regali, sont des polémiques contre l'hellénisme à l'antique, que des lettrés
païens encouragés par l'empereur Julien (361-363) remettaient à la mode.
Ordonné prêtre sous le règne de Julien ou de Valens (365-378), il composa à
cette occasion un traité sur le sacerdoce (Or. 2). Sa carrière sacerdotale puis
épiscopale en Cappadoce jusqu'en 374 est celle d'un ecclésiastique jouant le
rôle de notable en même temps qu'il partage les charges pastorales de son vieux
père, dans la bourgade montagnarde de Nazianze à l'écart des grands centres. Il
évoque dans ses écrits des réactions monastiques défavorables aux positions
doctrinales de son père, des divergences théologiques sollicitant le clergé
divisé entre nicéens et neo-nicéens d'une part, et entre diverses tendances
dérivées de l'arianisme d'autre part; il intervient avec son père dans
l'élection de S. Basile comme évêque de Césarée, mais quand Basile l'a fait
sacrer évêque de Sasimes, il lui reproche d'avoir abusé de lui et de manquer
d'égards à son âge. En effet, il néglige obstinément de s'installer à Sasimes,
bourg qu'il dit peu plaisant. Les raisons administratives et ecclésiastiques
qui l'avaient amené là ne dissimulent guère des questions doctrinales et
personnelles sous-jacentes. Grégoire resta à Nazianze comme auxiliaire de son
père jusqu'à la mort de ce dernier, survenue en 374; comme on tardait à donner
un successeur à son père, Grégoire, faisant valoir son âge, se retira à
Séleucie de Pisidie.
Séjour à Constantinople:
En 379, la communauté nicéenne de Constantinople fit appel à lui; les ariens de
tendances diverses étaient majoritaires dans la capitale. Il organisa les
services religieux dans une maison particulière, l'Anastasia, qui devint plus
tard l'église Ste-Anastasie. Lorsque Théodose Ier, favorable aux nicéens
orthodoxes, insalla ceux-ci dans les églises officielles, Grégoire hésita à se
laisser introniser à la Grande Église par le pouvoir civil, mais il fut comme
plébiscité par le peuple et le clergé quelques jours après le 24 nov. 380. En
381, le 1er concile de Constantinople valida les fonctions d'évêque de
Constantinople qu'il exerçait. Mais des dissensions éclatèrent entre les
évêques d'Orient et d'Occident, on remit en question la légitimité des
fonctions de Grégoire. En fait la question du rôle ecclésiastique du siège de
la Nouvelle Rome dans la chrétienté et celle de la légitimité politique de
l'orthodoxie étaient posées; Grégoire renonça à la présidence du concile en
même temps qu'au trône épiscopal et regagna Nazianze.
Les dernières années en Cappadoce:
De retour à Nazianze, il y administra l'église locale en attendant qu'on lui
donne un titulaire dans la personne d'un de ses parents, Eulalios. Retiré dans
son domaine d'Arianze, avec l'intention de limiter son ministère aux activités
littéraires, Grégoire y mourut et y fut inhumé, en 390.
SOURCE : http://nazianzos.fltr.ucl.ac.be/002BiosEF.htm
Basil
of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom. Orthodoxy icon.
Три
святителя: Василий Великий, Григорий Богослов, Иоанн Златоуст. Русская
православная икона.
Saint Grégoire de
Nazianze
Fête saint : 09 Mai
Présentation
Titre : Surnommé le
Théologien
Date : 312-389
Pape : Saint Melchiade ;
Saint Sirice
Empereur : Constantin ;
Théodose
La Vie des Saints : Saint
Grégoire de Nazianze
Auteur
Mgr Paul Guérin
Les Petits Bollandistes
- Vies des Saints - Septième édition - Bloud et Barral - 1876 -
Saint Grégoire de
Nazianze
À Nazianze, le
bienheureux décès de saint Grégoire, évêque, surnommé le Théologien ; à cause
de la grande science qu'il avait des choses divines. Il releva à Constantinople
la foi catholique qui y était fort déchue, et réprima les hérésies qui
s'élevèrent de son temps. + 389.
Hagiographie
Près de la petite ville
de Nazianze, en Cappadoce, dans un bourg nommé Arianze, vivait, au commencement
du IVe siècle, une sainte femme qui s’appelait Nonna. Elle était fervente
chrétienne ; son mari, Grégoire, avait une âme droite ; mais il était païen, —
d’une secte monothéiste, il est vrai : les hypsistaires, c’est-à-dire les
adorateurs du Très-Haut. Tous deux appartenaient à une noble race et
possédaient une belle fortune ; Grégoire avait même occupé les premières charges
de Nazianze. Nonna était heureuse selon le monde ; mais elle avait deux
chagrins cuisants : son mari n’avait pas sa foi ; Dieu ne lui avait donné
qu’une fille, et déjà Grégoire et elles avaient passé cinquante ans. Enfin le
Seigneur écouta son ardente prière : il lui accorda deux fils, Grégoire et
Césaire ; et leur père, touché de la grâce, se convertit en 325, Du premier
pas, s’élevant aux cimes, il se montra si fervent, que le clergé et le peuple
le choisirent pour évêque ; il gouverna l’église de Nazianze
pendant quarante-cinq ans et mourut presque centenaire. Bien plus : la
famille entière, Grégoire l’Ancien, Nonna, leurs enfants Gorgonie, Grégoire,
Césaire, ont obtenu les honneurs des Saints.
Grégoire, l’aîné des
fils, de bien bonne heure, avait été prévenu de la grâce. Il a raconté comment,
dans sa prime jeunesse, il eut une vision, un songe « qui lui inspira sans
peine l’amour de la virginité ». Deux vierges lui apparurent, d’une beauté
céleste et d’une ravissante modestie. « Elles n’avaient d’autre parure que de
n’en avoir pas… Leurs têtes et leurs visages étaient voilés, leurs yeux
baissés, leurs lèvres closes. » À la demande de l’enfant : « Nous sommes,
dirent-elles, la Chasteté et la Tempérance. Près du Christ-Roi, nous nous
plaisons à la vue des vierges qui habitent le Paradis. Courage, enfant ! Unis
ton cœur à nos cœurs, afin que nous puissions te mettre en présence de
splendeurs de l’éternelle Trinité. » Elles l’embrassèrent et disparurent,
laissant « son cœur ravi de cette radieuse image de la chasteté ».
Grégoire fut fidèle à
cette très sainte invitation ; dès lors, son âme fut acquise à la vertu. Mais
en même temps l’étude le passionnait et il y montrait autant de talent que
d’ardeur. Il était d’usage alors d’aller, dans les villes étrangères, écouter les
professeurs célèbres. Grégoire n’en eut que de tels ; mais en même temps, bien
gouverné par son père, il ne s’attacha qu’à des maîtres chrétiens.
Césarée, Constantinople, Alexandrie, Athènes le virent successivement. Il
n’était pas baptisé encore, malgré la piété de ses parents, qui suivaient sur
ce point la fâcheuse habitude de leur temps. Dieu le rappela au devoir de cette
initiation, en le laissant exposé à une terrible tempête d’abord, entre
Alexandrie et Rhodes, puis à un tremblement de terre épouvantable à Athènes. Le
jeune homme promit à Dieu de recevoir le baptême le plus tôt possible. Il tint
parole ; mais on ne sait si ce fut dans cette dernière ville ou à Nazianze.
À Athènes, il se lia
d’une étroite amitié avec Basile, jeune Cappadocien du Pont ; arrivé quelque
temps avant lui, Grégoire put, grâce à cette circonstance, rendre à Basile des
services qui contribuèrent à les unir. Dès lors cette affection mutuelle devint
célèbre ; on la compara à celle d’Oreste et de Pylade, de David et de Jonathas ;
elle, est restée le modèle des amitiés juvéniles. C’est justice, car elle
ne servit qu’à enflammer mutuellement leur zèle pour la science et pour la
vertu.
« Nous ne connaissions, a
écrit Grégoire, que deux routes : celle de l’église et celle de l’école. »
Bien différents d’un
condisciple, appelé à une tout autre notoriété, Julien, celui qui serait
l’Apostat, et pour lequel dès lors les deux amis conçurent une aversion
trop justifiée.
Quand Basile, rappelé
dans le Pont, partit d’Athènes, Grégoire voulut le suivre. Mais il fut arrêté,
déjà presque sur le navire, par la foule des étudiants, qui, quasi de force, le
ramelièrent et l’assirent dans une chaire de professeur. Cette violence
honorable ne le retint guère ; peu après il s’échappa et vint rejoindre son ami
dans la solitude où il s’était enfermé et avait fondé une petite société de
cénobites. Tous deux s’y livrèrent à une étude profonde des saintes Lettres,
éclairée par celle de la Tradition et des premiers écrivains ecclésiastiques.
Là furent jetés les fondements de cette science éminente de la foi qui leur ont
valu à tous deux le titre de docteur de l’Église et à Grégoire le surnom de
Théologien.
La pieuse union ne dura
que trop peu d’années. Le vieil évêque de Nazianze ne pouvait plus se passer
d’une aide ; il réclama celle de son fils, et celui-ci répondit à son devoir
filial. Malgré la résistance de son humilité, il fut alors élevé à l’honneur du
sacerdoce ; prêtre, il commença cette merveilleuse carrière d’orateur où il
s’est égalé aux plus éloquents maîtres de la parole, s’il ne les a pas
surpassés.
Il était à Nazianze
lorsque Julien, monté sur le trône, exerça contre les chrétiens son hypocrite
persécution. L’Apostat avait interdit aux fidèles du Christ les écoles et
l’enseignement des auteurs de l’antiquité. L’indignation de Grégoire fut
grande.
« Qu’avec moi,
s’écria-t-il, se courrouce quiconque aime l’éloquence et appartient comme moi
au monde de ceux qui la cultivent… Car je l’aime plus que toute autre chose,
seules exceptées les choses divines et les invisibles espérances ! »
Peut-être même prit-il
part à la tentative des deux Apollinaires, rhéteurs de Laodicée, qui essayèrent
de remplacer par des compositions chrétiennes les chefs-d’œuvre antiques qu’ils
ne pouvaient plus commenter. Car Grégoire était poète autant qu’orateur ; il a
laissé plus de vingt mille vers, et Villemain a pu en dire qu’ils révèlent «
deux dons précieux, la grâce naturelle et la mélancolie vraie ». Et il ajoute :
« On l’a appelé le
Théologien de l’Orient ; il faudrait surtout l’appeler le Poète du
christianisme oriental. »
L‘âge de la paix
studieuse était passé pour Grégoire. Sa vie active lui réservait des déboires
cruels et des combats, toujours vaillants, mais douloureux. Sa santé, dès lors
atteinte, peut-être, par les froids humides de sa retraite du Pont, ne devait
plus se remettre ; du reste à elles seules ses austérités l’eussent
compromises, et les épreuves dont il fut assailli la ruinèrent. D’ailleurs son
humilité, son goût pour la vie contemplative et l’étude, luttant contre les
honneurs et les charges dont on prétendait les accabler, lui causaient des
angoisses et des répugnances qui parfois peut-être le rendirent moins apte aux
résultats heureux attendus de son génie et de sa vertu. Son ami Basile le fit
sacrer évêque de Sasime : c’était bien malgré lui, de force même ; aussi dès la
première occasion renonça-t-il à ce siège ; et, revenu à Nazianze, ce ne fut
pas sans une nouvelle et longue résistance qu’il consentit à devenir le
coadjuteur de son père.
Il ne le resta pas
longtemps. Le vénérable évêque mourut en 374. Grégoire essaya, mais en vain, de
lui faire donner un successeur ; il dut conserver, à titre provisoire, le
gouvernement de son église. Mais en 378, il fut fortement sollicité de
venir porter secours à celle de Constantinople, ravagée par les hérésies d’Anus
et de Macédonius. Son zèle ne put s’y refuser ; bientôt il eut reconstitué,
raffermi, multiplié le petit troupeau orthodoxe. C’est alors qu’il écrivit
les Cinq Discours théologiques, qui font les cinq parties d’un traité
complet sur la Trinité, œuvre magistrale, point culminant de son génie et de
son éloquence. Aussi le concile de Constantinople, en 381, voulut qu’il
acceptât le siège épiscopal de cette ville, où l’appelait le vœu unanime des
fidèles. Mais il ne l’occupa que peu de mois. Bientôt il se trouva en
opposition avec les Pères du concile au sujet de la succession à l’église
d’Antioche et crut comprendre qu’il n’avait plus leur confiance. Il offrit donc
sa démission, et elle fut acceptée avec un étrange empressement. Le peuple,
rempli de douleur, voulut s’opposer à son départ ; tout fut inutile. Grégoire,
libéré avec le consentement de l’empereur Théodose, reprit le gouvernement de
l’église de Nazianze. Il s’y occupa surtout de faire enfin nommer un successeur
à son père.
Désormais, — on était à
la fin de 383, — il vécut retiré dans sa petite propriété d’Arianze, où il
était né. On peut dire que les six ans qui lui restaient à vivre furent une
longue mort. Les souffrances de son pauvre corps se doublaient des souffrances,
plus cruelles, de son âme : tentations pénibles, scrupules achevaient, au
milieu des austérités qu’il ajoutait à ses douleurs, de purifier sa sainte âme.
Il ne cessait pourtant d’écrire. En prose, en vers, il continuait le bon combat
de la foi. Non pas certes qu’il n’aimât point la paix ; rien ne lui était plus
cher. Mais il se croyait tenu de faire, jusqu’à la fin, valoir le talent remis
par Dieu entre ses mains. Et c’est ainsi que, peu avant de mourir, il écrivait
encore au patriarche Nectaire de Constantinople, pour lui dénoncer l’hérésie et
les excès des apollinaristes.
Enfin, « l’incomparable
orateur de Nazianze, le champion intrépide de la Trinité, le doux et triste
archevêque de Constantinople », — ainsi le nomme de Broglie, — alla prendre
au sein de Dieu son éternel repos le 9 mai 389, à l’âge d’environ 64 ans.
Écrits de saint Grégoire
La seule édition
grecque-latine complète des œuvres de saint Grégoire de Nazianze, est celle de
M. l’abbé Migne, tomes XXXV à XXXVIII de la Patrologie. Ces œuvres sont :
1°)
Des Discours au nombre de quarante-cinq. Les plus fameux sont les
cinq discours dits Théologiques contre les Eunomiens et les
Macédoniens ; en faveur de la divinité du Fils de Dieu et l’Esprit-Saint.
2°) Deux cent douze
Lettres très-intéressantes.
3°) Son Testament,
dont il a été parlé dans sa vie.
4°) Des Poèmes, les
uns théologiques, à savoir : trente-huit pièces dogmatico-bibliques et
quarante pièces morales : les autres historiques, dont
quatre-vingt-dix-sept se rapportent à saint Grégoire lui-même, deux cent
trente-et-une à d’autres personnages, cent vingt-neuf épitaphes et
quatre-vingt-dix-neuf épigrammes.
Dans le poème 131, le
saint docteur reconnaît qu’il fut redevable de sa naissance aux prières de sa
mère, et que, étant tombé dangereusement malade, il recouvra la santé par
la sainte table ; c’est-à-dire par le sacrifice de l’autel.
Il enseigne et pratique,
en plusieurs endroits de ses ouvrages, l’invocation des Saints. Il rapporte, or.
18, que sainte Justine demanda, par l’intercession de la Mère de Dieu, d’être
délivrée du danger auquel sa pureté était exposée. Selon lui, les âmes des
Saints connaissent dans le sein de la gloire ce qui nous concerne, ép.
201. Il dit, en parlant de saint Athanase, or. 24, « qu’il voit nos
besoins du haut du ciel, qu’il tend les bras à ceux qui combattent encore pour
la vertu, et qu’il s’intéresse d’autant plus en leur faveur, qu’il est
affranchi des liens du corps »·
Il conjure saint
Basile, 0r. 20, d’intercéder dans le ciel pour ceux qu’il avait gouvernés
et aimés sur la terre. Ailleurs, or. 18, il prie saint Cyprien de
l’assister. Il reproche à Julien son aversion pour les martyrs dont on
célébrait les fêtes, et le refus qu’il faisait d’honorer leurs corps, qui
chassaient les démons et guérissaient les malades. On voit que, de son temps,
il s’opérait plusieurs miracles par la vertu des cendres de saint Cyprien.
« Ceux », dit-il, or. 18,
« qui l’ont éprouvé, l’attestent hautement ».
De là, ce zèle avec
lequel il s’éleva contre les païens, qui, sous Julien l’Apostat, brûlaient les
tombeaux des martyrs et jetaient leurs reliques au vent, afin de les priver de
l’honneur qu’on leur rendait, or. 4. Julien lui-même, Misopog.,
reproche aux chrétiens de n’avoir employé, durant la persécution de sept mois
qu’ils souffrirent à Antioche, d’autres moyens pour se défendre, que la
dévotion des vieilles femmes qu’ils envoyaient prier assidûment devant les tombeaux
des martyrs.
Odiosam islam severitatem
septimum jam mensem perpessi, vota quidem et preces, quo tantis malis
enperemur, ad vetulas dimisimus quae circum seputera mortuorum assidue
versantur.
Tous les passages de
saint Grégoire, que nous venons de rapporter, ont fait dire au ministre Lailliée, de
cultu relig., que ce saint docteur avait contribué par ses paroles et ses
exemples à accréditer et à étendre le culte des Saints.
Si le style de saint
Grégoire de Nazianze a moins de douceur et de facilité que celui de saint
Basile, il est certainement plus fleuri et plus majestueux. Ce Père conçoit
toujours les choses noblement, et il les exprime avec une délicatesse et une
élégance inimitables.
Selon quelques auteurs,
saint Grégoire est le plus grand des orateurs tant sacrés que profanes. Saint
Basile partage cette gloire avec lui, au jugement de Dupin et de plusieurs
autres es savants. Le seul défaut qu’on puisse lui reprocher, c’est de
présenter à ses lecteurs trop de beautés, et de faire peut-être un usage
excessif des fleurs et des figures.
Ses vers sont dignes
d’Homère, pleins de douceur et de facilité ; on y trouve une sublimité qui leur
assure la préférence sur toutes les productions du même genre qui sont sorties
de la plume des écrivains ecclésiastiques. Ils mériteraient bien d’être lus dans
les écoles publiques.
Le cardinal Mai a
retrouvé sur les poésies de saint Grégoire de précieux commentaires, par Cosme,
précepteur de saint Jean Damascène, et plus tard évêque de Mazume ou Athédon,
dans le patriarcat d’Alexandrie.
SOURCE : https://www.laviedessaints.com/saint-gregoire-de-nazianze/
Fethiye
Camii, parekklesion, diakonikon, mosaics, Istanbul, Turkey - Apse conch, St.
Gregory the Theologian
St Grégoire de Nazianze,
évêque, confesseur et docteur
Mort le 25 janvier 379/380. Les Byzantins font mémoire de lui ce jour là. Les
martyrologes occidentaux le mentionnent au 9 mai. Sa fête se répandit au XVIe
siècle.
St Pie V en fit une fête double.
Leçons des Matines avant 1960
Quatrième leçon.
Grégoire, noble Cappadocien, qui fut surnommé le Théologien à cause de sa
science profonde des lettres divines, naquit à Nazianze, dans la Cappadoce.
Instruit à Athènes dans toutes sortes de sciences, en même temps que saint
Basile le Grand, il s’appliqua ensuite à l’étude de l’Écriture sainte. Les deux
amis s’y exercèrent durant quelques années dans un monastère, ayant pour
méthode d’interpréter les livres sacrés, non selon les lumières de leur esprit
propre, mais selon le raisonnement et l’autorité des anciens. Tandis qu’ils
florissaient par leur science et la sainteté de leur vie, ils furent appelés à
la charge de prêcher la vérité évangélique, et enfantèrent à Jésus-Christ un
grand nombre d’âmes.
Cinquième leçon.
Grégoire, étant retourné chez lui, fut d’abord créé Évêque de Sasime ; il
administra ensuite l’Église de Nazianze. Appelé plus tard à Constantinople pour
en gouverner l’Église, il purgea cette ville des hérésies dont elle était
infectée, et la ramena à la foi catholique ; mais son zèle, qui aurait dû lui
concilier la profonde affection de tous, lui attira l’envie d’un grand nombre.
Un grave dissentiment s’étant élevé à son sujet entre les Évêques, il renonça
spontanément à l’épiscopat, s’appliquant ces paroles d’un Prophète : « Si c’est
à cause de moi que cette tempête s’est élevée, jetez-moi dans la mer, afin que
vous cessiez d’être agités par l’orage ». Grégoire revint donc à Nazianze, et
ayant fait donner le gouvernement de cette Église à Eulalius, il se livra tout
entier à la contemplation des choses divines et à la composition d’ouvrages
théologiques.
Sixième leçon. Il écrivit
beaucoup, et en prose, et en vers, avec une piété et une éloquence admirables ;
il a mérité cet éloge, au jugement d’hommes doctes et saints, que l’on ne
trouve dans ses écrits rien qui ne soit conforme aux règles de la vraie piété et
de la foi catholique, rien qui puisse être contesté raisonnablement. Il fut le
ferme et zélé défenseur de la consubstantialité du Fils. De même qu’il n’était
inférieur à personne pour la sainteté de sa vie, il surpassait tous les autres
par la gravité de son style. Occupé à la lecture, l’étude et fa composition, il
vécut dans la solitude de la campagne à la manière d’un moine ; enfin, accablé
de vieillesse, il passa à ta vie bienheureuse du ciel, sous l’empire de
Théodose.
Dom Guéranger, l’Année
Liturgique
Aux côtés d’Athanase, un
second Docteur de l’Église se présente pour faire hommage de son génie et de
son éloquence à Jésus ressuscité. C’est Grégoire de Nazianze, l’ami et l’émule
de Basile, l’orateur insigne, le poète qui, dans la plus étonnante fécondité, a
su joindre l’énergie à l’élégance ; celui qui entre tous les Grégoires a mérité
et obtenu le grand nom de Théologien par la sûreté de sa doctrine, l’élévation
de s’a pensée, la, splendeur de son exposition. La sainte Église le voit avec
bonheur étinceler en ces jours sur le Cycle ; car nul n’a parlé avec plus de
magnificence que lui du mystère de la Pâque. On en peut juger par le début de
son deuxième discours pour cette auguste solennité. Écoutons.
« Je me tiendrai en
observation comme la sentinelle », nous dit l’admirable prophète Habacuc ; et
mot aujourd’hui, à son exemple, éclairé par l’Esprit-Saint, je fais aussi le
guet, j’observe le spectacle qui se découvre à moi, j’écoute les paroles qui
vont retentir. Et tandis que debout je considère, je vois assis sur les nuées
un personnage dont les traits sont ceux d’un Ange, et dont le vêtement est
éblouissant comme l’éclair. Sa voix retentit comme la trompette, et les rangs
pressés de l’armée céleste l’environnent ; et il dit : « Ce jour est le jour du
salut pour le monde visible et pour le monde invisible. Le Christ se lève
d’entre les morts, vous aussi levez-vous. Le Christ reprend possession de
lui-même, imitez-le. Le Christ s’élance du sépulcre, arrachez-vous aux liens du
péché. Les portes de l’enfer sont ouvertes, la mort est écrasée, le vieil Adam
est anéanti, et un autre lui est substitué : vous qui faites partie de la
création nouvelle dans le Christ, soyez renouvelés. »
« C’est ainsi qu’il
parlait, et les autres Anges répétaient ce qu’ils chantèrent au jour où le
Christ nous apparut dans sa naissance terrestre : Gloire à Dieu au plus haut
des deux, et sur la terre paix aux hommes de bonne volonté ! A moi maintenant
de parler sur toutes ces merveilles : que n’ai-je la voix des Anges, une voix capable
de retentir jusqu’aux confins de la terre !
« La Pâque du Seigneur !
La Pâque ! Encore la Pâque, en l’honneur de la Trinité ! C’est la fête des
fêtes, la solennité des solennités, qui l’emporte sur toutes les autres autant
que le soleil sur les étoiles. Dès hier combien fut auguste la journée, avec ses
robes blanches et ses nombreux néophytes portant des flambeaux ! Nous avions
double Fonction, publique et particulière ; toutes les classes d’hommes, des
magistrats et des dignitaires en grand nombre, dans cette nuit illuminée de
mille feux ; mais aujourd’hui combien ces allégresses et ces grandeurs sont
dépassées ! Hier n’était que l’aurore de la grande lumière qui s’est levée
aujourd’hui ; la joie que l’on ressentait n’était qu’un prélude de celle que
l’on éprouve en ce moment ; car en ce jour c’est la résurrection elle-même que
nous célébrons, non plus seulement espérée, mais accomplie, et s’étendant au
monde entier [1]. »
Ainsi préludait à la
harangue sacrée le sublime orateur, le poète divin qui ne fit que passer sur le
siège de Constantinople. Homme de retraite et de contemplation, les agitations
du siècle usèrent vite son courage ; la bassesse et la méchanceté des hommes
froissèrent son noble cœur ; et laissant à un autre le dangereux honneur
d’occuper un trône si disputé, il s’envola de nouveau vers sa chère solitude,
où il aimait tant à goûter Dieu et les saintes lettres. Il avait pu, dans son
rapide passage, malgré tant de traverses, raffermir pour longtemps la foi
ébranlée dans la capitale de l’empire, et tracer un sillon de lumière qui n’était
pas effacé, lorsque Jean Chrysostome vint s’asseoir sur cette chaire de Byzance
où tant d’épreuves l’attendaient à son tour.
L’Église grecque, dans
ses Menées, consacre à la mémoire de saint Grégoire de Nazianze les plus
magnifiques éloges. Nous en empruntons quelques traits.
(die xxv januarii.)
Célébrons par nos louanges le prince des pontifes, le grand docteur de l’Église
du Christ, celui dont la voix est semblable au plus riche concert, à la harpe
la plus mélodieuse, à la lyre la plus habile et la plus suave. Disons-lui :
Salut, ô abîme de la grâce divine ! Salut, docteur aux pensées sublimes et
célestes, Grégoire, Père des Pères ! Par quels hymnes et quels cantiques
pourrons-nous te célébrer, nomme égal aux Anges, toi qui as vécu sur la terre
au-dessus de l’humanité ? Tu fus le héraut de la divine parole, l’ami de la
chaste Vierge, le compagnon des Apôtres sur leur trône, l’honneur des martyrs
et des saints, l’adorateur de l’éternelle Trinité, ô pontife très saint.
Fidèles rassemblés pour
sa fête, célébrons dans nos chants spirituels le prince des pontifes, la gloire
des patriarches, l’interprète des plus profonds enseignements du Christ,
l’intelligence la plus sublime. Disons-lui : Salut, source de la théologie,
fleuve de la sagesse, initiateur aux connaissances divines ! Salut, astre
lumineux qui éclaires le monde entier par ta doctrine ! Salut, ô puissant
défenseur de la piété, adversaire généreux de l’impiété.
Tu as su éviter dans ta
sagesse les périls et les embûches de la chair, ô Grégoire notre père ; sur un
char conduit par les quatre vertus, tu es monté par le milieu du ciel, et tu
t’es envolé vers l’ineffable beauté. Elle t’enivre maintenant de délices, et tu
implores pour nos âmes la miséricorde et la paix.
Ouvrant ta bouche à la
parole de Dieu, tu as attiré l’Esprit de sagesse, et rempli de la grâce, tu as
fait retentir les dogmes divins, ô Grégoire trois fois heureux ! Placé aux
rangs des Puissances angéliques, tu as prêché la triple et indivisible Lumière
; éclairés par ta divine doctrine, nous adorons la Trinité, nous confessons en
elle une seule divinité, afin d’obtenir le salut de nos âmes !
O Grégoire inspiré de
Dieu, ta langue enflammée a consumé les formules captieuses des hérétiques
ennemis du Seigneur. Tu as paru comme une bouche divine, exposant dans
l’Esprit-Saint les grandeurs de Dieu ; dans tes écrits tu nous as manifesté la
puissance et la substance même de la Trinité mystérieuse et impénétrable. Comme
un triple soleil tu as éclairé ce monde terrestre ; et maintenant tu intercèdes
sans relâche pour nos âmes.
Salut, ô fleuve de Dieu,
toujours rempli des eaux de la grâce ! Tu baignes la cité du Christ roi, et tu
la réjouis par ta parole et tes enseignements divins : torrent de délices, mer
sans fond, gardien fidèle et juste de la doctrine, défenseur courageux de la
Trinité, organe de l’Esprit-Saint, génie attentif et vigilant, langue
harmonieuse , interprète des mystères les plus profonds de l’Écriture, supplie
maintenant le Christ de répandre sur nous s’a grande miséricorde.
Tu t’es élevé sur la
montagne des vertus, ayant abdiqué les choses de la terre, étant devenu
étranger aux œuvres de mort ; tu as reçu les tables écrites de la main de Dieu,
et le dogme de ta très pure théologie, et tu nous enseignes les mystères célestes,
ô Grégoire rempli ’de sagesse.
La Sagesse de Dieu a eu
ton amour, tu as recherché la beauté de sa parole, et tu l’as estimée au-dessus
de tout ce qui charme les hommes sur la terre ; c’est pourquoi le Seigneur a
orné ta tête d’une couronne de grâces, ô Bienheureux, et t’ayant mis à part, il
t’a choisi pour être le Théologien.
Afin que ton âme
s’éclairât tout entière des rayons de l’auguste Trinité , tu l’as polie, ô
Père, la rendant sans tache par ta noble profession de toutes les vertus, et
semblable à un miroir nouveau et préparé avec le plus grand soin ; alors la
réfraction du divin éclat t’a fait paraître semblable à un Dieu.
Tu as paru comme un
nouveau Samuel donné de Dieu ; avant d’être conçu tu fus donné à Dieu, ô
bienheureux ! La prudence et la continence ont été ta parure, et, orné de la
robe sacrée des pontifes, tu as été établi, ô Père, comme le médiateur entre le
Créateur et la créature.
Tu as approché tes lèvres
vénérables de la coupe qui contient la sagesse, ô Grégoire notre père ! tu as
aspiré les eaux divines de la théologie, et tu les as fait couler avec
abondance sur les fidèles ; tu as arrêté le torrent pernicieux de l’hérésie, ce
torrent qui roule le blasphème. L’Esprit-Saint a trouvé en toi un pasteur
gouvernant avec sainteté, repoussant et soulevant contre lui les audacieuses
fureurs des impies, semblables aux violents orages des vents sur la mer ; un
pasteur prêchant la Trinité dans l’unité de substance.
Brebis de la sainte
Église, célébrons dans nos divins cantiques la lyre de l’Esprit-Saint, la faux
des hérésies, les délices des orthodoxes, un second disciple reposant sur la
poitrine de Jésus, le contemplateur du Verbe, le patriarche rempli de sagesse.
Disons-lui : Tu es un bon pasteur, ô Grégoire ! tu t’es livré pour nous, comme
le Christ notre maître, et maintenant tu tressailles d’allégresse avec Paul, et
tu intercèdes pour nos âmes.
Nous vous saluons, ô
Grégoire, docteur immortel, vous à qui l’Orient et l’Occident ont décerné de
concert le titre de Théologien par excellence ! Illuminé des rayons de la
glorieuse Trinité, vous nous en avez manifesté les splendeurs, autant que notre
œil mortel les peut entrevoir à travers le nuage de cette vie. En vous s’est
accomplie cette parole : « Heureux ceux qui ont le cœur pur, parce qu’ils
verront Dieu [2] ! » La pureté de votre âme l’avait préparée à recevoir la
lumière divine, et votre plume inspirée a su rendre une partie de ce que votre
âme avait goûté. Obtenez-nous, ô grand Docteur, le don de la foi, qui met la
créature en rapport avec Dieu, et le don de l’intelligence, qui lui fait
entendre ce qu’elle croit. Tous vos labeurs eurent pour but de prémunir les
fidèles contre les séductions de l’hérésie, en faisant luire à leurs yeux les
dogmes divins dans toute leur magnificence ; rendez-nous attentifs, afin que
nous évitions les pièges de Terreur, et ouvrez notre œil à la lumière ineffable
des mystères, à cette lumière qui, comme dit saint Pierre, est pour nous «
semblable à une lampe « allumée dans un lieu obscur, jusqu’à ce que le « jour
commence à briller, et que l’étoile du ma- »tin se lève dans nos cœurs [3] ».
En ces temps où l’Orient,
si longtemps en proie à la triste immobilité de l’erreur séculaire et de la
servitude, semble à la veille d’une crise qui doit modifier profondément ses
destinées, tandis qu’une politique profane songe à exploiter au profit de
l’ambition humaine les changements qui se préparent, souvenez-vous, ô Grégoire,
de l’infortunée Byzance. Demain peut-être les puissances du monde se la
disputeront comme une proie. O vous qui fûtes un moment son pasteur, vous dont
le souvenir n’est pas encore effacé de sa mémoire, arrachez-la à l’esprit de
schisme et d’erreur. Elle n’est tombée sous le joug de l’infidèle qu’en
punition de sa révolte contre le vicaire du Christ. Bientôt ce joug sera brisé
; obtenez, ô Grégoire, qu’en même temps celui de l’erreur et du schisme, plus
dangereux et plus humiliant encore, se rompe et soit anéanti pour jamais. Déjà
un mouvement de retour se manifeste ; des provinces entières s’ébranlent et
semblent vouloir jeter un regard d’espérance vers la mère commune des Églises,
qui leur ouvre ses bras. O Grégoire ! Du haut du ciel, aidez à la
réconciliation. L’Orient et l’Occident vous honorent comme l’un des plus
sublimes organes de la vérité divine ; par vos prières, obtenez que l’Orient et
l’Occident soient encore une fois réunis dans un même bercail, sous un même
pasteur, avant que l’Agneau immolé et ressuscité d’entre les morts redescende
du ciel pour séparer l’ivraie du bon grain, et pour emmener avec lui dans sa
gloire l’Église son épouse et notre mère, hors du sein de laquelle il n’y a pas
de salut.
Aidez-nous, en ces jours,
à contempler les grandeurs de notre divin Ressuscité ; faites-nous tressaillir
d’un saint enthousiasme dans cette Pâque qui vous inondait de ses joies, et
vous inspirait les sublimes accents que nous venons d’entendre. Ce Christ,
sorti triomphant du tombeau, vous l’avez aimé dès vos plus tendres années, et
dans votre vieillesse son amour faisait encore battre votre cœur. Priez, afin
que, nous aussi, nous lui demeurions fidèles, que ses divins mystères ravissent
toujours nos âmes, que cette Pâque demeure toujours en nous, que le
renouvellement qu’elle nous a apporté persévère dans notre vie, qu’à ses
retours successifs elle nous retrouve attentifs et vigilants pour l’accueillir
avec une ardeur toute nouvelle, jusqu’à ce que la Pâque éternelle nous
accueille et nous ouvre ses allégresses sans fin.
[1] Oratio II in sanctum
Pascha.
[2] Matth. v, 8.
[3] II Petr. I, 19.
Grzegorz
z Nazjanzu na ambonie z 1693 wyrzeźbiony przez Jana Krzysztofa Doebel w
Królewcu. W bazylice w Dobrym Mieście
Part of the pulpit sculpted by Jan Krzysztof Doebel in Koenigsberg.
Bhx Cardinal
Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum
Grégoire le Théologien,
comme l’appellent les Grecs à cause de l’excellence de son génie, avait une âme
douce et une nature éminemment poétique ; à l’humilité et à l’amour de la paix
il sacrifia la chaire même de Constantinople pour se retirer à la campagne et y
mener une vie de moine. Sa fête ne fut pas introduite dans le calendrier avant
1505, quand les études des humanistes et la culture grecque de la Renaissance
firent mieux apprécier ses mérites. La messe est entièrement du Commun des
Docteurs, avec l’épître Iustus qui s’adapte mieux au caractère mystique du
Saint.
Si, en effet, luttant et
souffrant avec une énergique constance, il arriva, au bout de quelques années,
à ramener la ville de Constantinople à la foi de Nicée, ce fut entièrement
l’œuvre de son zèle vraiment divin, car, par nature, Grégoire était l’homme qui
avait le plus horreur des positions difficiles et des luttes. Il le montra bien
quand, créé contre sa volonté évoque de Sasime par saint Basile, il ne sut pas
s’adapter à cette charge difficile et, après quelque temps, revint dans sa
patrie. La passion de Grégoire était la vie contemplative et la discipline
monastique, à laquelle il demeura fermement attaché jusqu’à la fin de ses jours
(+ 389 ou 390). Pour faire connaître aux lecteurs le genre du génie de saint
Grégoire de Nazianze, voici sa biographie faite par lui-même :
EPITAPHION (Carm. XXX)
CVR • CARNEIS • LAQVEIS •
TV • ME • PATER • IMPLICVISTI ?
CVR • SVBSVM • VITAE •
HVIC • QVAE • MIHI • BELLA • MOVET
DIVINO • PATRE • SVM •
GENITVS • SANCTAQVE • PARENTE
HAEC • MIHI • LVX • VITAE
• NAMQVE • PRECANTE • DATA • EST
ORAVIT • SVMMOQVE • DEO •
ME • VOVIT • ET • ORTVS
EST • MIHI • PER • SOMNVM
• VIRGINITATIS • AMOR
ISTA • QVIDEM • CHRISTI •
POST • AT • SVBIERE • PROCELLAE
RAPTA • MIHI • BONA •
SVNT • FRACTA - DOLORE • CARO
PASTORES • SENSI • QVALES
• VIX • CREDERET • VLLVS
ORBATVSQUE • ABII • PROLE
• MALISQVE • GRAVIS
GREGORII • HAEC • VITA •
EST • AT • CHRISTI • POSTERA • CVRAE
QVI • VITAE - DATOR • EST
• EXPRIMAT • ISTA • LAPIS
Pourquoi, ô divin Père,
me trouve-je embarrassé dans les lacs de la chair ? Pourquoi suis-je contraint
de supporter cette vie qui fait la guerre à mon esprit ? Je naquis d’un père
qui fut pourtant un saint évêque, et vertueuse fut aussi ma mère, aux prières
de qui je dus de venir au monde. Celle-ci me consacra aussitôt à Dieu, et, dans
une vision nocturne, l’amour de la virginité me fut inspiré. Jusqu’ici tout fut
don du Christ. Survinrent ensuite les luttes, je fus privé de mes biens, et la
douleur brisa mon corps. J’eus à connaître de tels pasteurs qu’on ne pourrait
pas même en imaginer d’autres ; mais je m’en allai (de Constantinople) privé de
mes enfants, et accablé de peine. Telle a été jusqu’à présent la vie de
Grégoire. De l’avenir, que le Christ, qui donne la vie, prenne soin. A cette
pierre d’exprimer ces choses.
On dit qu’un ancien
oratoire, près du monastère de Sainte-Marie in Campa Marzio, était consacré, à
Rome, à la mémoire de saint Grégoire de Nazianze. Bien plus, la tradition
locale des moniales voulait que celles-ci, venant de Constantinople à Rome au
temps du pape Zacharie, eussent apporté avec elles et déposé en ce lieu le
corps du saint docteur, à qui elles auraient pour cette raison dédié
l’oratoire. Cette assertion n’est cependant pas très acceptable, car, dans la
biographie de Léon III, le Liber Pontificalis fait déjà mention de quelques
dons offerts in oratorio sancti Gregorii quod ponitur in Campo Martis [4] ;
nous savons d’autre part que les reliques de saint Grégoire de Nazianze furent
transférées de la Cappadoce à la basilique des Apôtres à Constantinople seulement
vers le milieu du Xe siècle, alors que les moniales s’étaient établies dans
l’antique Champ-de-Mars à Rome depuis deux cents ans au moins.
[4] Lib. Pontif. Ed.
Duchesne, II, p. 25.
Гомилии
Григория Богослова gr. 510, f 915
Homilies
of Gregory the Theologian gr. 510, f 915
Dom Pius Parsch, le Guide
dans l’année liturgique
La sainte amitié.
Saint Grégoire. — Jour de
mort : 9 mai 390. Tombeau : Au Xe siècle, son corps fut transporté dans
l’Apostoleion, à Constantinople. Vie : Grégoire le Théologien (c’est ainsi que
les Grecs le nomment) naquit en 329. à Nazianze, en Cappadoce. Il fut une des «
trois lumières » de Cappadoce. Sa mère, sainte Nonna, posa les assises de sa
sainteté future. Pour sa formation intellectuelle, il visita les écoles les
plus célèbres de son temps, celles de Césarée, d’Alexandrie et d’Athènes. Dans
cette dernière ville, il noua avec saint Basile une amitié devenue historique.
En 381, il célébrait encore cette amitié avec un enthousiasme juvénile. En 360,
il reçut le baptême et vécut ensuite pendant quelque temps dans la solitude. En
372, il reçut la consécration épiscopale des mains de saint Basile. Son père,
Grégoire, évêque de Nazianze, insista pour qu’il l’aidât dans le ministère des
âmes. En 379, il fut appelé au siège de Constantinople. Mais, en raison des
nombreuses difficultés qu’il rencontra, il retourna à la solitude tant désirée.
Il se consacra entièrement à la vie contemplative. Sa vie se caractérise par
une alternance entre la vie contemplative et le ministère des âmes. Tous nos
désirs vont vers la solitude, mais les besoins du temps le rappellent sans cesse
à la vie active ; il doit prendre part au mouvement religieux d’alors. Ce qui
lui valut ses succès, ce fut son éloquence entraînante. Il fut, sans conteste,
l’un des meilleurs orateurs de l’antiquité chrétienne. Ses écrits lui ont valu
le titre d’honneur de docteur de l’Église.
Pratique : Nous devons,
nous aussi, concilier harmonieusement les deux aspects de la vie religieuse ;
la vie de piété et de contemplation qui recherche la solitude, et la vie
active, adonnée à la charité et au zèle des âmes, qui convient aux besoins de notre
temps. La messe est tirée du commun des docteurs (In medio). Saint Grégoire est
vraiment « la lumière placée sur le chandelier, qui brille pour tous ceux qui
sont dans la maison (l’Église) » (Évangile). Il fut rempli de « l’Esprit de
sagesse et de science » (Int. Ép.). La leçon (Justus) convient : mieux au
caractère contemplatif du saint que celle du commun.
SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/09-05-St-Gregoire-de-Nazianze
Meister
der Predigten des Heiligen Gregor von Nazianz. Sammlung der Predigten des Hl.
Gregor von Nazianz, Szene: Vision des Ezechiel (Bibliothèque nationale de
France MS Grc 510, folio 438v), vers 880, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
« Les cinq discours sur
Dieu » de saint Grégoire
Charles
Rouvier | 22 novembre 2016
La foi chrétienne est
souvent éprouvée. A tel point que la connaissance même des dogmes a beaucoup
reflué parmi les catholiques mêmes. Mais un secours nous vient des premiers
âges : saint Grégoire de Naziance (329-390) et ses Cinq Discours sur Dieu.
Une manière de renforcer les chrétiens sur le cœur même de leur foi : Dieu en
personne.
Une œuvre de combat sur
un thème crucial. Dits aussi « discours théologiques », les Cinq
Discours sur Dieu de saint Grégoire de Naziance sont une réponse aux hérésies
triomphantes du IVe siècle (marcionisme, arianisme, apollinarisme etc…) dont
certaines reviennent d’ailleurs sous d’autres noms, à la faveur du vide laissé
par la déchristianisation. Le grand mérite des cinq discours est de
d’éclairer et renforcer les chrétiens sur le cœur, sur l’objet même de leur
foi : Dieu en personne. Cinq discours seront consacrés à ce problème dont
l’importance est parfois oubliée et pourtant, c’est le cas de le dire,
cruciale.
Une initiation aux
mystères du Créateur
Pour cela, il procèdera
avec une méthode qu’il décrit lui-même, selon laquelle « tout exposé
comporte deux parties : une ou l’on établit ses idées, une autre où l’on
réfute ses adversaires ». Le chemin est donc clair, les discours sont une
invitation à découvrir d’abord la Vérité nette et pure, ensuite de comprendre
pourquoi elle est bel et bien la Vérité malgré les objections qui peuvent être
formulée.
Lire aussi :
Méditations
de l’Avent : « Le Dieu vivant est la Trinité vivante »
Ainsi détaillera-t-il
points par points les éléments de la doctrine chrétienne relative au Seigneur.
Il insiste d’ailleurs particulièrement sur la Trinité à savoir qu’il n’y a
qu’un seul et unique Dieu, mais composé de trois personnes dont le Christ qui est
donc bien homme et Dieu en même temps. On trouve alors des passages proprement
vertigineux : « S’il y a différence numérique, il n’y a pas division de
l’essence », dit-il avant de préciser plus loin quelle relation existe
entre le Père et le Fils : « Ailleurs c’est l’image inanimée d’un être
animé, ici c’est l’image vivante d’un être vivant (…) : l’image présente
intégralement le modèle, elle est la même chose que Lui, plutôt que la
copie ». On a la tête qui chauffe, mais le cœur aussi. Quel bonheur d’être
guidé au milieu de ces mystères !
Un discours pour le cœur
autant que pour l’esprit
Attention,
néanmoins ! Ce n’est pas un professeur qui vous parle, ni un conférencier
dont les voix résonnes paresseusement sous le plafond d’un amphi et dont les
raisonnements interminables ne sont suivis que d’une dizaine d’assidus. Il
s’agit de discours : celui qui vous parle est un orateur, un prêcheur, un
saint, un Père de l’Église dont la langue est mêlée de rhétorique et
d’Esprit-Saint.
Les discours sont
ponctués de passages poignants qui inspirent l’admiration de leur auteur pour
Dieu, la crainte qu’il a de Ses châtiment, le bonheur que lui procure Son amour
infini. Ainsi, lorsqu’il parle avec émerveillement de la mer « qui a
réuni ses eaux, qui les a enchainés ? (…) Comment le sable
sert-il de limite à un pareil élément ? » et de finir en s’exclamant
soudain « c’est pour moi un délice, ce discours ou j’explique les délices
de Dieu ».
Lire aussi :
Le
retour de saint Joseph dans le cœur des fidèles
À l’inverse, nous le
voyons aussi terrible à défier l’hérésie dans un réquisitoire digne des cours
d’assises : « S’il y a enfin quelque bête méchante, cruelle, qui
n’admette ni la contemplation ni la théologie, qu’elle n’aille pas se tapir
sournoisement dans les forêts, prête à bondir sur quelque dogme ou sur quelque
parole pour s’en emparer et déchirer la saine doctrine par ses calomnies (…)
car les paroles vraies et solides sont comme des pierres pour ceux qui
ressemblent aux bêtes ».
Quelle force de la
rhétorique grecque classique, qui prend aux tripes et frappe l’imagination de
l’auditeur ! On devine aussi que le souffle qui porte de telles paroles a
quelque chose de divin, d’immanent, d’éternel !
Grégoire signifie en grec
« celui qui veille ». Quel meilleur nom pourrait nous soutenir, nous
chrétiens d’aujourd’hui, qui avons à défendre un dépôt encore plus imposant que
celui des premiers siècles et qu’attendent de longues heures dans la
nuit ?
Also
known as
Gregory of Nazianzus
Grégoire de Nazianze
The Christian Demosthenes
The Theologian
2
January (Roman Catholic; Anglican)
25
January (optional memorial of his death; Orthodox; Armenian; Coptic;
Syrian Orthodox)
3
January (Granada, Zaragoza and Jaca, Spain)
11 June (translation
of relics to Rome, Italy)
30
January (translation of relics)
1
January on some calendars
9 May on
some calendars
Profile
Son of Saint Gregory
of Nazianzen the Elder and Saint Nonna.
Brother of Saint Caesar
Nazianzen, and Saint Gorgonius.
Spent an wandering youth in
search of learning.
Friend of and fellow student with Saint Basil
the Great. Monk at Basil‘s
desert monastery.
Reluctant priest;
he believed that he was unworthy, and that the responsibility would test his
faith. He assisted his bishop father to
prevent an Arian schism in
the diocese.
He opposed Arianism,
and brought its heretical followers
back to the fold. Bishop of Caesarea c.370,
which put him in conflict with the Arian emperor
Valens. The disputes led his friend Basil
the Great, then archbishop,
to reassign him to a small, out of the way posting at the edge of the archbishopric.
Bishop of Constantinople from 381 to 390,
following the death of
Valens. He hated the city, despised the violence and slander involved in these
disputes, and feared being drawn into politics and corruption, but he worked to
bring the Arians back
to the faith;
for his trouble he was slandered, insulted, beaten up, and a rival “bishop”
tried to take over his diocese.
Noted preacher on
the Trinity. When it seemed that orthodox Christianity had
been restored in the city, Gregory retired to live the rest of his days as
a hermit.
He wrote theological discourses
and poetry,
some of it religious, some of it autobiographical. Father
of the Church. Doctor
of the Church.
Born
330 at
Arianzus, Cappadocia, Asia
Minor
25
January 390 of
natural causes
bishop with
a book,
codex or scroll
man writing with dove nearby
man writing with the hand
of God over him
Additional
Information
A
Garner of Saints, by Allen Banks Hinds, M.A.
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Legends
of the Blessed Sacrament
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Roman
Martyrology, 1914 edition
Roman
Martyrology, 1914 edition
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
Short
Lives of the Saints, by Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly
–
General
Audience, 8 August 2007
General
Audience, 22
August 2007
Prayer
to God for His Goodness to Us Sinners, by Saint Gregory
Prayer
to the All Transcendent God, by Saint Gregory
books
Martirlogio Romano, 2004 edizione
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
Brother John Joseph: Saint Gregory on the Cult of Numbers
Centre
for the Study of Gregory of Nazianzus
Select
Orations and Letters of Saint Gregory Nazianzen
Theological
Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus – multiple formats
images
audio
BreadCast: Prayer to Saint Basil the Great and Saint
Gregory Nazianzen
Librivox: Funeral Orations by Saint Gregory
Librivox: Theological Orations by Saint Gregory
video
webseiten
auf deutsch
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
sites
en français
Benoit XVI: Audience Generale, 8 août 2007
Benoit XVI: Audience Generale, 22 août 2007
Centre
d’Études sur Grégoire de Nazianze
fonti
in italiano
websites
in nederlandse
nettsteder
i norsk
spletne
strani v slovenšcini
Readings
God accepts our desires
as though they were of great value. He longs ardently for us to desire and love
him. He accepts our petitions for benefits as though we were doing him a favor.
His joy in giving is greater than ours in receiving. So let us not be apathetic
in our asking, nor set too narrow bounds to our requests; nor ask for frivolous
things unworthy of God’s greatness. – Saint Gregory
Nazianzen
Let us not esteem worldly
prosperity or adversity as things real or of any moment, but let us live
elsewhere, and raise all our attention to Heaven; esteeming sin as the only
true evil, and nothing truly good, but virtue which unites us to God. – Saint Gregory
Nazianzen
Basil and I were both in
Athens. We had come, like streams of a river, from the same source in our
native land, had separated from each other in pursuit of learning, and were now
united again as if by plan, for God so arranged it. When, in the course of
time, we acknowledged our friendship and recognized that our ambition was a
life of true wisdom, we became everything to each other; we shared the same
lodging, the same table, the same desires, the same goal. Our love for each
other grew daily warmer and deeper. The same hope inspired us: the pursuit of
learning. We seemed to be two bodies with a single spirit. Our single object
and ambition was virtue, and a life of hope in the blessings that are to come.
We followed the guidance of God’s law and spurred each other on to virtue. If
it is not too boastful to say, we found in each other a standard and rule for
discerning right from wrong. Different men have different names, which they owe
to their parents or to themselves, that is, to their own pursuits and
achievements. But our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be
Christians, to be called Christians. – from a sermon by Saint Gregory
Nazianzen
Today let us do honor to
Christ’s baptism and
celebrate this feast in holiness. Be cleansed entirely and continue to be
cleansed. Nothing gives such pleasure to God as the conversion and salvation of
men, for whom his every word and every revelation exist. He wants you to become
a living force for all mankind, lights shining in the world. You are to be
radiant lights as you stand beside Christ, the great light, bathed in the glory
of him who is the light of heaven. You are to enjoy more and more the pure and
dazzling light of the Trinity, as now you have received – though not in its
fullness – a ray of its splendor, proceeding from the one God, in Christ Jesus
our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. – from a
sermon by Saint Gregory Nazianzen on the Feast of the Baptism of
the Lord
MLA
Citation
“Saint Gregory of
Nazianzen“. CatholicSaints.Info. 18 November 2021. Web. 3 January 2023.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-gregory-of-nazianzen/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-gregory-of-nazianzen/
Chiesa di San Gregorio Nazianzeno, a Roma, nel rione Campo Marzio.
Chiesa
di San Gregorio Nazianzeno, a Roma, nel rione Campo Marzio.
St. Gregory Nazianzen
St Gregory Nazianzen was
by nature a gentle man and by genius and training a scholar, but throughout his
life he was involved in controversies, disputes and misunderstanding in which
his sensitive and essentially reasonable temperament suffered much, and not
only from his ostensible ‘enemies.’ Nevertheless he has been declared a Doctor
of the Church, and he won for himself the title ‘the Theologian’; he is an
outstanding example of those saints whose lives, as far as immediate results
go, seem a series of disappointments and ill-success, yet who with the passage
of time are seen increasingly to be great both in themselves and in their work.
Gregory was born at
Arianzus in Cappadocia into a family of saints; his father was bishop of
Nazianzus–in that place and time a married clergy was the normal rule. He was
educated in Cappadocia, in Palestine, at Alexandria, and then went on to spend
some ten years studying in Athens. It was during this time that he became a
close friend of St Basil. When he was thirty Gregory left Athens and joined St
Basil in a life of retreat, prayer and study which foreshadowed the pattern of
monastic life both in the east and in the west.
Gregory then went home to
help his aging father, who in a manner not uncommon at the time almost forcibly
ordained him. Shocked deeply at the task that had been forced on his own
profound sense of unworthiness, Gregory fled to Basil, but soon returned, and
wrote a treatise, an apology for his flight. Gregory was one of those who could
touch nothing without leaving on it the seal of a mind of exceptional power and
fineness: this treatise is a study of the priesthood which has been a source of
inspiration to such as St Gregory the Great, and is still to all who deeply
consider the subject today.
After a period of
troubled work at Nazianzus, during which his friendship with St Basil was
marred by his own inability to be belligerent where the things of the church
were concerned, he spent five peaceful years in retirement from the affairs of
church government. He was then invited to go to Constantinople, where most of
the churches were given over to the Arian heresy. Here the popular method of
solving religious disputes was by fighting in the streets or by what was even
more distasteful to such a person–intrigue. Gregory went, with many misgivings.
His lack of pomp made him
personally unpopular, the Arian rabble set out to annoy him, and friends whom
he trusted betrayed him. Yet his famous sermons on the Trinity won him and the
church increasing respect and renown, and even St Jerome came in from his
desert to hear him. He was made bishop of Constantinople, but the opposition
was so noisy that Gregory insisted on resigning. As soon as he could he went
into retirement, spending his last years contentedly in study, writing and
mortification.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-gregory-nazianzen/
Acquarica
di Lecce, Chiesa di San Gregorio Nazianzeno
Gregory Nazianzen B,
Doctor (RM)
Born in Arianzus, Cappadocia, c. 329; died in Nazianzus on January 25, 389;
Doctor of the Church; feast day formerly May 9 and a second one on June 11 to
celebrate the translation of his relics to Rome; in the East his feasts are
January 25 and 30.
"Let it be assured
that to do no wrong is really superhuman and belongs to God alone."
--Saint Gregory
Nazianzen.
Gregory was the eldest
son of Saint Nonna and Saint Gregory Nazianzen the Elder, who was a Jew
converted by his wife and who was bishop of Nazianzus for 45 years. It is quite
obvious that Gregory's family life prepared him for sainthood--both his
siblings also became saints: Caesarius of Nazianzen and Gorgonia. He is one of
the four great Greek doctors of the Church, and closely associated with two of
the 'Cappadocian fathers,' Saint Basil and Basil's brother Gregory of Nyssa, in
the final defeat of the Arian heresy.
Gregory studied at
Caesarea, where he was introduced to Saint Basil (see above), the rhetorical
school at Caesarea in Palestine, and then studied law for ten years at Athens,
where fellow pupils included Saint Basil and the future Emperor Julian the
Apostate. Gregory returned to Nazianzus when he was about 30 and joined Saint
Basil in the beautiful surroundings at Pontus on the Iris River. There he lived
in solitude for two years. Their frequent discussions on theology and
monasticism bore fruit in the active organization of Basil and the theological
depth and penetration of the contemplative Gregory.
Though he would be best
suited to continuing the life of solitude, Gregory returned home to help his
aged (over 80) father to administer his see and estates. He was ordained
against his will by his father in 362, and ran away to Basil at Annesi for ten
weeks because he really wanted to be a monk, but returned to his new duties. He
wrote an apologia for his action, which would become a classic on the nature and
responsibilities of priests.
Meanwhile, Basil had been
consecrated metropolitan of Caesarea and, in an effort to fight Arianism, he
founded new sees to consolidate his influence as metropolitan. About 372,
Gregory was, again unwillingly, consecrated by Saint Basil as bishop of the
small, border township of Sasima. It was an unfortunate appointment, for this
Arian area was divided by civil strife, and Gregory, a gentle, peace-loving,
and private person, was more fitted for the life of a contemplative scholar
than that of an active administrator in a hostile environment. He never went to
Sasima, refusing to accept the see, which led Basil to accuse him of slackness.
Instead, Gregory continued to assist his father as coadjutor, and after his
father's death in 374, administered the see until a new bishop was chosen.
It was this appointment
to Sasima that broke the friendship between Basil and Gregory. Though they were
reconciled later, their friendship never recovered its former warmth. The break
was really healed only by Basil's death in 379. Three years later Gregory
preached a great panegyric of his friend, invoking memories of their days
together in 'golden Athens.'
On his relationship with
Saint Basil, Gregory wrote: "Our single object and ambition was virtue,
and a life of hope in the blessings that are to come. . . . We followed the
guidance of God's law and spurred each other on to virtue. If it is not too
boastful to say, we found in each other a standard and rule for discerning
right from wrong."
After suffering a
breakdown in 375, he lived for five years in a monastery at Seleucia, Isauria.
On the death of Emperor Valens and the mitigation of his persecution of the
orthodox, a group of bishops invited Gregory to Constantinople to help
revitalize the Church in the East by restoring orthodoxy to the Arian-dominated
city. Once again Gregory protested. For over 30 years the capital had been
dominated by Arians; orthodox believers even lacked a church.
Although the intrigue and
violence of Constantinople were utterly repugnant to him, in 379, Gregory
accepted the charge of the orthodox community of Constantinople. In spite of
his distaste, his evident poverty, and premature old age, the next few years
were the most important of his life. In Constantinople his eloquent preaching
at the Church of Anastasia (his house that he converted into a church) brought
floods of converts, and torrents of abuse and persecution from the Arians and
Apollinarians. Arians attacked him with slander, insults, and violence but he
persisted in preaching the faith and doctrine of Nicaea.
While he was ill, Maximus
made an effort to depose him, but he held fast. His faithfulness was rewarded
when, on February 27, 380, the newly baptized Emperor Theodosius decreed that
his subjects must be orthodox and that the Arian leaders must submit or leave
(they left).
Nevertheless, the Council
of Constantinople firmly established and confirmed the conclusions of Nicaea as
authentic Christian doctrine. Both in this and in other doctrinal conclusions
Gregory played an important part. Gregory was acclaimed archbishop of
Constantinople during the council and installed in the basilica of Santa
Sophia. A few weeks after his consecration, hostilities arose again, and the
validity of his election was questioned at the Council of Constantinople in
381, at which he presided. He resigned his office in the hopes of restoring
peace.
He returned to Nazianzus,
which was still without a bishop, and administered the see until a successor
was appointed. About 384 he retired to an austere private life. He spent his
time pursuing his love of study, writing and enjoying his garden with its
fountains and shady groves. To these years belong his religious poems and his
autobiography. Here in Nazianzus he died.
The tragedy of his life
was his promotion to the rank of bishop. Gregory was a man of sensitive,
retiring disposition, ill-suited for public life and affairs which he disliked.
His sermons and other speeches show him to have been one of the finest orators
of his time, and he was a poet as well. His numerous surviving letters throw
further light on the character and friends of this attractive personality, as
does a long autobiographical poem.
As a writer, however, he
stands far above most other Greek Doctors. Gregory is often called "the
Theologian" or "the Divine" for the depth and eloquence of his
defense of orthodoxy. Among his best known works are his sermons on the
Trinity, Five Theological Orations, which were delivered at the Church of
Anastasia (the Resurrection); a long poem, De vita sua; letters; and a
selection of writings by Origen (compiled with Saint Basil).
His relics were
translated first to Constantinople and later to Saint Peter's in Rome
(Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Davies, Delaney, Farmer, White).
He is portrayed in art as
reading with "Wisdom and Chastity" appearing before him (Roeder,
White).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0102.shtml
_-_stained_glass%2C_Sts._Athanasius_%26_Gregory_Nazianzus.JPG)
Sts.
Athanasius & Gregory Nazianzus, stained glass, Saint Anthony of Padua
Catholic Church (Dayton, Ohio)
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Gregory Nazianzus
(1)
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
Last
Wednesday, I talked about St Basil, a Father of the Church and a great
teacher of the faith.
Today, I would like to
speak of his friend, Gregory Nazianzus; like Basil, he too was a native of
Cappadocia. As a distinguished theologian, orator and champion of the Christian
faith in the fourth century, he was famous for his eloquence, and as a poet, he
also had a refined and sensitive soul.
Gregory was born into a
noble family in about 330 A.D. and his mother consecrated him to God at birth.
After his education at home, he attended the most famous schools of his time:
he first went to Caesarea in Cappadocia, where he made friends with Basil, the
future Bishop of that city, and went on to stay in other capitals of the
ancient world, such as Alexandria, Egypt and in particular Athens, where once
again he met Basil (cf. Orationes 43: 14-24; SC 384:
146-180).
Remembering this
friendship, Gregory was later to write: "Then not only did I feel full of
veneration for my great Basil because of the seriousness of his morals and the
maturity and wisdom of his speeches, but he induced others who did not yet know
him to be like him.... The same eagerness for knowledge motivated us.... This
was our competition: not who was first but who allowed the other to be first.
It seemed as if we had one soul in two bodies" (Orationes 43: 16,
20; SC 384: 154-156, 164].
These words more or less
paint the self-portrait of this noble soul. Yet, one can also imagine how this
man, who was powerfully cast beyond earthly values, must have suffered deeply
for the things of this world.
On his return home,
Gregory received Baptism and developed an inclination for monastic life: solitude
as well as philosophical and spiritual meditation fascinated him.
He himself wrote:
"Nothing seems to me greater than this: to silence one's senses, to emerge
from the flesh of the world, to withdraw into oneself, no longer to be
concerned with human things other than what is strictly necessary; to converse
with oneself and with God, to lead a life that transcends the visible; to bear
in one's soul divine images, ever pure, not mingled with earthly or erroneous
forms; truly to be a perfect mirror of God and of divine things, and to become
so more and more, taking light from light...; to enjoy, in the present hope,
the future good, and to converse with angels; to have already left the earth
even while continuing to dwell on it, borne aloft by the spirit" (Orationes 2:
7; SC 247: 96).
As he confides in his
autobiography (cf. Carmina [historica] 2: 1, 11, De Vita Sua 340-349; PG 37:
1053), he received priestly ordination with a certain reluctance for he knew
that he would later have to be a Bishop, to look after others and their
affairs, hence, could no longer be absorbed in pure meditation.
However, he subsequently
accepted this vocation and took on the pastoral ministry in full obedience,
accepting, as often happened to him in his life, to be carried by Providence
where he did not wish to go (cf. Jn 21: 18).
In 371, his friend Basil,
Bishop of Caesarea, against Gregory's own wishes, desired to ordain him Bishop
of Sasima, a strategically important locality in Cappadocia. Because of various
problems, however, he never took possession of it and instead stayed on in the
city of Nazianzus.
In about 379, Gregory was
called to Constantinople, the capital, to head the small Catholic community
faithful to the Council of Nicea and to belief in the Trinity. The majority
adhered instead to Arianism, which was "politically correct" and
viewed by emperors as politically useful.
Thus, he found himself in
a condition of minority, surrounded by hostility. He delivered five Theological
Orations (Orationes 27-31; SC 250: 70-343) in the little
Church of the Anastasis precisely in order to defend the Trinitarian faith and
to make it intelligible.
These discourses became
famous because of the soundness of his doctrine and his ability to reason,
which truly made clear that this was the divine logic. And the splendour of
their form also makes them fascinating today.
It was because of these
orations that Gregory acquired the nickname: "The Theologian".
This is what he is called
in the Orthodox Church: the "Theologian". And this is because to his
way of thinking theology was not merely human reflection or even less, only a
fruit of complicated speculation, but rather sprang from a life of prayer and
holiness, from a persevering dialogue with God. And in this very way he causes
the reality of God, the mystery of the Trinity, to appear to our reason.
In the silence of
contemplation, interspersed with wonder at the marvels of the mystery revealed,
his soul was engrossed in beauty and divine glory.
While Gregory was taking
part in the Second Ecumenical Council in 381, he was elected Bishop of
Constantinople and presided over the Council; but he was challenged
straightaway by strong opposition, to the point that the situation became
untenable. These hostilities must have been unbearable to such a sensitive
soul.
What Gregory had
previously lamented with heartfelt words was repeated: "We have divided
Christ, we who so loved God and Christ! We have lied to one another because of
the Truth, we have harboured sentiments of hatred because of Love, we are
separated from one another" (Orationes 6: 3; SC 405: 128).
Thus, in a tense
atmosphere, the time came for him to resign.
In the packed cathedral,
Gregory delivered a farewell discourse of great effectiveness and dignity
(cf. Orationes 42; SC 384: 48-114). He ended his
heartrending speech with these words: "Farewell, great city, beloved by
Christ.... My children, I beg you, jealously guard the deposit [of faith] that
has been entrusted to you (cf. I Tm 6: 20), remember my suffering (cf. Col 4:
18). May the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all" (cf. Orationes 42:
27; SC 384: 112-114).
Gregory returned to
Nazianzus and for about two years devoted himself to the pastoral care of this
Christian community. He then withdrew definitively to solitude in nearby
Arianzo, his birthplace, and dedicated himself to studies and the ascetic life.
It was in this period
that he wrote the majority of his poetic works and especially his
autobiography: the De Vita Sua, a reinterpretation in verse of his
own human and spiritual journey, an exemplary journey of a suffering Christian,
of a man of profound interiority in a world full of conflicts.
He is a man who makes us
aware of God's primacy, hence, also speaks to us, to this world of ours:
without God, man loses his grandeur; without God, there is no true humanism.
Consequently, let us too
listen to this voice and seek to know God's Face.
In one of his poems he
wrote, addressing himself to God: "May you be benevolent, You, the
hereafter of all things" (Carmina [dogmatica] 1: 1, 29; PG 37:
508).
And in 390, God welcomed
into his arms this faithful servant who had defended him in his writings with
keen intelligence and had praised him in his poetry with such great love.
To special groups
I greet all the
English-speaking visitors and pilgrims present at today's Audience, including
groups from Ireland, Israel, the Far East and North America. I extend a special
welcome to the pilgrims who have travelled here from Da Nang in Vietnam. May
the peace and joy of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and may God bless you
all!
Lastly, my thoughts go to
the young people, the sick and the newly-weds. Today
is the Memorial of St Dominic Guzman, a tireless preacher of the Gospel, and
tomorrow will be the Feast of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edith Stein,
Co-Patroness of Europe.
May these two Saints help
you, dear young people, to trust in Christ always. May their example
sustain you, dear sick people, so that you participate with faith in
the saving power of his Cross. I encourage you, dear newly-weds, to
be a luminous image of God through your reciprocal fidelity. I impart my
Blessing to you all.
© Copyright 2007 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070808.html
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Gregory Nazianzus
(2)
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
In the course of
portraying the great Fathers and Doctors of the Church whom I seek to present
in these Catecheses, I
spoke last time of St Gregory Nazianzus, a fourth-century Bishop, and today
I would like to fill out this portrait of a great teacher. Today, we shall try
to understand some of his teachings.
Reflecting on the mission
God had entrusted to him, St Gregory Nazianzus concluded: "I was created
to ascend even to God with my actions" (Orationes 14, 6 De
Pauperum Amore: PG 35, 865).
In fact, he placed his
talents as a writer and orator at the service of God and of the Church. He
wrote numerous discourses, various homilies and panegyrics, a great many
letters and poetic works (almost 18,000 verses!): a truly prodigious output.
He realized that this was
the mission that God had entrusted to him: "As a servant of the Word, I
adhere to the ministry of the Word; may I never agree to neglect this good. I
appreciate this vocation and am thankful for it; I derive more joy from it than
from all other things put together" (Orationes 6, 5: SC 405,
134; cf. also Orationes 4, 10).
Nazianzus was a mild man
and always sought in his life to bring peace to the Church of his time, torn
apart by discord and heresy. He strove with Gospel daring to overcome his own
timidity in order to proclaim the truth of the faith.
He felt deeply the
yearning to draw close to God, to be united with him. He expressed it in one of
his poems in which he writes: "Among the great billows of the sea of life,
here and there whipped up by wild winds... one thing alone is dear to me, my
only treasure, comfort and oblivion in my struggle, the light of the Blessed
Trinity" (Carmina [historica] 2, 1, 15: PG 37, 1250ff.).
Thus, Gregory made the light of the Trinity shine forth, defending the faith proclaimed
at the Council of Nicea: one God in three persons, equal and distinct - Father,
Son and Holy Spirit -, "a triple light gathered into one splendour" (Hymn
for Vespers, Carmina [historica] 2, 1, 32: PG 37, 512).
Therefore, Gregory says
further, in line with St Paul (I Cor 8: 6): "For us there is one God, the
Father, from whom is all; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom is all; and
one Holy Spirit, in whom is all (Orationes 39, 12: SC 358, 172).
Gregory gave great
prominence to Christ's full humanity: to redeem man in the totality of his
body, soul and spirit, Christ assumed all the elements of human nature,
otherwise man would not have been saved.
Disputing the heresy of
Apollinaris, who held that Jesus Christ had not assumed a rational mind, Gregory
tackled the problem in the light of the mystery of salvation: "What has
not been assumed has not been healed" (Ep. 101, 32: SC 208,
50), and if Christ had not been "endowed with a rational mind, how could
he have been a man?" (Ep. 101, 34: SC 208, 50). It was
precisely our mind and our reason that needed and needs the relationship, the
encounter with God in Christ.
Having become a man,
Christ gave us the possibility of becoming, in turn, like him. Nazianzus
exhorted people: "Let us seek to be like Christ, because Christ also
became like us: to become gods through him since he himself, through us, became
a man. He took the worst upon himself to make us a gift of the best" (Orationes 1,
5: SC 247, 78).
Mary, who gave Christ his
human nature, is the true Mother of God (Theotokos: cf. Ep. 101,
16: SC 208, 42), and with a view to her most exalted mission was
"purified in advance" (Orationes 38, 13: SC 358, 132,
almost as a distant prelude to the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception). Mary is
proposed to Christians, and especially to virgins, as a model and their help to
call upon in times of need (cf. Orationes, 24, 11: SC 282,
60-64).
Gregory reminds us that
as human persons, we must show solidarity to one another. He writes:
""We are all one in the Lord' (cf. Rom 12: 5), rich and poor, slaves
and free, healthy and sick alike; and one is the head from which all derive:
Jesus Christ. And as with the members of one body, each is concerned with the
other, and all with all".
He then concludes,
referring to the sick and to people in difficulty: "This is the one
salvation for our flesh and our soul: showing them charity" (Orationes 14,
8 De Pauperum Amore: PG 35, 868ab).
Gregory emphasizes that
man must imitate God's goodness and love. He therefore recommends: "If you
are healthy and rich, alleviate the need of whoever is sick and poor; if you
have not fallen, go to the aid of whoever has fallen and lives in suffering; if
you are glad, comfort whoever is sad; if you are fortunate, help whoever is
smitten with misfortune. Give God proof of your gratitude for you are one who
can benefit and not one who needs to be benefited.... Be rich not only in
possessions but also in piety; not only in gold but in virtue, or rather, in
virtue alone. Outdo your neighbour's reputation by showing yourself to be
kinder than all; make yourself God for the unfortunate, imitating God's
mercy" (Orationes 14, 26 De Pauperum Amore: PG 35, 892bc).
Gregory teaches us first
and foremost the importance and necessity of prayer. He says: "It is
necessary to remember God more often than one breathes" (Orationes 27,
4: PG 250, 78), because prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with
our thirst. God is thirsting for us to thirst for him (cf. Orationes 40,
27: SC 358, 260).
In prayer, we must turn
our hearts to God, to consign ourselves to him as an offering to be purified
and transformed. In prayer we see all things in the light of Christ, we let our
masks fall and immerse ourselves in the truth and in listening to God, feeding
the fire of love.
In a poem which is at the
same time a meditation on the purpose of life and an implicit invocation to
God, Gregory writes: "You have a task, my soul, a great task if you so
desire. Scrutinize yourself seriously, your being, your destiny; where you come
from and where you must rest; seek to know whether it is life that you are
living or if it is something more. You have a task, my soul, so purify your
life: Please consider God and his mysteries, investigate what existed before
this universe and what it is for you, where you come from and what your destiny
will be. This is your task, my soul; therefore, purify your life" (Carmina
[historica] 2, 1, 78: PG 37, 1425-1426).
The holy Bishop
continuously asked Christ for help, to be raised and set on his way: "I
have been let down, O my Christ, by my excessive presumption: from the heights,
I have fallen very low. But lift me now again so that I may see that I have
deceived myself; if again I trust too much in myself, I shall fall immediately
and the fall will be fatal" (Carmina [historica] 2, 1, 67: PG 37,
1408).
So it was that Gregory
felt the need to draw close to God in order to overcome his own weariness. He
experienced the impetus of the soul, the vivacity of a sensitive spirit and the
instability of transient happiness.
For him, in the drama of
a life burdened by the knowledge of his own weakness and wretchedness, the
experience of God's love always gained the upper hand.
You have a task, soul, St
Gregory also says to us, the task of finding the true light, of finding the
true nobility of your life. And your life is encountering God, who thirsts for
our thirst.
To special groups
I am pleased to greet all
the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims present at today's Audience,
especially the groups from England, Ireland, Hungary, Sweden, Japan, Australia
and the United States of America. Upon all of you, I invoke Almighty God's
Blessings of joy and peace.
Lastly, as usual, a
cordial greeting to the young people, to the sick and to the newly-weds.
Let us raise our eyes to Heaven to contemplate the splendour of the Holy Mother
of God, whom today the liturgy invites us to invoke as our Queen.
Dear young people,
place yourselves and all your projects under the motherly protection of the One
who gave the Saviour to the world.
Dear sick people, as
you wait to recover your health, pray to her every day to obtain the strength
to face patiently the trial of suffering.
Dear newly-weds, develop
a sincere devotion to her, so that she may be near you in your daily life.
© Copyright 2007 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070822.html
ST. GREGORY NAZIANZEN.
DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
GREGORY was born of
saintly parents, and was the chosen friend of St. Basil. They studied together
at Athens, turned at the same time from the fairest worldly prospects, and for
some years lived together in seclusion, self-discipline, and toil. Gregory was
raised, almost by force, to the priesthood; and was in time made Bishop of
Nazianzum by St. Basil, who had become Archbishop of Caesarea. When he was
fifty years old, he was chosen, for his rare gifts and his conciliatory
disposition, to be Patriarch of Constantinople, then distracted and laid waste
by Arian and other heretics. In that city he labored with wonderful success.
The Arians were so irritated at the decay of their heresy that they pursued the
Saint with outrage, calumny, and violence, and at length resolved to take away
his life. For this purpose they chose a resolute young man, who readily
undertook the sacrilegious commission. But God did not allow him to carry it
out. He was touched with remorse, and cast himself at the Saint's feet, avowing
his sinful intent. St. Gregory at once forgave him, treated him with all
kindness, and received him amongst his friends, to the wonder and edification
of the whole city, and to the confusion of the heretics, whose crime had served
only as a foil to the virtue of the Saint. St. Jerome boasts that he had sat at
his feet, and calls him his master and his catechist in Holy Scripture. But his
lowliness, his austerities, the insignificance of his person, and above all his
very success, drew down on him the hatred of the enemies of the Faith. He was
persecuted by the magistrates, stoned by the rabble, and thwarted and deserted
even by his brother bishops. During the second General Council, he resigned his
see, hoping thus to restore peace to the tormented city, and retired to his
native town, where he died A.D. 390, He was a graceful poet, a preacher at once
eloquent and solid ; and as a champion of the Faith so well equipped, so
strenuous, and so exact, that he is called St. Gregory the Theologian.
REFLECTION.-"We must
overcome our enemies," said St. Gregory, by gentleness; win them over by
forbearance. Let them be punished by their own conscience, not by our wrath.
Let us not at once wither the fig-tree, from which a more skilful gardener may
yet entice fruit."
INTERCESSORY PRAYER:
Today, ask Saint Gregory to pray for the theologians and priests that teach the
Catholic faith in the spoken and written word.
SOURCE : http://jesus-passion.com/saint_gregory_nazianzen1.htm
St. Gregory of Nazianzus
Doctor
of the Church, born at Arianzus, in Asia
Minor, c. 325; died at the same place, 389. He was son — one of three
children — of Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus (329-374),
in the southwest of Cappadocia, and of Nonna, a daughter of Christian parents.
The saint's father was originally a member of the heretical sect of
the Hypsistarii,
or Hypsistiani, and was converted to Catholicity by
the influence of his pious wife.
His two sons, who seem to have been born between the dates of their
father's priestly ordination and episcopal consecration,
were sent to a famous school at Caesarea,
capital of Cappadocia, and educated by
Carterius, probably the same one who was afterwards tutor of St.
John Chrysostom. Here commenced the friendship
between Basil and Gregory which intimately affected both
their lives, as well as the development of the theology of
their age. From Caesarea in Cappadocia Gregory proceeded
to Caesarea in Palestine, where he studied rhetoric under Thespesius;
and thence to Alexandria, of which Athanasius was
then bishop,
through at the time in exile. Setting out by sea
fromAlexandria to Athens, Gregory was all but lost in a
great storm, and some of his biographers infer — though the fact is
not certain — that when in danger of death he and his companions
received the rite of baptism.
He hadcertainly not been baptized in
infancy, though dedicated to God by
his pious mother;
but there is some authority for believing that
he received the sacrament, not on his voyage to Athens, but on his
return to Nazianzus some years later.
At Athens Gregory and Basil, who had parted at Caesarea,
met again, renewed their youthful friendship, and studied rhetoric together
under the famous teachers Himerius and Proaeresius. Among their
fellow students was Julian,
afterwards known as the Apostate, whose
real character Gregory asserts that he had even then discerned
and thoroughly distrusted him. The saint's studies at Athens (which Basil left
before his friend) extended over some ten years; and when he departed in 356
for his native province, visitingConstantinople on his way home, he was
about thirty years of age.
Arrived at Nazianzus,
where his parents were
now advanced in age, Gregory, who had by this time firmly resolved to
devote his life and talents to God,
anxiously considered the plan of his future career. To a young man of his high
attainments a distinguished secular career was open, either that of a
lawyer or of a professor of rhetoric; but his yearnings were for
the monastic or ascetic life, though this did not seem
compatible either with the Scripture studies in which he was
deeply interested, or with his filial duties at
home. As was natural, he consulted his beloved friend Basil in
his perplexity as to his future; and he has left us in his own writings an
extremely interesting narrative of their intercourse at this time, and of
their common resolve (based on somewhat different motives, according to the
decided differences in their characters) to quit the world for the service
of God alone. Basil retired
to Pontus to
lead the life of a hermit;
but finding that Gregory could not join him there, came and settled
first at Tiberina (near Gregory's own home), then
at Neocæsarea, in Pontus,
where he lived in holy seclusion for some years, and gathered
round him a brotherhood of cenobites, among whom his
friend Gregory was for a time included. After a sojourn here for two
or three years, during which Gregory edited,
with Basil some of the exegetical works
of Origen,
and also helped his friend in the compilation of his famous
rules, Gregory returned to Nazianzus,
leaving with regret the peaceful hermitage where he and Basil (as he
recalled in their subsequent correspondence) had spent such a
pleasant time in the labour both of hands and of heads. On his return
home Gregory was instrumental in bringing back to orthodoxy his father who,
perhaps partly in ignorance,
had subscribed the heretical creed of Rimini;
and the aged bishop,
desiring his son's presence and support, overruled
his scrupulous shrinking from the priesthood,
and forced him to acceptordination (probably
at Christmas,
361). Wounded and grieved at the pressure put upon
him, Gregory fled back to his solitude, and to the company of St.
Basil; but after some weeks' reflection returned to Nazianzus,
where he preached his first sermon on Easter
Sunday, and afterward wrote the remarkable apologetic oration,
which is really a treatise on the priestly office,
the foundation of Chrysostom's "De
Sacerdotio", of Gregory
the Great's "Cura Pastoris", and of countless subsequent writings
on the same subject.
During the next few
years Gregory's life at Nazianzus was
saddened by the deaths of his brother Caesarius and his
sister Gorgonia, at whose funerals he preached two of his most eloquent
orations, which are still extant. About this time Basil was
made bishop of Caesarea and Metropolitan of
Cappadocia, and soon afterwards theEmperor
Valens, who was jealous of Basil's influence, divided
Cappadocia into two provinces. Basil continued to claim ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, as before, over the whole province, but this was disputed by
Anthimus, Bishop ofTyana,
the chief city of New Cappadocia. To strengthen his
position Basil founded a new see at Sasima,
resolved to have Gregory as its first bishop,
and accordingly had him consecrated,
though greatly against his will.Gregory, however, was set
against Sasima from the first; he thought himself utterly unsuited to
the place, and the place to him; and it was not long before he abandoned
his diocese and
returned to Nazianzus as coadjutor to his father.
This episode in Gregory's life was unhappily the cause of
an estrangement between Basil and himself which was never altogether
removed; and there is no extant record of any correspondence between them
subsequent to Gregory's leaving Sasima. Meanwhile he occupied
himself sedulously with his duties as
coadjutor to his aged father, who died early in 374, his
wife Nonna soon following him to the grave. Gregory, who was now
left without family ties,
devoted to the poor the large fortune which he had inherited, keeping
for himself only a small piece of land at Arianzus. He continued to
administer the diocese for about two years, refusing, however, to
become the bishop,
and continually urging the appointment of a successor to his father.
At the end of 375 he withdrew to a monastery at
Seleuci, living there in solitude for some three years, and preparing (though
he knewit
not) for what was to be the crowning work of his life. About the end
of this period Basil died. Gregory's own state of health
prevented his being present either at the deathbed or funeral; but he wrote a
letter of condolence to Basil's brother, Gregory
of Nyssa, and composed twelve beautiful memorial poems or epitaphs to his
departed friend.
Three weeks
after Basil's death, Theodosius was
advanced by the Emperor Gratian to the dignity
of Emperor of the East. Constantinople, the seat of his
empire, had been for the space of about thirty years (since the death
of the saintly and martyred Bishop Paul)
practically given over too Arianism,
with an Arian prelate, Demophilus,enthroned at St.
Sophia's. The remnant of persecuted Catholics,
without either church or pastor,
applied toGregory to come and place himself at their head and organize
their scattered forces; and many bishops supported
the demand. After much hesitation he gave his consent, proceeded
to Constantinople early in the year 379, and began his mission in a
private house which he describes as "the new Shiloh where
the Ark was fixed", and as "an Anastasia, the scene of
the resurrection of the faith".
Not only the faithful Catholics,
but many heretics gathered
in the humble chapel of
the Anastasia, attracted by Gregory's sanctity,
learning and eloquence; and it was in this chapel that
he delivered the five wonderful discourses on the faith of Nicaea —
unfolding the doctrine of
the Trinity while safeguarding the Unity of the Godhead —
which gained for him, alone of all Christianteachers
except the Apostle St. John, the special title of Theologus or
the Divine. He also delivered at this time the eloquent panegyrics on St.
Cyprian, St.
Athanasius, and the Machabees, which are among his finest oratorical
works. Meanwhile he found himself exposed to persecution of
every kind from without, and was actually attacked in his own chapel,
whilst baptizing his Easter neophytes,
by a hostile mob of Arians from St.
Sophia's, among them being Arian monks and infuriated women.
He was saddened, too, by dissensions among his own little flock, some of whom
openly charged him with holding Tritheistic errors. St.
Jerome became about this time his pupil and disciple, and tells
us in glowing language how much he owed to his erudite and eloquent
teacher. Gregorywas consoled by the approval of Peter, Patriarch of Constantinople (Duchesne's
opinion, that the patriarch was from the first jealous or
suspicious of the Cappadocian bishop's influence
in Constantinople, does not seem sufficiently supported by evidence),
and Peter appears to have been desirous to see him appointed to thebishopric of
the capital of the East. Gregory, however, unfortunately allowed
himself to be imposed upon by a plausible adventurer called Hero,
or Maximus, who came
to Constantinople from Alexandria in the guise (long hair,
white robe, and staff) of a Cynic, and professed to be
a convert to Christianity,
and an ardent admirer ofGregory's sermons. Gregory entertained
him hospitably, gave him his complete confidence, and pronounced a public
panegyric on him in his presence. Maximus's intrigues to obtain
the bishopric for
himself found support in various quarters, including Alexandria, which
the patriarch Peter, for what reason precisely it is not
known, had turned against Gregory; and certain Egyptian bishops deputed
by Peter, suddenly, and at night, consecrated and enthroned Maximus as Catholic Bishop of Constantinople,
while Gregory was confined to bed by illness. Gregory'sfriends,
however, rallied round him, and Maximus had to fly
from Constantinople. The Emperor
Theodosius, to whom he had recourse, refused to recognize any bishop other
than Gregory, and Maximus retired in disgrace to Alexandria.
Theodosius received Christian
baptism early in 380, at Thessalonica,
and immediately addressed an edict to his subjects at Constantinople,
commanding them to adhere to the faith taught
by St. Peter, and professed by the Roman
pontiff, which alone deserved to be called Catholic.
In November, the emperor entered the city and called on Demophilus,
the Arian bishop,
to subscribe to the Nicene creed: but he refused to do so, and was
banished from Constantinople. Theodosius determined
that Gregory should be bishop of
the new Catholic see,
and himself accompanied him to St. Sophia's, where he was enthroned in
presence of an immense crowd, who manifested their feelings by hand-clappings
and other signs of joy. Constantinople was
now restored to Catholic unity;
the emperor, by a new edict, gave back all the churches to Catholic use; Arians and
other heretics were
forbidden to hold public assemblies; and the name of Catholic was
restricted to adherents of the orthodox and Catholic faith.
Gregory had hardly
settled down to the work of administration of the Diocese of
Constantinople, whenTheodosius carried
out his long-cherished purpose of summoning thither a general
council of the Eastern
Church. One hundred and fifty bishops met
in council, in May, 381, the object of the assembly being, as Socrates plainly
states, to confirm the faith of Nicaea,
and to appoint a bishop for Constantinople (see THE
FIRST COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE). Among the bishops present
were thirty-six holding semi-Arian or Macedonian opinions;
and neither the arguments of the orthodox prelates nor
the eloquence of Gregory, who preached at Pentecost, in St.
Sophia's, on the subject of the Holy Spirit, availed to persuade them to
sign the orthodox creed.
As to the appointment of the bishopric,
the confirmation of Gregory to the see could
only be a matter of form. The orthodox bishops were
all in favor, and the objection (urged by the Egyptian and Macedonian prelates who
joined the council later) that his translation from one see to
another was in opposition to a canon of
the Nicene council was obviously unfounded. The fact was well known
that Gregory had never, after his forced consecration at
the instance of Basil, entered into possession of the See
of Sasima, and that he had later exercised his episcopalfunctions
at Nazianzus,
not as bishop of
that diocese,
but merely as coadjutor of his father. Gregory succeeded Meletius as
president of the council, which found itself at once called on to deal
with the difficult question of appointing a successor to the
deceased bishop.
There had been an understanding between the two orthodox parties
at Antioch,
of which Meletius and Paulinus had been respectively bishops that
the survivor of either should succeed as sole bishop. Paulinus,
however, was a prelate of Western origin
and creation, and the Eastern bishops assembled
at Constantinople declined to recognize him. In vain
did Gregory urge, for the sake of peace, the retention
of Paulinus in the see for
the remainder of his life, already fare advanced; the Fathers of
the council refused to listen to his advice, and resolved
that Meletius should be succeeded by an Oriental priest.
"It was in the East that Christ was
born", was one of the arguments they put forward;
and Gregory's retort, "Yes, and it was in
the East that he was put to death", did not shake their
decision. Flavian, a priest of Antioch,
was electedto the vacant see; and Gregory, who relates that
the only result of his appeal was "a cry like that of a flock of
jackdaws" while the younger members of
the council "attacked him like a swarm of wasps", quitted
the council, and left also his official residence, close to
the church of the Holy Apostles.
Gregory had now come to
the conclusion that not only the opposition and disappointment which he had met
with in the council, but also his continued state of
ill-health, justified, and indeed necessitated, his resignation of the See
of Constantinople, which he had held for only a few months. He appeared
again before the council, intimated that he was ready to be
another Jonas to pacify the troubled waves, and that all he desired
was rest from his labours, and leisure to prepare
for death. The Fathers made no protest against this announcement,
which some among them doubtless heard with secret satisfaction;
and Gregory at once sought and obtained from the emperor permission
to resign his see.
In June, 381, he preached a farewell sermon before
the council and in presence of an overflowing congregation. The
peroration of this discourse is of singular and touching beauty, and
unsurpassed even among his many eloquent orations. Very soon after its delivery
he left Constantinople(Nectarius, a native of Cilicia, being chosen
to succeed him in the bishopric),
and retired to his old home at Nazianzus.
His two extant letters addressed to Nectarius at
his time are noteworthy as affording evidence, by
their spirit and tone, that he was actuated by no other feelings than
those of interested goodwill towards the diocese of
which he was resigning the care, and towards his successor in
the episcopal charge. On his return to Nazianzus, Gregory found
the Church there
in a miserable condition, being overrun with the erroneous teaching
of Apollinaris the Younger, who had seceded from the Catholic communion a
few years previously, and died shortly
after Gregory himself. Gregory's anxiety was now to find a
learned and zealous bishop who
would be able to stem the flood of heresy which
was threatening to overwhelm the Christian
Church in that place. All his efforts were at first unsuccessful, and
he consented at length with much reluctance to take over the
administration of the diocese himself.
He combated for a time, with his usual eloquence and as much energy as remained
to him, the false teaching
of the adversaries of the Church;
but he felt himself too broken in health to continue the active work of
the episcopate, and wrote to the Archbishop of Tyana urgently appealing to
him to provide for the appointment of another bishop.
His request was granted, and his cousin Eulalius, a priest of holy life to
whom he was much attached, was duly appointed to the See
of Nazianzus. This was toward the end of the year 383, and Gregory, happy in
seeing the care of the diocese entrusted
to a man after his own heart, immediately withdrew to Arianzus, the scene
of his birth and his childhood, where he spent the remaining years of his life
in retirement, and in the literary labours, which were so much more
congenial to his character than the harassing work ofecclesiastical administration
in those stormy and troubled times.
Looking back
on Gregory's career, it is difficult not to feel that from the day
when he was compelled to accept priestly orders,
until that which saw him return
from Constantinople to Nazianzus to end his life in retirement
and obscurity, he seemed constantly to be placed, through no initiative of his
own, in positions apparently unsuited to his disposition and temperament, and
not really calculated to call for the exercise of the most remarkable and
attractive qualities of his mind and
heart. Affectionate and tender by nature, of highly sensitive
temperament, simple and humble,
lively and cheerful by disposition, yet liable to despondency and irritability,
constitutionally timid, and somewhat deficient, as it seemed, both in decision
of character and in self-control, he was very human, very lovable,
very gifted — yet not, one might be inclined to think, naturally adapted
to play the remarkable part which he did during the period preceding and
following the opening of the Council of Constantinople. He entered on his
difficult and arduous work in that city within a few months of the death
ofBasil, the beloved friend of his youth; and Newman,
in his appreciation of Gregory's character and career, suggests
the striking thought that it was his friend's lofty and
heroic spirit which had entered into him, andinspired him to
take the active and important part which fell to his lot in the work of
re-establishing the orthodox and Catholic faith in
the eastern capital of the empire. It did, in truth,
seem to be rather with the firmness and intrepidity, the high resolve and
unflinching perseverance, characteristic of Basil, than in his own
propercharacter, that of a gentle, fastidious, retiring, timorous,
peace-loving saint and scholar, that he sounded the war-trumpet
during those anxious and turbulent months, in the very stronghold and
headquarters of militant heresy,
utterly regardless to the actual and pressing danger to his safety, and even
his life which never ceased to menace him. "May we together receive",
he said at the conclusion of the wonderful discourse which he pronounced on his
departed friend, on his return to Asia from Constantinople,
"the reward of the warfare which
we have waged, which we have endured." It is impossible to doubt,
reading the intimate details which he has himself given us of his long
friendship with, and deep admiration of, Basil, that
the spirit of his early and well-loved friend had to a great extent
moulded and informed his own sensitive and impressionable personality and
that it was this, under God,
which nerved and inspired him, after a life of what seemed,
externally, one almost of failure, to co-operate in the mighty task of
overthrowing the monstrous heresy which
had so long devastated the greater part of Christendom,
and bringing about at length the pacification of the Eastern
Church.
During the six years of life which
remained to him after his final retirement to his
birth-place, Gregory composed, in all probability, the greater part
of the copious poetical works which have come down to us. These include a
valuable autobiographical poem of nearly 2000 lines, which forms, of course,
one of the most important sources of information for the facts of his life;
about a hundred other shorter poems relating to his past career; and a large
number of epitaphs, epigrams, and epistles to well-known people of
the day. Many of his later personal poems refer to the continuous illness and
severe sufferings, both physical and spiritual, which assailed him during
his last years, and doubtless assisted to perfect him in
those saintly qualities which had never been wanting to him,
rudely shaken though he had been by the trails and buffetings of his life. In
the tiny plot of ground atArianzus, all (as has already been said) that
remained to him of his rich inheritance, he wrote and meditated,
as he tells, by a fountain near which there was a shady walk, his favourite
resort. Here, too, he received occasional visits from intimate friends, as well
as sometimes from strangers attracted to his retreat by his reputation for sanctity and
learning; and here he peacefully breathed his last. The exact date of
his death is unknown, but from a passage in Jerome (De
Script. Eccl.) it may be assigned, with tolerable certainty,
to the year 389 or 390.
Some account must now be
given of Gregory's voluminous writings, and of his reputation as
an orator and a theologian,
on which, more than on anything else, rests his fame as one of the
greatest lights of the Eastern
Church. His works naturally fall under three heads, namely his
poems, his epistles, and his orations. Much, though by no means all, of
what he wrote has been preserved, and has been frequently published, the editio
princeps of the poems being the Aldine (1504), while the first edition of
his collected works appeared in Paris in
1609-11. The Bodleian catalogue contains more than thirty folio pages
enumerating various editions of Gregory'sworks, of which the best and most
complete are the Benedictine edition
(two folio volumes, begun in 1778, finished in 1840), and the edition of Migne (four
volumes XXXV - XXXVIII, in P.G., Paris, 1857 - 1862).
Poetical compositions
These, as already stated,
comprise autobiographical verses, epigrams, epitaphs and epistles. The
epigrams have been translated by Thomas Drant (London, 1568), the epitaphs
by Boyd (London, 1826), while other poems have been gracefully and
charmingly paraphrased by Newman in
his "Church of the Fathers". Jerome and Suidas say
that Gregory wrote more than 30,000 verses; if this is not an
exaggeration, fully two-thirds of them have been lost. Very different estimates
have been formed of the value of his poetry, the greater part of which was
written in advanced years, and perhaps rather as a relaxation from the cares
and troubles of life than as a serious pursuit. Delicate,
graphic, and flowing as are many of his verses, and giving ample evidence of
the cultured andgifted intellect which
produced them, they cannot be held to parallel (the comparison would be
an unfair one, had not many of them been written expressly to
supersede and take the place of the work of heathen writers)
the great creations of the classic Greek poets. Yet
Villemain, no mean critic, places the poems in the front rank of Gregory's compositions,
and thinks so highly of them that he maintains that the writer ought to be
called, pre-eminently, not so much the theologian of
the East as "the poet of Eastern
Christendom".
Prose epistles
These, by
common consent, belong to the finest literary productions
of Gregory's age. All that are extant are finished compositions; and
that the writer excelled in this kind of composition is shown from one of them
(Ep. ccix, to Nicobulus) in which he enlarges with
admirable good sense on the rules by which
all letter-writers should be guided. It was at the request of Nicobulus,
who believed, and rightly, that these letters contained much of
permanent interest and value, that Gregory prepared and
edited the collection containing the greater number of them which has
come down to us. Many of them are perfect models of epistolary style
— short, clear, couched in admirably chosen language, and in turn witty and
profound, playful, affectionate and acute.
Orations
Both in his own time, and
by the general verdict of posterity, Gregory was recognized as one of
the very foremost orators who have ever adorned the Christian
Church. Trained in the finest rhetorical schools of
his age, he did more than justice to
his distinguished teachers; and while boasting or vainglory was foreign to
his nature, he frankly acknowledged his consciousness of his
remarkable oratorical gifts, and his satisfaction at having been enabled
to cultivate them fully in his youth. Basil and Gregory, it has
been said, were the pioneers of Christian eloquence,
modeled on, and inspired by, the noble and
sustained oratory of Demosthenes and Cicero, and calculated to move
and impress the most cultured and critical audiences of the age. Only
comparatively few of the numerous orations delivered by Gregory have
been preserved to us, consisting of discourses spoken by him on widely
different occasions, but all marked by the same
lofty qualities. Faults they have, of course: lengthy
digressions, excessive ornament, strained antithesis, laboured metaphors, and
occasional over-violence of invective. But their merits are far
greater than their defects, and no one can read them without being struck by
the noble phraseology, perfect command of the purest Greek,
high imaginative powers,
lucidity and incisiveness of thought, fiery zeal and
transparent sincerity of intention, by which they are distinguished.
Hardly any of Gregory's extant sermons are direct expositions
of Scripture, and they have for this reason been
adversely criticized. Bossuet,
however, points out with perfect truth that
many of these discourses are really nothing but skillful interweaving
of Scriptural texts, a profound knowledge of
which is evident from every line of them.
Gregory's claims to rank
as one of the greatest theologians of
the early Church are based, apart from his reputation among
his contemporaries, and the verdict of history in his regard, chiefly
on the five great "Theological Discourses" which he delivered
at Constantinople in the course of the year 380. In estimating the
scope and value of these famous utterances, it is necessary to remember what
was
the religious condition ofConstantinople when Gregory,
at the urgent instance of Basil, of many other bishops,
and of the sorely-tried Catholics of
the Eastern capital, went thither to undertake the spiritual charge
of the faithful.
It was less as an administrator, or an organizer, than as a man
of saintly life and of oratorical gifts famous
throughout the Eastern
Church, that Gregory was asked, and consented, to undertake
his difficult mission; and he had to exercise thosegifts in combating not
one but numerous heresies which
had been dividing and desolating Constantinople for many years. Arianism in
every form and degree, incipient, moderate, and extreme, was of
course the great enemy, but Gregory had also to wage war against
the Apollinarian teaching,
which denied the humanity of Christ,
as well as against the contrary tendency — later developed into Nestorianism —
which distinguished between theSon of Mary and the Son
of God as two distinct and separate personalities.
A saint first,
and a theologian afterwards, Gregory in
one of his early sermons at the Anastasia insisted on the
principle of reverence in treating of
the mysteries of faith (a
principle entirely ignored by his Arian opponents),
and also on the purity of life and example which all who dealt with
these high matters must show forth if their teaching was to be effectual. In
the first and second of the five discourses he develops these two principles at
some length, urging in language of wonderful beauty and force
the necessity for all who would know God aright
to lead a supernatural life,
and to approach so sublime a study with a mind pure and free
from sin.
The third discourse (on the Son) is devoted to a defence of the Catholic
doctrine of the Trinity, and a demonstration of its consonance
with the primitive doctrine of
the Unity of God.
The eternal existence of
the Son and Spirit are insisted on, together with their
dependence on the Father as origin or principle; and the Divinity of
the Son is argued from Scripture against the Arians,
whose misunderstanding of various Scripture texts is exposed and
confuted. In the fourth discourse, on the same subject, the union of the Godhead and Manhood in ChristIncarnate
is set forth and luminously proved from Scripture and reason.
The fifth and final discourse (on the Holy Spirit) is directed partly
against the Macedonian heresy,
which denied altogether the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, and also
against those who reduced the Third Person of
the Trinity to a mere impersonal energy of the Father.Gregory, in
reply to the contention that the Divinity of the Spirit is
not expressed in Scripture, quotes andcomments on several passages
which teach the doctrine by
implication, adding that the full manifestation of this great truth was
intended to be gradual, following on the revelation of
the Divinity of the Son. It is to be noted
that Gregory nowhere formulates the doctrine of
the Double Procession, although in his luminous exposition of
the Trinitarian doctrine there
are many passages which seem to anticipate the fuller teaching of the Quicumque
vult. No summary, not even a faithful verbal translation, can give any
adequate idea of
the combined subtlety and lucidity of thought, and rare beauty of expression,
of these wonderful discourses, in which, as one of
hisFrench critics truly observes, Gregory "has summed
up and closed the controversy of a whole century". The best evidence of
their value and power lies in the fact that for fourteen centuries they have
been a mine whence the greatest theologians of Christendom have
drawn treasures of wisdom to illustrate and support their own teaching on the
deepest mysteries of the Catholic Faith.
Sources
Acta SS.; Lives prefixed
to MIGNE, P.G. (1857) XXXV, 147-303; Lives of the Saints collected from
Authentick Records (1729), II; BARONIUS, De Vita Greg. Nazianz.
(Rome, 1760); DUCHESNE, Hist. Eccl., ed. BRIGHT (Oxford, 1893), 195, 201,
etc.; ULLMAN, Gregorius v. Nazianz der Theologe (Gotha, 1867), tr.
COX (Londone, 1851); BENOIT, Saint Grég. de Nazianze (Paris, 1876);
BAUDUER, Vie de S. Grég. de Nazianze (Lyons, 1827); WATKINS in Dict.
Christ. Biog., s.v. Gregorius Nazianzenus; FLEURY, Hist.
Ecclésiastique (Paris, 1840), II, Bk. XVIII; DE BROGLIE, L'Église et
l'Empire Romain au IV siecle (Paris, 1866), V; NEWMAN, The arians of
the Fourth Century (London, 1854), 214-227; IDEM, Church of the
Fathers in Historical Sketches; BRIGHT, The Age of the Fathers (London,
1903), I, 408-461; PUSEY, The Councils of the Church A.D. 31 - A.D. 381 (Oxford,
1857), 276-323; HORE, Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church (London,
1899), 162, 164, 168, etc; TILLEMONT, Mem. Hist. Eccles., IX; MASON, Five
Theolog. Discourses of Greg. of Nazianz. (Cambridge, 1899).
Hunter-Blair,
Oswald. "St. Gregory of Nazianzus." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
7. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1910. 9 May
2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07010b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Mike Humphrey.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07010b.htm
Tomba
di san Gregorio nella basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano
tomb
of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Basilica di San Pietro; empty from 2004
(returned to Costantinople by pope G. P. II)
Reliquaire
de Grégoire de Nazianze dans la basilique Saint-Pierre jusqu'en 2004
ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN, B. C., DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH—328-389 A D.
Feast: January 2
From his own works, and other monuments of that age. See Gregory of Caesarea,
who writ his life in 940; Hermant, Tillemont, t. ix., Ceillier, t. vii.; also
the life of this saint, compiled from his works by Baronius, published by
Alberici, in an appendix to the life and letters of that cardinal, in 1759, t.
ii.]
St Gregory who, from his profound skill in sacred learning, is surnamed the
Theologian, was a native of Arianzum, an obscure village in the territory of
Nazianzum, a small town in Cappadocia not far from Caesarea His parents are
both honoured in the calendars of the church: his father on the 1st of January
and his mother Nonna on the 5th of August. She drew down the blessing of heaven
upon her family by most bountiful and continual alms-deeds, in which she knew
one of the greatest advantages of riches to consist; yet, to satisfy the
obligation of justice which she owed to her children, she by her prudent
economy improved at the same time their patrimony. The greatest part of her
time she devoted to holy prayer; and her respect and attention to the least
thing which regarded religion is not to be expressed. His father, whose name
also was Gregory, was from his infancy a worshipper of false gods, but of the
sect called the Hipsistarii, on account of the profession they made of adoring
the Most High God. The prayers and tears of Nonna at length obtained of God the
conversion of her husband, whose integrity in the discharge of the chief
magistracy of his town and the practice of strict moral virtue prepared him for
such a change. His son has left us the most edifying detail of his humility,
holy zeal, and other virtues.[1] He had three children, Gorgonia, Gregory, and
Caesarius, who was the youngest. Gregory was the fruit of the most earnest
prayers of his mother who, upon his birth, offered him to God for the service
of his church. His virtuous parents gave him the strongest impressions of piety
in his tender age; and his chief study, from his very infancy, was to know God
by the help of pious books, in the reading whereof he was very assiduous.
Having acquired grammar-learning in the schools of his own country, and being
formed to piety by domestic examples, he was sent to Caesarea, in Palestine,
where the study of eloquence flourished. He pursued the same studies some time
at Alexandria, and there embarked for Athens in November. The vessel was beaten
by a furious storm during twenty days, without any hopes either for the ship or
passengers; all which time he lay upon the deck, bemoaning the danger of his
soul on account of his not having been as yet baptized, imploring the divine
mercy with many tears and loud groans, and frequently renewing his promise of
devoting himself entirely to God in case he survived the danger. God was
pleased to hear his prayer: the tempest ceased and the vessel arrived safe at
Rhodes, and soon after at Aegina, an island near Athens. He had passed through
Caesarea of Cappadocia in his road to Palestine; and making some stay there to
improve himself under the great masters of that city, had contracted an acquaintance
with the great St. Basil, which he cultivated at Athens, whither that saint
followed him soon after. The intimacy between these two saints became from that
time the most perfect model of holy friendship, and nothing can be more tender
than the epitaph which St. Gregory composed upon his friend. Whilst they
pursued their studies together, they shunned the company of those scholars who
sought too much after liberty, and conversed only with the diligent and
virtuous. They avoided all feasting and vain entertainments; and were
acquainted only with two streets, one that led to the church and the other to
the schools. Riches they despised and accounted as thorns, employing their
allowance in supplying themselves with bare necessaries for an abstemious and
slender subsistence, and disposing of the remainder in behalf of the poor. Envy
had no place in them; sincere love made each of them esteem his companion's
honour and advantage as his own; they were to each other a mutual spur to all
good, and by a holy emulation neither of them would be outdone by the other in
fasting, prayer, or the exercise of any virtue. Saint Basil left Athens first.
The progress which St. Gregory made here in eloquence, philosophy, and the
sacred studies appears by the high reputation which he acquired, and by the
monuments which he has left behind him. But his greatest happiness and praise
was, that he always made the love and fear of God his principal affair, to
which he referred his studies and all his endeavours. In 355 Julian, afterwards
emperor, came to Athens, where he spent some months with St. Basil and St.
Gregory in the study of profane literature and the holy scriptures. St. Gregory
then prognosticated what a mischief the empire was breeding up in that
monster—from the levity of his carriage, the rolling and wandering of his eyes,
the fierceness of his looks, the tossing of his head, the shrugging up of his
shoulders, his uneven gait, his loud and unseasonable laughter, his rash and
incoherent discourse—the indications of an unsettled and arrogant mind.[2] The
year following, our saint left Athens for Nazianzum and took Constantinople in
his way. Here he found his brother Gesarius arrived not long before from
Alexandria, where he had accomplished himself in all the polite learning of
that age and applied himself particularly to physic. The Emperor Constantius
honoured him with his favour and made him his chief physician. His generosity
appeared I in this station by his practice of physic, even among the rich,
without the inducement of either fee or reward. He was also a father to the
poor, on whom he bestowed the greatest part of his income. Gregory was
importuned by many to make his appearance at the bar, or at least to teach
rhetoric, as that which would afford him the best means to display talents and
raise his fortune in the world. But he answered that he totally devoted himself
to the service of God.
The first thing he did after his return to Nazianzum was to fulfil his
engagement of consecrating himself entirely to God by receiving baptism at the
hands of his father. This he did without reserve: "I have," says
he,[3] "given all I have to him from whom I received it, and have taken
him alone for my whole possession. I have consecrated to him my goods, my
glory, my health, my tongue, and talents. All the fruit I have received from
these advantages has been the happiness of despising them for Christ's
sake." From that moment never was man more dead to ambition, riches,
pleasures, or reputation. He entertained no secret affection for the things of
this world, but trampled under his feet all its pride and perishable goods;
finding no ardour, no relish, no pleasure but in God and in heavenly things.
His diet was coarse bread, with salt and water.[4] He lay upon the ground; wore
nothing but what was coarse and vile. He worked hard all day, spent a
considerable part of the night in singing the praises of God, or in
contemplation.[5] With riches he contemned also profane eloquence, on which he
had bestowed so much pains, making an entire sacrifice of it to Jesus Christ.
His classics and books of profane oratory he abandoned to the worms and
moths.[6] He regarded the greatest honours as vain dreams, which only deceive
men, and dreaded the precipices down which ambition drags its inconsiderate
slaves. Nothing appeared to him comparable to the life which a man leads who is
dead to himself and his sensual inclinations; who lives as it were out of the
world, and has no other conversation but with God.[7] However, he for some time
took upon him the care of his father's household and the management of his
affairs. He was afflicted with several sharp fits of sickness, caused by his
extreme austerities and continual tears, which often did not suffer him to
sleep.[8] He rejoiced in his distempers, because in them he found the best
opportunities of mortification and self-denial.[9] The immoderate laughter,
which his cheerful disposition had made him subject to in his youth, was
afterwards the subject of his tears. He obtained so complete a conquest over
the passion of anger as to prevent all indeliberate motions of it, and became
totally indifferent in regard to all that before was most dear to him. His
generous liberality to the poor made him always as destitute of earthly goods
as the poorest, and his estate was common to all who were in necessity, as a
port is to all at sea.[10] Never does there seem to have been a greater lover
of retirement and silence. He laments the excesses into which talkativeness
draws men, and the miserable itch that prevails in most people to become
teachers of others.[11]
It was his most earnest desire to disengage himself from the converse of men
and the world, that he might more freely enjoy that of heaven. He accordingly,
in 358, joined St. Basil in the solitude into which he had retreated, situate
near the river Iris, in Pontus. Here, watching, fasting, prayer, studying the
holy scriptures, singing psalms, and manual labour employed their whole time.
As to their exposition of the divine oracles, they were guided in this not by
their own lights and particular way of thinking, but, as Rufinus writes,[12] by
the interpretation which the ancient fathers and doctors of the church had
delivered concerning them. But this solitude Gregory enjoyed only just long
enough to be enamoured of its sweetness, being soon recalled back by his
father, then above eighty, to assist him in the government of his flock. To
draw the greater succour from him he ordained him priest by force and when he
least expected it. This was performed in the church on some great festival, and
probably on Christmas Day in 361. He knew the sentiments of his son with regard
to that charge, and his invincible reluctance on several accounts, which was
the reason of his taking this method. The saint accordingly speaks of his
ordination as a kind of tyranny which he knew not well how to digest; in which
sentiments he flew into the deserts of Pontus and sought relief in the company
of his dear friend St. Basil, by whom he had been lately importuned to return.
Many censured this his flight, ascribing it to pride, obstinacy, and the like
motives. Gregory likewise, himself, reflecting at leisure on his own conduct
and the punishment of the prophet Jonas for disobeying the command of God, came
to a resolution to go back to Nazianzum; where, after a ten weeks' absence, he
appeared again on Easter Day, and there preached his first sermon on that great
festival. This was soon after followed by another, which is extant, under the
title of his apology for his flight.
In this discourse St. Gregory extols the unanimity of that church in faith and
their mutual concord; but towards the end of the reign of Julian, an
unfortunate division happened in it, which is mentioned by the saint in his
first invective against that apostate prince.[13] The bishop, his father,
hoping to gain certain persons to the church by condescension, admitted certain
writing which had been drawn up by the secret favourers of Arianism in
ambiguous and artful terms. This unwary condescension of the elder Gregory gave
offence to the more zealous part of his flock, and especially to the monks, who
refused thereupon to communicate with him. Our saint discharged his duty so
well in this critical affair that he united the flock with their pastor without
the least concession in favour of the error of those by whom his father had
been tricked into a subscription against his intention and design, his faith
being entirely pure. On the occasion of this joyful reunion our saint
pronounced an elegant discourse.[14] Soon after the death of Julian he composed
his two invective orations against that apostate. He imitates the severity
which the prophets frequently made use of in their censure of wicked kings; but
his design was to defend the church against the pagans by unmasking the
injustice, impiety, and hypocrisy of its capital persecutor. The saint's
younger brother, Caesarius, had lived in the court of Julian, highly honoured
by that emperor for his learning and skill in physic. St. Gregory pressed him
to forsake the family of an apostate prince, in which he could not live without
being betrayed into many temptations and snares.[15] And so it happened; for
Julian, after many caresses, assailed him by inveigling speeches, and at
length, by a warm disputation in favour of idolatry. Caesarius answered him
that he was a Christian, and such he was resolved always to remain. However,
apprehensive of the dangers in which he lived, he soon after chose rather to
resign his post than to run the hazard of his faith and a good conscience. He
therefore left the court, though the emperor endeavoured earnestly to detain
him. After the miserable death of the apostate, he appeared again with
distinction in the courts of Jovian and Valens, and was made by the
latter , or treasurer of the imperial rents, which office was but a step
to higher dignities. In the discharge of this employment of Bithynia he
happened to be at Nice in the great earthquake, which swallowed up the chief
part of that city in 360. The treasurer, with some few others, escaped by being
preserved through a wonderful providence in certain hollow parts of the ruins.
St. Gregory improved this opportunity to urge him again to quit the world and
its honours, and to consecrate to God alone a life for which he was indebted to
him on so many accounts.[16] Gesarius, moved by so awakening an accident,
listened to his advice and took a resolution to renounce the world; but
returning home, fell sick and died in the fervour of his sacrifice, about the
beginning of the year 368, leaving his whole estate to the poor.[17] He is
named in the Roman Martyrology on the 25th of February. St. Gregory, extolling
his virtue, says that whilst he enjoyed the honours of the world he looked upon
the advantage of being a Christian as the first of his dignities and the most
glorious of all his titles, reckoning all the rest dross and dung. He was
buried at Nazianzum, and our saint pronounced his funeral panegyric, as he also
did that of his holy sister Gorgonia, who died soon after. He extols her
humility; her prayer often continued whole nights with tears; her modesty,
prudence, patience, resignation, zeal, respect for the ministers of God and for
holy places; her liberality to them and great charity to the poor; her penance,
extraordinary care of the education of her children, &c. He mentions as
miraculous her being cured of a palsy by praying at the foot of the altar, and
her recovery after great wounds and bruises which she had received by a fall
from her chariot.
In 372 Cappadocia was divided by the emperor into two provinces, and Tyana made
the capital of that which was called the second. Anthimus, bishop of that city,
pretended hence to an archiepiscopal jurisdiction over the second Cappadocia.
St. Basil, the Metropolitan of Cappadocia, maintained that the civil division
of the province had not infringed his jurisdiction, though he afterwards, for
the sake of peace, yielded the second Cappadocia to the see of Tyana. He
appointed our saint Bishop of Sasima, a small town in that division. Gregory
stood out a long time, but at length submitted, overcome by the authority of
his father and the influence of his friend. He accordingly received the
episcopal consecration from the hands of St. Basil, at Caesarea, about the
middle of the year 372. But he repaired to Nazianzum to wait a favourable
opportunity of taking possession of his church of Sasima, which never happened;
for Anthimus, who had in his interest the new governor, and was master of all
the avenues and roads to that town, would by no means admit him. Basil
reproached his friend with sloth; but St. Gregory answered him that he was not
disposed to fight for a church.[18] He, however, charged himself with the
government of that of Nazianzum under his father till his death, which happened
the year following. St. Gregory pronounced his funeral panegyric in presence of
St. Basil and of his mother, St. Nonna, who died shortly after. Holy solitude
had been the constant object of his most earnest desires, and he had only
waited the death of his father entirely to bury himself in it. Nevertheless,
yielding to the importunities of others and to the necessities of the church of
Nazianzum, he consented to continue his care of it till the neighbouring
bishops could provide it with a pastor. But seeing this affair protracted, and
finding himself afflicted with various distempers, he left that city and
withdrew to Seleucia, the metropolis of Isauria, in 375, where he continued
five years. The death of St. Basil, in 379, was to him a sensible affliction,
and he then composed twelve epigrams or epitaphs to his memory; and some years
after pronounced his panegyric at Caesarea, namely, in 381 or 382. The unhappy
death of the persecuting emperor Valens, in 378, restored peace to the church.
The Catholic pastors sought means to make up the breaches which heresy had made
in many places. For this end they held several assemblies and sent zealous and
learned men into the provinces in which the tyrant had made the greatest havoc.
The church of Constantinople was of all others in the most desolate and
abandoned condition, having groaned during forty years under the tyranny of the
Arians, and the few Catholics who remained there having been long without a
pastor and even without a church wherein to assemble. They, being well
acquainted with our saint's merit, importuned him to come to their assistance,
and were backed by several bishops, desirous that his learning, eloquence, and
piety might restore that church to its splendour. But such were the pleasures
he enjoyed in his beloved retirement at Seleucia, and in his thorough
disengagement from the world, that for some time these united solicitations
made little or no impression on him. They had, however, at length their desired
effect. His body bent with age, his head bald, his countenance extenuated with
tears and austerities, his poor garb, and his extreme poverty made but a mean
appearance at Constantinople; and no wonder that he was at first ill received
in that polite and proud city. The Arians pursued him with calumnies,
raillieries, and insults. The prefects and governors added their persecutions
to the fury of the populace, all which concurred to acquire him the glorious
title of confessor. He lodged first in the house of certain relations, where
the Catholics first assembled to hear him. He soon after converted it into a
church and gave it the name of Anastasia, or the Resurrection, because the
Catholic faith, which in that city had been hitherto oppressed, here seemed to
be raised, as it were, from the dead. Sozomen relates that this name was
confirmed to it by a miraculous raising to life of a woman then with child, who
was killed by falling from a gallery in it, but returned to life by the prayers
of the congregation.[19] Another circumstance afterwards confirmed in this
church the same name. During the reign of the Emperor Leo the Thracian, about
the year 460, the body of St. Anastasia, virgin and martyr, was brought from
Sirmich to Constantinople and laid in this place, as is recorded by Theodorus
the Reader.[20] But this church is not to be confounded with another of the
same name, which was in the hands of the Novatians under Constantius and Julian
the Apostate.[21]
In this small church Nazianzen preached, and every day assembled his little
flock, which increased daily. The Arians and Apollinarists, joined with other
sects, not content to defame and calumniate him, had recourse to violence on
his person. They pelted him with stones as he went along the streets, and
dragged him before the civil magistrates as a malefactor, charging him with
tumult and sedition. But he comforted himself on reflecting that though they
were the stronger party he had the better cause; though they possessed the
churches, God was with him; if they had the populace on their side, the angels
were on his, to guard him. St. Jerome coming out of the deserts of Syria to
Constantinople became the disciple and scholar of St. Gregory, and one of those
who studied the holy scripture under him, of which that great doctor glories in
his writings. Our holy pastor, being a lover of solitude, seldom went abroad or
made any visits, except such as were indispensable; and the time that was not
employed in the discharge of his functions he devoted to prayer and meditation,
spending a considerable part of the night in those holy exercises. His diet was
herbs and a little salt with bread. His cheeks were furrowed with the tears
which he shed, and he daily prostrated himself before God to implore his light
and mercy upon his people. His profound learning, his faculty of forming the
most noble conceptions of things, and the admirable perspicuity, elegance, and
propriety with which he explained them, charmed all who heard him. The
Catholics flocked to his discourses as men parching with thirst eagerly go to
the spring to quench it. Heretics and pagans resorted to them, admiring his
erudition and charmed with his eloquence. The fruits of his sermons were every
day sensible; his flock became in a short time very numerous, and he purged the
people of that poison which had corrupted their hearts for many years. St.
Gregory heard, with blushing and confusion, the applause and acclamations with
which his discourses were received; and his fear of this danger made him speak
in public with a certain timidity and reluctance. He scorned to flatter the
great ones, and directed his discourses to explain and corroborate the Catholic
faith and reform the manners of the people. He taught them that the way to
salvation was not to be ever disputing about matters of religion (an abuse that
was grown to a great height at that time in Constantinople), but to keep the
commandments,[22] to give alms, to exercise hospitality, to visit and serve the
sick, to pray, sigh, and weep; to mortify the senses, repress anger, watch over
the tongue, and subject the body to the spirit. The envy of the devil and of
his instruments could not bear the success of his labours, and by exciting
trouble found means to interrupt them. Maximus, a native of Alexandria, a cynic
philosopher, but withal a Christian, full of the impudence and pride of that
sect, came to Constantinople; and under an hypocritical exterior disguised a
heart full of envy, ambition, covetousness, and gluttony. He imposed on
several, and for some time on St. Gregory himself, who pronounced an enlogium
of this man in 379, now extant, under the title of the Eulogium of the
Philosopher Hero; but St. Jerome assures us that instead of Hero we ought to
read Maximus. This wolf in sheep's clothing having gained one of the priests of
the city, and some partizans among the laity, procured himself to be ordained
Bishop of Constantinople in a clandestine manner, by certain Egyptian bishops
who lately arrived on that intent. The irregularity of this proceeding stirred
up all the world against the usurper. Pope Damasus writ to testify his
affliction on that occasion, and called the election null. The Emperor
Theodosius the Great, then at Thessalonica, rejected Maximus with indignation;
and coming to Constantinople, proposed to Demophilus, the Arian bishop, either
to receive the Nicene faith or to leave the city; and upon his preferring the
latter, his majesty, embracing St. Gregory, assured him that the Catholics of
Constantinople demanded him for their bishop, and that their choice was most
agreeable to his own desires. Theodosius, within a few days after his arrival,
drove the Arians out of all the churches in the city and put the saint in
possession of the Church of St. Sophia, upon which all the other churches of
the city depended. Here the clamours of the people were so vehement that
Gregory might be their bishop that all was in confusion till the saint
prevailed upon them to drop that subject and to join in praise and thanksgiving
to the ever blessed Trinity for restoring among them the profession of the true
faith. The emperor highly commended the modesty of the saint. But a council was
necessary to declare the see vacant and the promotion of the Arian Demophilus
and of the cynic Maximus void and null. A synod of all the East was then
meeting at Constantinople, in which St. Meletius, Patriarch of Antioch,
presided. He being the great friend and admirer of Nazianzen, the council took
his cause into consideration before all others, declared the election of
Maximus null, and established St. Gregory Bishop of Constantinople, without
having any regard to his tears and expostulations. St. Meletius dying during
the synod, St. Gregory presided in the latter sessions. To put an end to the
schism between Meletius and Paulinus at Antioch, it had been agreed that the
survivor should remain in sole possession of that see. This Nazianzen urged;
but the oriental bishops were unwilling to own for patriarch one whom they had
opposed. They therefore took great offence at this most just and prudent
remonstrance, and entered into a conspiracy with his enemies against him. The
saint, who had only consented to his election through the importunity of
others, was most ready to relinquish his new dignity. This his enemies sought
to deprive him of, together with his life, on which they made several attempts.
Once, in particular, they hired a ruffian to assassinate him. But the villain,
touched with remorse, repaired to the saint with many tears, wringing his
hands, beating his breast, and confessing his black attempt, which he should
have put in execution had not Providence interposed. The good bishop replied:
"May God forgive you; his gracious preservation obliges me freely to
pardon you. Your attempt has now made you mine. One only thing I beg of you,
that you forsake your heresy and sincerely give yourself to God." Some
warm Catholics complained of his lenity and indulgence towards the Arians,
especially those who had shown themselves violent persecutors under the former
reigns.
In the meantime the bishops of Egypt and those of Macedonia arriving at the
council, though all equally in the interest of Paulinus of Antioch, complained
that Gregory's election was uncanonical, it being forbidden by the canons to
transfer bishops from one see to another. Nazianzen calmly answered that those
canons had lost their force by long disuse: which was most notorious in the
East. Nor did they in the least regard his case; for he had never taken
possession of the see of Sasima, and only governed that of Nazianzum as vicar
under his father. However, seeing a great ferment among the prelates and
people, he cried out in the assembly, "If my holding the see of
Constantinople gives any disturbance, behold I am very willing, like Jonas, to
be cast into the sea to appease the storm, though I did not raise it. If all
followed my example, the church would enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity. This
dignity I never desired; I took this charge upon me much against my will. If
you think fit, I am most ready to depart; and I will return back to my little
cottage, that you may remain here quiet, and the church of God enjoy peace. I
only desire that the see may be filled by a person that is capable and willing
to defend the faith."[23] He thereupon left the assembly, overjoyed that
he had broken his bands. The bishops, whom he left in surprise, but too readily
accepted his resignation. The saint went from the council to the palace, and
falling on his knees before the emperor and kissing his hand, said, "I am
come, sir, to ask neither riches nor honours for myself or friends, nor ornaments
for the churches, but licence to retire. Your majesty knows how much against my
will I was placed in this chair. I displease even my friends on no other
account than because I value nothing but God. I beseech you, and make this my
last petition, that among your trophies and triumphs you make this the
greatest, that you bring the church to unity and concord." The emperor and
those about him were astonished at such a greatness of soul, and he with much
difficulty was prevailed on to give his assent. This being obtained, the saint
had no more to do than to take his leave of the whole city, which he did in a
pathetic discourse, delivered in the metropolitan church before the hundred and
fifty fathers of the council and an incredible multitude of the people.[24] He
describes the condition in which he had found that church on his first coming
to it and that in which he left it, and gives to God his thanks and the honour
of the re-establishment of the Catholic faith in that city. He makes a solemn
protestation of the disinterestedness of his own conduct during his late
administration, not having touched any part of the revenues of the see of
Constantinople the whole time. He reproaches the city with the love of shows,
luxury, and magnificence, and says he was accused of too great mildness, also
of a meanness of spirit, from the lowly appearance he made with respect both to
dress and table. He vindicates his behaviour in these regards, saying, "I
did not take it to be any part of my duty to vie with consuls, generals, and
governors, who know not how to employ their riches otherwise than in pomp and
show. Neither did I imagine that the necessary subsistence of the poor was to
be applied to the support of luxury, good cheer, a prancing horse, a sumptuous
chariot, and a long train of attendants. If I have acted in another manner and
have thereby given offence, the fault is already committed and cannot be
recalled, but I hope is not unpardonable." He concludes by bidding a
moving farewell to his church, to his dear Anastasia, which he calls, in the.
language of St. Paul, his glory and his crown; to the cathedral and all the
other parishes of the city, to the holy apostles as honoured in the magnificent
church (in which Constantius had placed the relics of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and
St. Timothy), to the episcopal throne, to the clergy, to the holy monks and the
other pious servants of God, to the emperor and all the court with its
jealousies, pomp, and ambition, to the East and West divided in his cause, to
the tutelar angels of his church, and to the sacred Trinity honoured in that
place. He concludes with these words: "My dear children, preserve the
depositum of faith, and remember the stones which have been thrown at me
because I planted it in your hearts." The saint was most tenderly affected
in abandoning his dear flock—his converts especially which he had gained at his
first church of Anastasia, as they had already signalized themselves in his
service by suffering persecutions with patience for his sake. They followed him
weeping, and entreating him to abide with them. He was not insensible to their
tears; but motives of greater weight obliged him not to regard them on this
occasion. St. Gregory, seeing himself at liberty, rejoiced in his happiness, as
he expressed himself some time after to a friend in these words: "What
advantages have not I found in the jealousy of my enemies! They have delivered
me from the fire of Sodom by drawing me from the dangers of the episcopal
charge."[25] This treatment was the recompense with which men rewarded the
labours and merit of a saint whom they ought to have sought in the remotest
corners of the earth: but that city was not worthy to possess so great and holy
a pastor. He had in that short time brought over the chief part of its inhabitants
to the Catholic faith, as appears from his works and from St. Ambrose.[26] He
had conquered the obstinacy of heretics by meekness and patience, and thought
it a sufficient revenge for their former persecutions that he had it in his
power to chastise them.[27] The Catholics he induced to show the same
moderation towards them, and exhorted them to serve Jesus Christ by taking a
Christian revenge of them, the bearing their persecutions with patience and the
overcoming evil with good.[28] Besides establishing the purity of faith, he had
begun a happy reformation of manners among the people; and much greater fruits
were to be expected from his zealous labours. Nectarius, who succeeded him, was
a soft man, and by no means equal to such a charge.
Before the election of Nectarius, Gregory left the city and returned to
Nazianzum. In that retirement he composed the poem on his own life,
particularly dwelling on what he had done at Constantinople to obviate the
scandalous slanders which were published against him. He laboured to place a
bishop at Nazianzum, but was hindered by the opposition of many of the clergy.
Sickness obliged him to withdraw soon after to Arianzum, probably before the
end of the year 381. In his solitude he testifies[29] that he regretted the absence
of his friends, though he seemed insensible to everything else of this world.
To punish himself for superfluous words (though he had never spoken to the
disparagement of any neighbour) he, in 382, passed the forty days of Lent in
absolute silence. In his desert he never refused spiritual advice to any that
resorted to him for it. In his parzenetic poem to St. Olympias he lays down
excellent rules for the conduct of married women. Among other precepts, he
says, "In the first place, honour God; then respect your husband as the
eye of your life, for he is to direct your conduct and actions. Love only him;
make him your joy and your comfort. Take care never to give him any occasion of
offence or disgust. Yield to him in his anger; comfort and assist him in his
pains and afflictions, speaking to him with sweetness and tenderness, and
making him prudent and modest remonstrances at seasonable times. It is not by
violence and strength that the keepers of lions endeavour to tame them when
they see them enraged; but they soothe and caress them, stroking them gently,
and speaking with a soft voice. Never let his weaknesses be the subject of your
reproaches. It can never be just or allowable for you to treat a person in this
manner whom you ought to prefer to the whole world." He prays that this
holy woman might become the mother of many children, that there might be the
more souls to sing the praises of Jesus Christ.[30] He often repeats this
important advice, that everyone begin and end every action by offering his heart
and whatever he does to God by a short prayer.[31] For we owe to God all that
we are or have; and he accepts and rewards the smallest action, not so much
with a view to its importance as to the affection of the heart, which in his
poverty gives what it has, and is able to give in return for God's benefits and
in acknowledgment of his sovereignty.
St. Gregory had been obliged to govern the vacant see of Nazianzum after the
death of his father, leaving the chief care of that church to Cledonius in his absence.
But in 382 he procured Eulalias to be ordained bishop of that city, and spent
the remainder of his life in retirement near Arianzum, still continuing to aid
that church with his advice, though at that time very old and infirm. In this
private abode he had a garden, a fountain, and a shady grove, in which he took
much delight. Here, in company with certain solitaries, he lived estranged from
pleasures and in the practice of bodily mortification, fasting, watching, and
praying much on his knees. "I live," says he, "among rocks and
with wild beasts, never seeing any fire or using shoes; having only one single
garment.[32] I am the outcast and the scorn of men. I lie on straw, clad in
sackcloth: my floor is always moist with the tears I shed."[33] In the
decline of life he set himself to write pious poems for the edification of such
among the faithful as were fond of music and poetry. He had also mind to oppose
the poems made use of by the Apollinarist heretics to propagate their errors by
such as were orthodox, useful, and religious, as the priest Gregory says in his
life. He considered this exercise also as a work of penance, compositions in
metre being always more difficult than those in prose. He therein recounts the
history of his life and sufferings: he publishes his faults, his weaknesses,
and his temptations, enlarging much more on these than on his great actions. He
complains of the annoyance of his rebellious flesh, notwithstanding his great
age, his ill state of health, and his austerities, acknowledging himself wholly
indebted to the divine grace which had always preserved in him the treasure of
virginity inviolable. God suffered him to feel these temptations that he might
not be exposed to the snares of vanity and pride; and that whilst his soul
dwelt in heaven he might be put in mind by the rebellion of the body that he
was still on earth in a state of war. His poems are full of cries of ardent
love, by which he conjures Jesus Christ to assist him, without whose grace he
declares we are only dead carcasses, exhaling the stench of sin, and as
incapable of making one step as a bird is of flying without air, or a fish of
swimming without water; for he alone makes us see, act, and run.[34] He joined
great watchfulness to prayer, especially shunning the conversation and
neighbourhood of women,[35] over and above the assiduous maceration of his
body. In his letters he gives to others the same advice, of which his own life
was a constant example. One instance shall suffice. Sacerdos, a holy priest, was
fallen into an unjust persecution through slander. St. Gregory writes to him
thus in his third letter: "What evil can happen to us after all this?
None, certainly, unless we by our own fault lose God and virtue. Let all other
things fall out as it shall please God. He is the master of our life, and knows
the reason of everything that befalls us. Let us only fear to do anything
unworthy our piety. We have fed the poor, we have served our brethren, we have
sung the psalms with cheerfulness. If we are no longer permitted to continue
this, let us employ our devotion some other way. Grace is not barren, and opens
different ways to heaven. Let us live in retirement; let us occupy ourselves in
contemplation; let us purify our souls by the light of God. This perhaps will
be no less a sacrifice than anything we can do." These were St. Gregory's
occupation from the time of his last retirement till his happy death in 389,
or, according to others, in 391. Tillemont gives him only sixty or sixty-one
years of age, but he was certainly considerably older. The Latins honour him on
the 8th of May. The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus caused his ashes to be
translated from Nazianzum to Constantinople, and to be laid in the Church of
the Apostles, which was done with great pomp in 950. They were brought to Rome
in the crusades and lie under an altar in the Vatican Church.
This great saint looked upon the smiles and frowns of the world with
indifference, because spiritual and heavenly goods wholly engrossed his soul.
"Let us never esteem worldly prosperity or adversity as things real or of
any moment," said he,[36] "but let us live elsewhere, and raise all
our attention to heaven, esteeming sin as the only true evil, and nothing truly
good but virtue, which unites us to God."
Endnotes
1 Naz. Or. 19, Carm. 2.
2 Or. 4, p. 121.
3 Or. I p. 32.
4 Carm. 2, p. 31.
5 Carm. 55.
6 Carm. I.
7 Or. 29.
8 Carm. 55.
9 Ep. 69.
10 Carm. 49.
11 Or. 9, 29.
12 Rufin. Hist. lib. ii. c. 9, p. 254
13 Or. 3, p. 53.
14 Or. 12.
15 Ep. 17.
16 Ep. 16.
17 His will was comprised in these words: "I bequeath my whole substance
to the poor."
18 Ep. 32.
19 Sozom. Lib. vii. c. 5.
20 Lib. ii. p. 191.
21 Socr. Lib. ii. c. 38.
22 Carm I.
23 Carm. I.
24 Or. 32.
25 Ep. 73.
26 L. de Spir. Sancto.
27 Or. 32.
28 Or. 24.
29 Ep. 73.
30 Quo plures celebrent magni praeconia reais. Nor. t. ii. p. 144.
31 Or. I, p. 1; Or. 9, pp. 152-154, &c.
32 Carm. 5 and 60.
33 Ib. 147
34 Carm. 59.
35 EP. 196, P. 894.
36 EP. 189.
(Taken from Vol. II of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other
Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler.)
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Homélies de saint Grégoire de Nazianze (BnF MS grec 510), folio 355
. Ier concile oecuménique de Constantinople (381), 879-882, Biblothèque
nationale de France
St. Gregory Nazianzen,
Bishop and Confessor, Doctor of the Church
From his own works, and
other monuments of that age. See Gregory of Cæsarea, who wrote his life in 940;
Hermant, Tillemont, t. 9; Ceillier, t. 7; also the life of this saint compiled
from his works by Baronius, published by Alberici, in an appendix to the life
and letters of that cardinal, in 1759, t. 2.
A.D. 389.
ST. GREGORY, who, from
his profound skill in sacred learning, is surnamed the Theologian, was a native
of Arianzum, an obscure village in the territory of Nazianzum, a small town in
Cappadocia, not far from Cæsarea. His parents are both honoured in the
calendars of the church: his father on the 1st of January, and his mother,
Nonna, on the 5th of August. She drew down the blessing of heaven upon her
family by most bountiful and continual alms-deeds, in which she knew one of the
greatest advantages of riches to consist: yet, to satisfy the obligation of
justice which she owed to her children, she, by her prudent economy, improved
at the same time their patrimony. The greater part of her time she devoted to
holy prayer, and her respect and attention to the least thing which regarded
religion is not to be expressed. His father, whose name also was Gregory, was,
from his infancy, a worshipper of false gods, but of the sect called the
Hipsistarii, on account of the profession they made of adoring the Most High
God; though, at the same time, they worshipped fire with the Persians, and
observed the Jewish sabbath and distinction of meats. We find no mention of
them but in the writings of our saint. The prayers and tears of Nonna at length
obtained of God the conversion of her husband, whose integrity in the discharge
of the chief magistracy of his town, and the practice of strict moral virtue
prepared him for such a change. He was baptised at Nazianzum, about the time of
the great council of Nice, having first most carefully prepared himself to
receive that holy sacrament in the most fervent dispositions of piety, and to
preserve the precious graces which attend it. Not very long after, the sanctity
of his life raised him to the episcopal see of Nazianzum, which he held about
forty-five years, dying in 374, when he was above ninety years old. 1 His
son has left us the most edifying detail of his humility, holy zeal, and other
virtues. 2 He
had three children, Gorgonia, Gregory, and Cæsarius who was the youngest.
Gregory was the fruit of the most earnest prayers of his mother, who, upon his
birth, offered him to God for the service of his church. His virtuous parents
gave him the strongest impressions of piety in his tender age: and his chief
study, from his very infancy, was to know God by the help of pious books, in
the reading whereof he was very assiduous. He relates, that, in his youth, he
had a mysterious dream, in which he beheld himself caressed by chastity and
temperance, under the appearance of two beautiful damsels, as their child; and
they invited him to go with them, on the promise of raising him up to the light
of the immortal Trinity, if he would put himself under their conduct. He says,
that from that time he resolved to serve God in a state of perfect continence.
He writes in very strong terms of the strict obligation of vows of chastity,
the violation of which he calls death, sacrilege, and perfidy: 3 he
is also very large oftentimes upon the excellency and advantages of that holy
state. 4
Having acquired
grammar-learning in the schools of his own country, and being formed to piety
by domestic examples, he was sent to Cæsarea in Palestine, where the study of
eloquence flourished. He pursued the same studies some time at Alexandria; and
there embarked for Athens in November. The vessel was beaten by a furious storm
during twenty days, without any hopes either for the ship or passengers; all which
time, he lay upon the deck, bemoaning the danger of his soul, on account of his
not having been as yet baptized, imploring the divine mercy with many tears and
loud groans, and frequently renewing his promise of devoting himself entirely
to God, in case he survived the danger. God was pleased to hear his prayer: the
tempest ceased, and the vessel arrived safe at Rhodes, and soon after at Ægina,
an island near Athens. He had passed through Cæsarea of Cappadocia in his road
to Palestine; and making some stay there to improve himself under the great
masters of that city, had contracted an acquaintance with the great St. Basil,
which he cultivated at Athens, whither that saint followed him soon after. The
intimacy between these two saints became from that time the most perfect model
of holy friendship, and nothing can be more tender than the epitaph which St.
Gregory composed upon his friend. Whilst they pursued their studies together,
they shunned the company of those scholars who sought too much after liberty;
and conversed only with the diligent and virtuous. They avoided all feasting
and vain entertainments: and were acquainted only with two streets, one that
led to the church, and the other to the schools. Riches they despised and
accounted as thorns, employing their allowance in supplying themselves with
bare necessaries for an abstemious and slender subsistence, and disposing of
the remainder in behalf of the poor. Envy had no place in them; sincere love
made each of them esteem his companion’s honour and advantage as his own: they
were to each other a mutual spur to all good, and by a holy emulation, neither
of them would be outdone by the other in fasting, prayer, or the exercise of
any virtue. St. Basil left Athens first. The progress which St. Gregory made
here in eloquence, philosophy, and sacred studies, appears by the high
reputation which he acquired, and by the monuments which he has left behind
him. But his greatest happiness and praise was, that he always made the fear
and love of God his principal affair, to which he referred his studies and all
his endeavours. In 355, Julian, afterwards emperor, came to Athens, where he
spent some months with St. Basil and St. Gregory, in the study of profane
literature and the holy scriptures. St. Gregory then prognosticated what a
mischief the empire was breeding up in that monster, from the levity of his
carriage, the rolling and wandering of his eyes, the fierceness of his looks,
the tossings of his head, the shrugging up of his shoulders, his uneven gait, his
loud and unseasonable laughter, his rash and incoherent discourse; the
indications of an unsettled and arrogant mind. 5 The
year following our saint left Athens for Nazianzum, and took Constantinople in
his way. Here he found his brother Cæsarius, arrived not long before, from
Alexandria, where he had accomplished himself in all the polite learning of
that age, and applied himself particularly to physic. The emperor Constantius
honoured him with his favour, and made him his chief physician. His generosity
appeared in this station by his practice of physic, even among the rich,
without the inducement of either fee or reward. He was also a father to the
poor, on whom he bestowed the greater part of his income. Gregory was
importuned by many to make his appearance at the bar, or at least to teach
rhetoric, as that which would afford him the best means to display his talents,
and raise his fortune in the world. But he answered, that he had totally
devoted himself to the service of God.
The first thing he did
after his return to Nazianzum was to fulfil his engagement of consecrating
himself entirely to God, by receiving baptism at the hands of his father. This
he did without reserve: “I have,” says he, 6 “given
all I have to him from whom I received it, and have taken him alone for my
whole possession. I have consecrated to him my goods, my glory, my health, my
tongue and talents. All the fruit I have received from these advantages has
been the happiness of despising them for Christ’s sake.” From that moment,
never was man more dead to ambition, riches, pleasures, or reputation.—He
entertained no secret affection for the things of this world, but trampled
under his feet all its pride and perishable goods; finding no ardour, no
relish, no pleasure, but in God and in heavenly things. His diet was coarse
bread, with salt and water. 7 He
lay upon the ground, and wore nothing but what was coarse and vile. He worked
hard all day, and spent a considerable part of the night in singing the praises
of God, or in contemplation. 8 With
riches he contemned also profane eloquence, on which he had bestowed so much
pains, making an entire sacrifice of it to Jesus Christ. His classics and books
of profane oratory he abandoned to the worms and moths. 9 He
regarded the greatest honours as vain dreams, which only deceive men, and
dreaded the precipices down which ambition drags its inconsiderate slaves.
Nothing appeared to him comparable to the life which a man leads who is dead to
himself and his sensual inclinations; who lives as it were out of the world,
and has no other conversation but with God. 10 However,
he for some time took upon himself the care of his father’s household, and the
management of his affairs. He was afflicted with several sharp fits of sickness
caused by his extreme austerities and continual tears, which often did not
suffer him to sleep. 11 He
rejoiced in his distempers, because in them he found the best opportunities of
mortification and self-denial. 12 The
immoderate laughter, which his cheerful disposition had made him subject to in
his youth, was afterwards the subject of his tears. He obtained so complete a
conquest over the passion of anger, as to prevent all indeliberate motions of
it, and became totally indifferent in regard to all that before was most dear
to him. His generous liberality to the poor made him always as destitute of
earthly goods as the poorest, and his estate was common to all who were in
necessity as a port is to all at sea. 13 Never
does there seem to have been a greater lover of retirement and silence. He
laments the excesses into which talkativeness draws men, and the miserable itch
that prevails in most people to become teachers of others. 14
It was his most
earnest desire to disengage himself from the converse of men and the world,
that he might more freely enjoy that of heaven. He accordingly, in 358, joined
St. Basil in the solitude into which he had retreated, situate near the river
Iris in Pontus. Here watching, fasting, prayer, studying the holy scriptures,
singing psalms, and manual labour employed their whole time. As to their
exposition of the divine oracles, they were guided in this, not by their own
lights and particular way of thinking, but, as Rufinus writes, 15 by
the interpretation which the ancient fathers and doctors of the church had
delivered concerning them. But this solitude Gregory enjoyed only just long
enough to be enamoured of its sweetness, being soon recalled back by his
father, then above eighty, to assist him in the government of his flock. To
draw the greater succour from him he ordained him priest by force, and when he
least expected it. This was performed in the church on some great festival, and
probably on Christmas-day, in 361. He knew the sentiments of his son with
regard to that charge, and his invincible reluctance on several accounts, which
was the reason of his taking this method. The saint accordingly speaks of his
ordination as a kind of tyranny which he knew not well how to digest; in which
sentiments he fled into the deserts of Pontus and sought relief in the company
of his dear friend St. Basil, by whom he had been lately importuned to return.
Many censured this his flight, ascribing it to pride, obstinacy, and the like
motives.—Gregory likewise himself, reflecting at leisure on his own conduct,
and the punishment of the prophet Jonas for disobeying the command of God, came
to a resolution to go back to Nazianzum; where, after a ten weeks’ absence, he
appeared again on Easter-day, and there preached his first sermon on that great
festival. This was soon after followed by another, which is extant under the
title of his apology for his flight. It is placed the first amongst his
orations on account of the importance of the subject. He treats in it principally
on the great dignity, duties, and dangers of the sacerdotal office; on the
sanctity requisite to approach the altar and to appear before God, the author
of purity; the extreme difficulty of governing the consciences of others, and
applying remedies to the different maladies of souls. He insists much on the
virtue and learning necessary for the sacred functions, to answer all the
exigencies of the faithful, and to confute errors. From these principles he
concludes, that he had reason to tremble at the sight of such a burden, and to
employ some time in preparing himself for the ministry of the altar by prayer,
mortification, and holy meditation. He adds, that, fearing the terrible account
which would be demanded of him for the souls committed to his care, should he
refuse his labours, he like Jonas returned to the duties belonging to the
station to which he was called, in hopes that obedience would support him in
it, and be a means to procure him the graces necessary for this purpose.
In this discourse
St. Gregory extols the unanimity of that church in faith and their mutual
concord; but towards the end of the reign of Julian an unfortunate division
happened in it, which is mentioned by the saint in his first invective against
that apostate prince. 16 The
bishop, his father, hoping to gain certain persons to the church by condescension,
admitted a certain writing which had been drawn up by the secret favourers of
Arianism in ambiguous and artful terms. This unwary condescension of the elder
Gregory, gave offence to the most zealous part of his flock, and especially to
the monks, who refused thereupon to communicate with him. Our saint discharged
his duty so well in this critical affair, that he united the flock with their
pastor, without the least concession in favour of the error of those by whom
his father had been tricked into a subscription against his intention and
design, his faith being entirely pure. On the occasion of this joyful reunion,
our saint pronounced an elegant discourse. 17 Soon
after the death of Julian he composed his two invective orations against that
apostate. He imitates the severity which the prophets frequently made use of in
their censures of wicked kings; but his design was to defend the church against
the Pagans, by unmasking the injustice, impiety, and hypocrisy of its capital
persecutor. The saint’s younger brother, Cæsarius, had lived in the court of
Julian, highly honoured by that emperor for his learning and skill in physic.
St. Gregory pressed him to forsake the family of the apostate prince, in which
he could not live without being betrayed into many temptations and snares. 18 And
so it happened: for Julian, after many caresses, assailed him by inveigling
speeches, and at length by a warm disputation in favour of idolatry. Cæsarius
answered him, that he was a Christian, and such he was resolved always to
remain. However, apprehensive of the dangers in which he lived, he soon after
chose rather to resign his post, than to run the hazard of his faith and a good
conscience. He, therefore, left the court, though the emperor endeavoured
earnestly to detain him. After the miserable death of the apostate, he appeared
again with distinction in the courts of Jovian and Valens, and was made by the
latter Comes rerum privatarum, or treasurer of the imperial rents; which office
was but a step to higher dignities. In the discharge of this employment of
Bithynia, he happened to be at Nice in the great earthquake, which swallowed up
the chief part of that city in 368. The treasurer, with some few others
escaped, by being preserved through a wonderful providence, in certain hollow
parts of the ruins. St. Gregory improved this opportunity to urge him again to
quit the world and its honours, and to consecrate to God alone a life for which
he was indebted to him on so many accounts. 19 Cæsarius,
moved by so awakening an accident listened to this advice, and took a
resolution to renounce the world: but returning home, fell sick and died in the
fervour of his sacrifice, about the beginning of the year 368, leaving his
whole estate to the poor. 20 He
is named in the Roman Martyrology on the 25th of February. St. Gregory,
extolling his virtue, says that whilst he enjoyed the honours of the world, he
looked upon the advantage of being a Christian as the first of his dignities,
and the most glorious of all his titles; reckoning all the rest dross and dung.
He was buried at Nazianzum, and our saint pronounced his funeral panegyric, as
he also did that of his holy sister Gorgonia, who died soon after. He extols
her humility; her prayer often continued whole nights with tears; her modesty,
prudence, patience, resignation, zeal, respect for the ministers of God and for
holy places; her liberality to them and great charity to the poor; her penance,
extraordinary care of the education of her children, &c. He mentions, as
miraculous, her being cured of a palsy by praying at the foot of the altar; and
her recovery after great wounds and bruises which she had received by a fall
from her chariot.
In 372, Cappadocia was
divided by the emperor into two provinces, and Tyana made the capital of that
which was called the second. Anthimus, bishop of that city, pretended hence to
an archiepiscopal jurisdiction over the second Cappadocia. St. Basil, the
metropolitan of Cappadocia, maintained that the civil division of the province
had not infringed his jurisdiction, though he afterwards, for the sake of
peace, yielded the second Cappadocia to the see of Tyana. He appointed our
saint bishop of Sasima, a small town in that division. Gregory stood out a long
time, but at length submitted, overcome by the authority of his father and the
influence of his friend. He accordingly received the episcopal consecration
from the hands of St. Basil, at Cæsarea, about the middle of the year 372. But
he repaired to Nazianzum to wait a favourable opportunity of taking possession
of the church of Sasima, which never happened: for Anthimus, who had in his
interest the new governor, and was master of all the roads and avenues to that
town, would by no means admit him. Basil reproached his friend with sloth: but
St. Gregory answered him that he was not disposed to fight for a church. 21 He,
however, charged himself with the government of that of Nazianzum under his
father till his death, which happened the year following. St. Gregory
pronounced his funeral panegyric in the presence of St. Basil and of his mother
St. Nonna, who died shortly after. Holy solitude had been the constant object
of his most earnest desires, and he had only waited the death of his father,
entirely to bury himself in it. Nevertheless, yielding to the importunities of
others, and to the necessities of the church of Nazianzum, he consented to
continue his care of it till the neighbouring bishops could provide it with a
pastor. But seeing this affair protracted, and finding himself afflicted with
various distempers, he left that city and withdrew to Seleucia, the metropolis
of Isauria, in 375, where he continued five years. The death of St. Basil, in
379, was to him a sensible affliction, and he then composed twelve epigrams or
epitaphs to his memory; and some years after pronounced his panegyric at
Cæsarea, namely in 381 or 382. The unhappy death of the persecuting emperor
Valens, in 378, restored peace to the church. The Catholic pastors sought means
to make up the breaches which heresy had made in many places. For this end they
held several assemblies, and sent zealous and learned men into those provinces
in which the tyrant had made the greatest havoc. The church of Constantinople
was of all others in the most desolate and abandoned condition, having groaned
during forty years under the tyranny of the Arians, and the few Catholics who
remained there having been long without a pastor, and even without a church
wherein to assemble. They, being well acquainted with our saint’s merit,
importuned him to come to their assistance, and were backed by several bishops,
desirous that his learning, eloquence, and piety might restore that church to
its splendour. But such were the pleasures he enjoyed in his beloved retirement
at Seleucia, and in his thorough disengagement from the world, that, for some
time, these united solicitations made little or no impression on him. They had,
however, at length, their desired effect. His body bent with age, his head
bald, his countenance extenuated with tears and austerities, his poor garb, and
his extreme poverty, made but a mean appearance at Constantinople; and no
wonder that he was at first ill received in that polite and proud city. The
Arians pursued him with calumnies, railleries, and insults. The prefects and
governors added their persecutions to the fury of the populace, all which
concurred to acquire him the glorious title of confessor. He lodged first in
the house of certain relations, where the Catholics first assembled to hear
him. He soon after converted it into a church, and gave it the name of
Anastasia, or the Resurrection, because the Catholic faith, which in that city
had been hitherto oppressed, here seemed to be raised, as it were, from the
dead. Sozomen relates that this name was confirmed to it by a miraculous
raising to life of a woman then with child, who was killed by falling from a
gallery in it, but returned to life by the prayers of the congregation. 22 Another
circumstance afterwards confirmed in this church the same name. During the
reign of the emperor Leo the Thracian, about the year 460, the body of St.
Anastasia, virgin and martyr, was brought from Sirmich to Constantinople, and
laid in this place, as is recorded by Theodorus the Reader. 23 But
this church is not to be confounded with another of the same name which was in
the hands of the Novations under Constantius and Julian the Apostate. 24
In this small church
Nazianzen preached, and every day assembled his little flock, which increased
daily. The Arians and Apollinarists, joined with other sects, not content to
defame and calumniate him, had recourse to violence on his person. They pelted
him with stones as he went along the streets, and dragged him before the civil
magistrates as a malefactor, charging him with tumult and sedition. But he
comforted himself on reflecting, that though they were the stronger party, he
had the better cause; though they possessed the churches, God was with him; if
they had the populace on their side, the angels were on his, to guard him. St.
Jerom coming out of the deserts of Syria to Constantinople, became the disciple
and scholar of St. Gregory, and was one of those who studied the holy scripture
under him, of which that great doctor glories in his writings. Our holy pastor,
being a lover of solitude, seldom went abroad or made any visits, except such
as were indispensable; and the time that was not employed in the discharge of
his functions he devoted to prayer and meditation, spending a considerable part
of the night in those holy exercises. His diet was herbs and a little salt with
bread. His cheeks were furrowed with the tears which he shed, and he daily
prostrated himself before God to implore his light and mercy upon his people.
His profound learning, his faculty of forming the most noble conceptions of
things, and the admirable perspicuity, elegance, and propriety with which he
explained them, charmed all who heard him. The Catholics flocked to his
discourses, as men parching with thirst eagerly go to the spring to quench it.
Heretics and Pagans resorted to them, admiring his erudition, and charmed with
his eloquence. The fruits of his sermons were every day sensible: his flock
became in a short time very numerous, and he purged the people of that poison
which had corrupted their hearts for many years. St. Gregory heard, with
blushing and confusion, the applause and acclamations with which his discourses
were received; and his fear of this danger made him speak in public with a
certain timidity and reluctance. He scorned to flatter the great ones, and
directed his discourses to explain and corroborate the Catholic faith, and
reform the manners of the people. He taught them, that the way to salvation was
not to be ever disputing about matters of religion (an abuse that was grown to
a great height at that time in Constantinople,) but to keep the commandments, 25 to
give alms, to exercise hospitality, to visit and serve the sick, to pray, sigh,
and weep; to mortify the senses, repress anger, watch over the tongue, and
subject the body to the spirit. The envy of the devil and of his instruments
could not bear the success of his labours, and, by exciting troubles, found
means to interrupt them. Maximus, a native of Alexandria, a cynic philosopher,
but withal a Christian, full of the impudence and pride of that sect, came to
Constantinople; and under an hypocritical exterior, disguised a heart full of
envy, ambition, covetousness, and gluttony. He imposed on several, and for some
time on St. Gregory himself, who pronounced an eulogium of this man, in 379,
now extant under the title of the Eulogium of the Philosopher Hero; but St.
Jerom assures us, that instead of Hero, we ought to read Maximus. This wolf in
sheep’s clothing having gained one of the priests of the city, and some
partisans among the laity, procured himself to be ordained bishop of
Constantinople, in a clandestine manner, by certain Egyptian bishops who had
lately arrived on that intent. The irregularity of this proceeding stirred up
all the world against the usurper. Pope Damasus wrote to testify his affliction
on that occasion, and called the election null. The Emperor Theodosius the Great,
then at Thessalonica, rejected Maximus with indignation; and coming to
Constantinople, proposed to Demophilus the Arian bishop, either to receive the
Nicene faith, or to leave the city; and upon his preferring the latter, his
majesty, embracing St. Gregory, assured him, that the Catholics of
Constantinople demanded him for their bishop, and that their choice was most
agreeable to his own desires. Theodosius, within a few days after his arrival,
drove the Arians out of all the churches in the city, and put the saint in
possession of the church of St. Sophia, upon which all the other churches of
the city depended. Here the clamours of the people were so vehement that
Gregory might be their bishop, that all was in confusion till the saint
prevailed upon them to drop that subject, and to join in praise and
thanksgiving to the ever blessed Trinity, for restoring among them the
profession of the true faith. The emperor highly commended the modesty of the
saint. But a council was necessary to declare the see vacant, and the promotion
of the Arian Demophilus, and of the cynic Maximus, void and null. A synod of
all the East was then meeting at Constantinople, in which St. Meletius,
patriarch of Antioch, presided. He being the great friend and admirer of
Nazianzen, the council took his cause into consideration before all others,
declared the election of Maximus null, and established St. Gregory bishop of
Constantinople, without having any regard to his tears and expostulations. St.
Meletius dying during the synod, St. Gregory presided in the latter sessions.
To put an end to the schism between Meletius and Paulinus, at Antioch, it had
been agreed, that the survivor should remain in sole possession of that see.
This Nazianzen urged; but the oriental bishops were unwilling to own for a
patriarch one whom they had opposed. They therefore took great offence at this
most just and prudent remonstrance, and entered into a conspiracy with his
enemies against him. The saint, who had only consented to his election through
the importunity of others, was most ready to relinquish his new dignity. This
his enemies sought to deprive him of, together with his life, on which they
made several attempts. Once, in particular, they hired a ruffian to assassinate
him. But the villain, touched with remorse, repaired to the saint with many
tears, wringing his hands, beating his breast, and confessing his black
attempt, which he should have put in execution had not providence interposed.
The good bishop replied: “May God forgive you: his gracious preservation
obliges me freely to pardon you. Your attempt has now made you mine. One only
thing I beg of you, that you forsake your heresy, and sincerely give yourself
to God.” Some warm Catholics complained of his lenity and indulgence towards
the Arians, especially those who had shown themselves violent persecutors under
the former reigns.
In the meantime, the
bishops of Egypt and those of Macedonia arriving at the council, though all
equally in the interest of Paulinus of Antioch, complained that Gregory’s
election was uncanonical, it being forbidden by the canons to transfer bishops
from one see to another. Nazianzen calmly answered, that those canons had lost
their force by long disuse: which was most notorious in the East. Nor did they
in the least regard his case; for he had never taken possession of the see of
Sasima, and only governed that of Nazianzum, as vicar under his father.
However, seeing a great ferment among the prelates and people, he cried out in
the assembly: “If my holding the see of Constantinople give any disturbance,
behold I am very willing, like Jonas, to be cast into the sea to appease the
storm, though I did not raise it. If all followed my example, the church would
enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity. This dignity I never desired; I took this
charge upon me much against my will. If you think fit, I am most ready to
depart; and I will return back to my little cottage, that you may remain here
quiet, and the Church of God enjoy peace. I only desire that the see may be
filled by a person that is capable and willing to defend the faith.” 26 He
thereupon left the assembly, overjoyed that he had broken his bands. The
bishops, whom he left in surprise, but too readily accepted his resignation.
The saint went from the council to the palace, and falling on his knees before
the emperor, and, kissing his hand, said: “I am come, sir, to ask neither
riches nor honours for myself or friends, nor ornaments for the churches: but
license to retire. Your majesty knows how much against my will I was placed in
this chair. I displease even my friends on no other account than because I
value nothing but God. I beseech you, make this my last petition, that among
your trophies and triumphs you make this the greatest, that you bring the
church to unity and concord.” The emperor and those about him were astonished
at such a greatness of soul, and he with much difficulty was prevailed on to
give his assent. This being obtained, the saint had no more to do than to take
his leave of the whole city, which he did in a pathetic discourse, delivered in
the metropolitan church before the hundred and fifty fathers of the council,
and an incredible multitude of people. 27 He
describes the condition in which he had found that church on his first coming
to it, and that in which he left it; and gives to God his thanks, and the
honour of the re-establishment of the Catholic faith in that city. He makes a
solemn protestation of the disinterestedness of his own conduct during his late
administration; not having touched any part of the revenues of the see of
Constantinople the whole time. He reproaches the city with the love of shows,
luxury, and magnificence, and says he was accused of too great mildness, also
of a meanness of spirit, from the lowly appearance he made with respect both to
dress and table. He vindicates his behaviour in these regards, saying: “I did
not take it to be any part of my duty to vie with consuls, generals, and
governors, who know not how to employ their riches otherwise than in pomp and
show. Neither did I imagine, that the necessary subsistence of the poor was to
be applied to the support of luxury, good cheer, a prancing horse, a sumptuous
chariot, and a long train of attendants. If I have acted in another manner, and
have thereby given offence, the fault is already committed, and cannot be
recalled; but I hope is not unpardonable.” He concludes, by bidding a moving
farewell to his church, to his dear Anastasia, which he calls, in the language
of St. Paul, his glory and his crown; to the cathedral and all the other
parishes of the city, to the holy apostles as honoured in the magnificent
church, (in which Constantius had placed the relics of St. Andrew, St. Luke,
and St. Timothy,) to his episcopal throne, to the clergy, to the holy monks,
and the other pious servants of God, to the emperor and all the court, with its
jealousies, pomp, and ambition, to the East and West divided in his cause, to
the tutelar angels of his church, and to the sacred Trinity honoured in that
place. He concludes with these words: “My dear children, preserve the depositum
of faith, and remember the stones which have been thrown at me, because I
planted it in your hearts.” The saint was most tenderly affected in abandoning
his dear flock, his converts especially, which he had gained at his first
church of Anastasia, as they had already signalized themselves in his service
by suffering persecutions with patience for his sake. They followed him
weeping, and entreating him to abide with them. He was not insensible to their
tears; but motives of greater weight obliged him not to regard them on this
occasion. St. Gregory, seeing himself at liberty, rejoiced in his happiness, as
he expressed himself sometime after to a friend in these words: “What
advantages have not I found in the jealousy of my enemies! They have delivered
me from the fire of Sodom, by drawing me from the dangers of the episcopal
charge.” 28 This
treatment was the recompense with which men rewarded the labours and merit of a
saint, whom they ought to have sought in the remotest corners of the earth: but
that city was not worthy to possess so great and holy a pastor. He had in that
short time brought over the chief part of its inhabitants to the Catholic
faith, as appears from his works, and from St. Ambrose. 29 He
had conquered the obstinacy of heretics by meekness and patience, and thought
it a sufficient revenge for their former persecutions, that he had it in his
power to chastise them. 30 The
Catholics he induced to show the same moderation towards them, and exhorted
them to serve Jesus Christ, by taking a Christian revenge of them, the bearing
their persecutions with patience, and the overcoming evil with good. 31 Besides
establishing the purity of faith, he had begun a happy reformation of manners
among the people; and much greater fruits were to be expected from his zealous
labours. Nectarius, who succeeded him, was a soft man, and by no means equal to
such a charge. For though he was a Roman senator, and prætor or governor of
Constantinople, he was not only a layman, but not yet baptized when elected,
and had lived incontinently: which circumstances, joined with the notorious
imprudence of some of his actions, suffice to show that Socrates was too lavish
in the commendations bestowed on him. “He seems also,” says Tillemont, “to have
had no more the gift of speaking than a mute:” and Palladius makes the same
observation on his brother Arsacius, who was intruded into the chair of St.
Chrysostom. Before St. Gregory had resigned the see of Constantinople he drew
up his last will and testament, which is still extant, signed by six bishops
and a priest, and written according to the formalities of the Roman law. He
confirms it in the donation of his estate, both real and personal, to the
church and poor of Nazianzum, except some small annuities for life, which he
bequeathed to certain poor friends and servants.
Before the election of
Nectarius he left the city, and returned to Nazianzen. In that retirement he
composed the poem on his own life, particularly dwelling on what he had done at
Constantinople to obviate the scandalous slanders which were published against
him. He laboured to place a bishop at Nazianzum, but was hindered by the
opposition of many of the clergy. Sickness obliged him to withdraw soon after
to Arianzum, probably before the end of the year 381. In his solitude he
testifies, 32 that
he regretted the absence of his friends, though he seemed insensible to
everything else of this world. To punish himself for superfluous words, (though
he had never spoken to the disparagement of any neighbour,) he, in 382, passed
the forty days of Lent in absolute silence. In his desert he never refused
spiritual advice to any that resorted to him for it. In his parænetic poem to
St. Olympias he lays down excellent rules for the conduct of married woman.
Among other precepts he says: “In the first place, honour God; then respect
your husband as the eye of your life; for he is to direct your conduct and
actions. Love only him; make him your joy and your comfort. Take care never to
give him any occasion of offence or disgust. Yield to him in his anger: comfort
and assist him in his pains and afflictions, speaking to him with sweetness and
tenderness, and making him prudent and modest remonstrances at seasonable
times. It is not by violence and strength that the keepers of lions endeavour
to tame them when they see them enraged; but they soothe and caress them,
stroking them gently, and speaking with a soft voice. Never let his weaknesses
be the subject of your reproaches. It can never be just or allowable for you to
treat a person in this manner whom you ought to prefer to the whole world.” He
prays that this holy woman might become the mother of many children; that there
might be the more souls to sing the praises of Jesus Christ. 33—He
often repeats this important advice, that every one begin and end every action
by offering his heart and whatever he does to God by a short prayer. 34 For
we owe to God all that we are or have; and he accepts and rewards the smallest
action, not so much with a view to its importance as to the affection of the
heart, which in his poverty gives what it has, and is able to give in return
for God’s benefits, and in acknowledgment of his sovereignty.
St. Gregory had been
obliged to govern the vacant see of Nazianzum after the death of his father,
leaving the chief care of that church to Cledonius in his absence. But in 382,
he procured Eulalias to be ordained bishop of that city, and spent the
remainder of his life in retirement near Arianzum: still continuing to aid that
church with his advice, though at that time very old and infirm. In this
private abode he had a garden, a fountain, and a shady grove, in which he took
much delight. Here, in company with certain solitaries, he lived estranged from
pleasures, and in the practice of bodily mortification, fasting, watching, and
praying much on his knees. “I live,” says he, “among rocks and with wild
beasts, never seeing any fire, or using shoes; having only one single garment. 35 I
am the outcast and the scorn of men. I lie on straw, clad in sackcloth: my
floor is always moist with the tears I shed.” 36 In
the decline of life he set himself to write pious poems for the edification of
such among the faithful as were fond of music and poetry. He had also a mind to
oppose the poems made use of by the Apollinarist heretics to propagate their
errors, by such as were orthodox, useful, and religious, as the priest Gregory
says in his life. He considered this exercised also as a work of penance,
compositions in metre being always more difficult than those in prose. He
therein recounts the history of his life and sufferings: he publishes his
faults, his weaknesses, and his temptations, enlarging much more on these than
on his great actions. He complains of the annoyance of his rebellious flesh,
notwithstanding his great age, his ill state of health, and his austerities;
acknowledging himself wholly indebted to the divine grace which had always
preserved in him the treasure of virginity inviolable. God suffered him to feel
these temptations that he might not be exposed to the snares of vanity and
pride; and that whilst his soul dwelt in heaven, he might be put in mind by the
rebellion of the body, that he was still on earth in a state of war. His poems
are full of cries of ardent love, by which he conjures Jesus Christ to assist
him, without whose grace, he declares we are only dead carcasses exhaling the
stench of sin, and as incapable of making one step as a bird is of flying without
air, or a fish of swimming without water: for he alone makes us see, act, and
run. 37 He
joined great watchfulness to prayer, especially shunning the conversation and
neighbourhood of women, 38 over
and above the assiduous maceration of his body. In his letters, he gives to
others the same advice, of which his own life was a constant example. One
instance shall suffice. Sacerdos, a holy priest, was fallen into an unjust
persecution through slander. St. Gregory writes to him thus in his third
letter: “What evil can happen to us after all this? None, certainly, unless we
by our own fault lose God and virtue. Let all other things fall out as it shall
please God. He is the master of our life, and knows the reason of every thing
that befals us. Let us only fear to do anything unworthy our piety. We have fed
the poor, we have served our brethren, we have sung the psalms with
cheerfulness. If we are no longer permitted to continue this, let us employ our
devotion some other way. Grace is not barren, and opens different ways to
heaven. Let us live in retirement: let us occupy ourselves in contemplation;
let us purify our souls by the light of God. This, perhaps, will be no less a
sacrifice than anything we can do.” 39 These
were St. Gregory’s occupations from the time of his last retirement till his
happy death in 389, or, according to others, in 391. Tillemont gives him only
sixty or sixty-one years of age, but he was certainly considerably older. The
Latins honour him on the 9th of May. The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus
caused his ashes to be translated from Nazianzum to Constantinople, and to be
laid in the church of the apostles: which was done with great pomp in 950. They
were brought to Rome in the crusades, and lie under an altar in the Vatican
church.
This great saint looked
upon the smiles and frowns of the world with indifference, because spiritual
and heavenly goods wholly engrossed his soul. “Let us never esteem worldly
prosperity or adversity as things real or of any moment,” said he, 40 “but
let us live elsewhere, and raise all our attention to heaven, esteeming sin as
the only true evil, and nothing truly good but virtue, which unites us to God.”
He requires the most perfect disengagement of ourselves from earthly things
that we may give ourselves to God without reserve or restriction.—“Let us offer
ourselves entire to God,” says he, “that in him we may find ourselves again
entire. 41 It
is truly great riches to be destitute of earthly goods for his sake who was
pleased to suffer poverty for the love of us.” 42 This
consecration of ourselves to God is our own infinite interest; but the goodness
of God is the motive which ought most strongly to invite us to make it. This
St. Gregory was never able to consider without raptures of adoration and
astonishment, in which he cried out: 43 “Admire
the excess of God’s goodness. He vouchsafes to accept our desires as if they
were a thing of great value. He burns with an ardent desire that we vehemently
desire and love him; and he receives the petition we put up for his benefits as
if this were a benefit to himself, and a favour we did him: he gives with
greater joy than it can be to us to receive what he gives. Let us only be
careful not to be too indifferent in our requests, or to set too narrow bounds
to our desires and pretensions; and let us never ask frivolous things which it
would be unworthy of his magnificence to petition him for. There is nothing so
great before God which the least among men is not able to offer him, as well as
the greatest prince or most profound scholar: give but yourself to him with the
most pure and perfect love.”
Note 1. Our saint’s
father having been baptized about the time of the council of Nice in 325, and
made bishop four years after, some critics have thought his father was bishop
when he was born: and it is possible, that in a great scarcity of pastors the
law of celibacy might have been legally dispensed with by the bishops on some
very extraordinary emergencies: but this was not here the case. The age of our
saint, and many circumstances in his life and writings, show clearly that he
was born long before his father’s episcopacy, as is demonstrated by Stilting
from the very age of his father and mother, &c. The same is proved by
Baronius both in his annals and in his life of St. Gregory Nazianzen, published
by Alberici at the end of the cardinal’s life and letters at Rome, an. 1759, t.
2. The verses, upon which the contrary opinion is grounded, are so ambiguous
that certainly no argument can be drawn from them. In these the father is
introduced saying to him: “You have not yet lived so many years as I have spent
in sacrifices.”[Greek]. Carm. 1, de vit sua, c. 35, p. 9.
Where [Greek] more
properly be understood of the heathenish sacrifices, than of the Christian,
which the father had served more years than the son had lived at that time, or
than he himself had administered the Christian priesthood. The word [Greek] is
also ambiguous, and translated by F. Stilting, “You have not considered,” viz.
my great age to respect it, and readily obey me in assisting me to govern my
diocess, which you decline. Baronius appeals to these very verses to prove that
the saint was born before his father was baptized. See Stilting, (Diss. de
ætat. S. Greg. Naz. ante tom. 3, Sept.) who proves that our saint was born
between the years 312 and 318, and before the conversion of his father: and he
confirms this by many other proofs, even by the formal testimony of our holy
doctor himself. (Or. 19.) Dom. Prudentius Marand, who has prepared a new
accurate edition of the works of St. Gregory Naz. almost ready for the press,
complains that we have very few MS. copies of his poems and letters, and these
often faulty, and pretends the first word of these two verses ought to be
divided, and a Sigma read in the end, [Greek] scarce, non fere. Our
saint commends his father for having always rigorously observed the canons in
every point, and in other places evidently asserts the precept of celibacy in
the clergy. See Papebroke in append. tom. 7, Maij. p. 656, where he confutes
Tillemont, Hermant, &c. and fixes the birth both of St. Basil and St.
Gregory Nazianzen between the years 308 and 318. Also Stilting, loc. cit.
at sup. [back]
Note 2. Naz. Or. 19,
Carm. 2. [back]
Note 3. Carm.
2. [back]
Note 4. Carm. 18, 7,
&c. [back]
Note 5. Or. 4, p.
121. [back]
Note 6. Or. 1, p.
32. [back]
Note 7. Carm. 2, p.
31. [back]
Note 8. Carm.
55. [back]
Note 9. Carm.
1. [back]
Note 10. Or.
29. [back]
Note 11. Carm.
55. [back]
Note 12. Ep.
69. [back]
Note 13. Carm.
49. [back]
Note 14. Or. 9,
29. [back]
Note 15. Rufin.
Hist. l. 2, c. 9, p. 254. [back]
Note 16. Or. 3, p.
53. [back]
Note 17. Or.
12. [back]
Note 18. Ep.
17. [back]
Note 19. Ep.
16. [back]
Note 20. His will
was comprised is these words: “I bequeath my whole substance to the
poor.” [back]
Note 21. Ep.
32. [back]
Note 22. Sozom. l.
7, c. 5. [back]
Note 23. L. 2, p.
191. [back]
Note 24. Socr. l. 2,
c. 38. [back]
Note 25. Carm.
1. [back]
Note 26. Carm.
1. [back]
Note 27. Or.
32. [back]
Note 28. Ep.
73. [back]
Note 29. L. de Spir.
Sancto. [back]
Note 30. Or.
32. [back]
Note 31. Or.
24. [back]
Note 32. Ep.
73. [back]
Note 33. Quo plures
celebrent magni præconia regis. Naz. t. 2, p. 144. [back]
Note 34. Or. 1, p.
1; Or. 9, pp. 152, 153, 154, &c. [back]
Note 35. Carm. 5 and
60. [back]
Note 36. Ib.
147. [back]
Note 37. Carm.
59. [back]
Note 38. Ep. 196, p.
894. [back]
Note 39. The
writings of St. Gregory consist first, of forty-six genuine orations (the four
last of the fifty published in his works being doubtful or spurious) and two
discourses to Cledonius against the Apollinarists, which were originally
letters. These orations treat of several points of morality, and mysteries of
faith: others are written in confutation of heresies, others are panegyrics of
martyrs, spoken on their festivals. His writings contain also two hundred and
thirty-seven letters, and one hundred and fifty-eight poems, published by the
learned Billius. Tollius printed at Utrecht, in 1696, twenty other poems of St.
Gregory, called the Cygnean Verses. The indefatigable Muratori, librarian to
the Duke of Modena, published, in 1709, two hundred and twenty-seven epigrams
of our saint. In the hundred and twenty-first, and hundred and twenty-second he
testifies, that his mother obtained his birth by prayer, and that once, when
dangerously sick, he was restored to his health by the holy table, that is, the
sacrifice of the altar. He teaches and practices the invocation of saints in
many places. He relates, that St. Justina begged the Virgin Mary to assist her,
a virgin. (Or. 18, pp. 279, 280.) He says, “The souls of the saints know our
affairs:” (Ep. 201, p. 898:) and, speaking of St. Athanasius, “That he now beholds
from heaven our concernments, and stretches out his hand to those who are
fighting for virtue, and so much the more as he is now freed from the bonds of
the flesh.” (Or. 24, p. 435.) He prays St. Basil to intercede in heaven for
those whom he governed or loved on earth. (Or. 20, pp. 372, 373.) He prays St.
Cyprian to assist him. (Or. 18, p. 286.) He reproaches Julian that he refused
to honour the bodies of the martyrs which cured distempers, and expelled
devils, to whom men paid honours and instituted festivals. Hence Daillé, the
Calvinist, accuses this holy doctor of having promoted the honouring of saints
by words and example. (De Relig. Cultu. p. 51.) This holy doctor says, that the
ashes of St. Cyprian, even to his time, chased away devils, and cured diseases,
as those loudly testified who had experienced it. (Or. 18, p. 285.) He inveighs
against the heathens that, under Julian the Apostate, they burnt the sepulchres
of the martyrs and scattered their relics to the wind, or mingled them with the
remains of the basest men, that they might deprive those of the honour due to
them. (Or. 4, p. 126.) Julian himself reproaches the Christians, that under
their persecutions at Antioch, which they had suffered seven months, they had
bethought themselves of no other means of defending themselves, than of sending
the old women to pray constantly for a deliverance before the tombs of the
martyrs. Odiosam istam severitatem septimum jam mensem perpessi, vota quidem et
preces, quò tantis malis eriperemur, ad vetulas dimisimus quæ circum sepulchra
mortuorum assiduè versantur. (Julian in Misopog. p. 54.) If the style of St.
Basil be the more smooth and easy of the two, that of Nazianzen is the more
florid and majestic. He always forms the most noble conceptions of things, and
clothes his meaning with delicacy and elegance. His language glows, and the
pathos swells so high, that Erasmus was deterred from undertaking to translate
his works distinguished by a vivacity in his style, and frequent remote
allusions. (Vid. l. 26, ep. 33, p. 1446.) Some esteem St. Gregory the greatest
of all orators, whether sacred or profane. (Du Pin, Bibl. p. 655.) Others give
the first place among orators to him and St. Basil. It is certain that if he
have any fault it is rather an excess of beauties, and a redundancy of figures
and flowers. His verses in ease, smoothness, and sublimity, surpass those of
all other ecclesiastical writers, and deserve to be read in schools. The best
Latin translation of this father’s works is that of the learned abbot of St.
Michael’s, Abbè Billi, printed at Paris in 1609 and 1630, in two volumes in
folio. Few translators have, in all accomplishments for that difficult
province, equalled this great linguist, and judicious editor. This translation,
with some amendments, is retained by Dom. Marand and his colleagues in the
excellent complete edition which they are preparing of this father’s
works. [back]
Note 40. Ep.
189. [back]
Note 41. Or.
40. [back]
Note 42. Ib. [back]
Note 43. Or.
40. [back]
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/5/091.html
Homélies de
saint Grégoire de Nazianze (BnF MS grec 510), folio 440.
Songe
de Constantin et bataille du pont Milvius, 879-882, Biblothèque nationale
de France
San Gregorio Nazianzeno Vescovo
e dottore della Chiesa
Nazianzo, attuale Nemisi
in Turchia, 330 – 25 gennaio 389/390
Condivise con l’amico
Basilio la formazione culturale e il fervore mistico. Fu eletto patriarca di
Costantinopoli nel 381. Temperamento di teologo e uomo di governo, rivelò nelle
sue opere oratorie e poetiche l’intelligenza e l’esperienza del Cristo vivente
e operante nei santi misteri. (Mess. Rom.)
Patronato: Poeti
Etimologia: Gregorio =
colui che risveglia, dal greco
Emblema: Bastone
pastorale
Martirologio Romano: Memoria dei santi Basilio Magno e Gregorio Nazianzeno, vescovi e dottori della Chiesa. Basilio, vescovo di Cesarea in Cappadocia, detto Magno per dottrina e sapienza, insegnò ai suoi monaci la meditazione delle Scritture e il lavoro nell’obbedienza e nella carità fraterna e ne disciplinò la vita con regole da lui stesso composte; istruì i fedeli con insigni scritti e rifulse per la cura pastorale dei poveri e dei malati; morì il primo di gennaio. Gregorio, suo amico, vescovo di Sásima, quindi di Costantinopoli e infine di Nazianzo, difese con grande ardore la divinità del Verbo e per questo motivo fu chiamato anche il Teologo. Si rallegra la Chiesa nella comune memoria di così grandi dottori.
(25 gennaio: A Nazianzo in Cappadocia, nell’odierna Turchia, anniversario della
morte di san Gregorio, vescovo, la cui memoria si celebra il 2 gennaio).
Il calendario liturgico latino fa oggi memoria di due Padri e Dottori della Chiesa, San Basilio Magno e San Gregorio Nazianzeno, intimi amici, che parteciparono alla medesima ansia di santità, ebbero un'analoga formazione culturale e nutrirono entrambi l'aspirazione alla vita monastica.
La presente scheda agiografica vuole soffermarsi in particolar modo sul secondo, San Gregorio. Questi fa parte del celebre manipolo dei “luminari di Cappadocia” insieme con Sant'Anfìlochio d'Iconio, suo cugino, San Basilio Magno e San Gregorio di Nissa, fratello di quest'ultimo. Gregorio “Nazianzeno” nacque verso il 330 ad Arianzo, borgata nei pressi di Nazianzo, dal cui nome deriva il celebre appellativo del santo. Fu consacrato a Dio sin dalla più tenera infanzia dalla sua piissima madre, Santa Nonna, ed entrambi i genitori gli impartirono un'ottima educazione. Fu inviato a scuola presso Cesarea di Palestina, poi ad Alessandria d'Egitto ed infine ad Atene, dove legò un'intima amicizia con il suo conterraneo San Basilio Magno.
Gregorio rimase per dieci anni nella capitale ellenica, allora centro della cultura pagana, dove pare diede anche lezioni di eloquenza. Fece ritorno verso il 359 in Cappadocia e ricevette il battesimo, come consuetudine a quel tempo, all'età di trent'anni. Da quel giorno divise i suoi giorni tra l'ascesi e lo studio in compagnia dell'amico Basilio nella solitudine della valle dell'Iris, presso Neocesarea. Ben presto però, in seguito alle numerose richieste dei fedeli, fu suo malgrado richiamato per ricevere l'ordinazione presbiterale direttamente dalle mani di suo padre, San Gregorio di Nazianzo il Vecchio, che nel frattempo si era convertito dalla setta giudeo-pagana degli adoratori di Zeus Hypsistos al cristianesimo ed era stato insediato sulla sede episcopale di Nazianzo. Turbato per la pressione subita ed innamorato sempre più della vita solitaria, il giovane sacerdote tornò con San Basilio nella regione del Ponto. Dovette tuttavia accorrere nuovamente a Nazianzo per aiutare suo padre nel governo della diocesi e domarvi uno scisma imperversante. Il vecchio pastore aveva sottoscritto, per debolezza o per inavvertenza, la formula semiariana coniata dal concilio di Rimini, e parte dei fedeli si era ribellata. San Gregorio seppe sapientemente persuadere allora suo padre a fare una solenne professione di fede cattolica, facendo così rifiorire la calma e la concordia.
Nel 371, in seguito alla divisione della Cappadocia in due province ecclesiastiche, San Basilio, volendo creare un nuovo vescovado a Sàsima per opporsi alle intrusioni di Antimo, arcivescovo di Tiana, capitale della Seconda Cappadocia, fece appello al suo amico nominandolo a tale sede. Questo triste borgo, polveroso e chiassoso, edificato attorno ad una stazione postale sulla via di Cilicia, non poteva certo essere l'ambiente adatto per una vita da filosofo e da teologo. San Gregorio, dopo essersi lasciato imporre le mani di malavoglia, anziché prendere possesso della sua diocesi, fuggì segretamente nella solitudine. Fece poi ritorno a Nazianzo soltanto in seguito alle suppliche del vecchio padre, che in età avanzata non riusciva più a portare tutto il peso della sua carica. Quando nel 374 morì, col cuore affranto e la salute malferma il figlio si rifugiò non appena possibile nel monastero di Santa Teda, a Seleucia, nell'Isauria.
Era però volontà divina che non potesse nuovamente godere del sospirato riposo. All'inizio del 379, infatti, i cattolici di Costantinopoli, ai quali l'imperatore Valente aveva sottratto tutte le chiese, approfittarono dell'avvento al trono di San Teodosio I il Grande per convincerlo a ristabilire la fede nicena nella capitale dell'oriente, nominando Gregorio quale nuovo patriarca, con il naturale appoggio dell'amico San Basilio. A Gregorio non restò che accettare di trasferirsi nella metropoli constantinopolitana, ove aprì nella casa di un suo parente una cappella che denominò “Anàstasis” (cioè Risurrezione) e con la sua eloquenza riuscì a raccogliere attorno a sé i pochi ortodossi superstiti e senza pastore. Ebbe così occasione di pronunciare le sue più celebri omelie, i cinque Discorsi sulla Trinità che gli valsero la fama di teologo. Accorse dalla Siria ad ascoltare le sue parole perfino San Girolamo, che divenne suo discepolo.
Il compito del nuovo pastore si rivelò presto assai difficoltoso, non solo a causa degli ariani, ma ancor di più quando un certo Massimo, figura equivoca di filosofo cinico e di asceta, forte dell'appoggio di Pietro, vescovo di Alessandria, tentò di farsi proclamare vescovo di Costantinopoli. Tra cotante insidie e violenze, tra cui il rischio di lapidazione, San Gregorio avrebbe preferito ancora una volta tornare a vita solitaria, se non fosse stato tormentato dal bizzarro pensiero che “insieme con lui sarebbe partita da Costantinopoli anche la Trinità”. Nel mese di novembre del 380, con l'ingresso dell'imperatore Teodosio nella capitale, le chiese furono finalmente sottratte agli ariani e riconsegnate ai legittimi detentori.
San Gregorio, dietro all'imperatore e scortato dall'esercito, fu condotto in processione nella celeberrima cattedrale di Santa Sofia ed acclamato dal clero e dal popolo vescovo della città. Il saggio pastore non si accontentò però di quella intronizzazione e preferì farsi anche riconoscere nel maggio 381 dal V concilio ecumenico aperto a Costantinopoli sotto la presidenza di Melezio, vescovo di Antiochia. Questi però morì e Gregorio fu chiamato a presiedere l'assemblea al suo posto. Propose allora di nominare a successore del defunto nella sede antiochiena Paolino, che era stato vescovo di quella città durante lo scisma, ma i meleziani, che formavano la maggioranza, gli contrapposero Flaviano. Quando poi al concilio giunsero i vescovi egiziani e macedoni, presero a contestare l'elezione di Gregorio, perché in qualità di vescovo di Sàsima, in forza del canone di Antiochia, non avrebbe potuto essere trasferito ad altra sede. Il santo patriarca, che in realtà non aveva mai preso possesso della diocesi suddetta, amareggiato da tante ambizioni e intrighi, con pronta decisione rinunciò alla chiesa di Costantinopoli che governava da appena un biennio, stanco dei “più giovani che cinguettavano come uno stormo di gazze e si accanivano come uno sciame di vespe”, mentre “i vecchi si guardavano bene dal moderare gli altri”. Si ritirò allora nuovamente nella nativa Nazianzo, che nel frattempo era rimasta priva di pastore, ed amministro tale Chiesa locale per altri due anni, quando riuscì a far eleggere in sua sostituzione a vescovo della diocesi suo cugino Eulalio. Fatto ciò, si ritirò nella sua proprietà di Arianzo, dove morì il 25 gennaio del 389 o del 390, dopo sei anni dedicati alla contemplazione ed a studi ininterrotti.
San Gregorio, di costituzione debole e di delicata sensibilità, nella sua vita non fu mai un uomo d'azione, quanto piuttosto di meditazione, e neppure un teologo speculativo, semmai un mistico. E' unanimemente considerato un buon testimone della tradizione della Chiesa nelle questioni trinitarie e cristologiche. Durante la sua vita si sentì talvolta condannato piuttosto che chiamato all'attività apostolica. Tuttavia, quando non poté fuggire dall'azione, si dedicò sempre al bene delle anime affidate alla sua cura con grandissimo senso di responsabilità. Oratore perfetto, fu a buon ragione soprannominato il “Demostene cristiano”. Ci sono pervenuti ben 45 suoi discorsi, 244 lettere e molte poesie teologiche e storiche, scritte in una lingua ricca, armoniosa e pura.
San Gregorio Nazianzeno è commemorato dal Martyrologium Romanum al 25 gennaio, anniversario della sua nascita al cielo, mentre il giorno seguente si celebre la sua memoria liturgica comunemente con il suo amico San Basilio Magno.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/22250
Mosaico
alla Martorana di Palermo (la Chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio, nota
come chiesa della Martorana, centro storico
di Palermo
St.
Gregory of Nazianeus, 12th-century mosaic. Pendant on the eastern arch arch
(northern side) of the crossing of the transept, La Martorana, also known as
Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio in Palermo, Sicily.
Saint
Grégoire de Nazianze, mosaïque du XIIe siècle. Pendentif de l'arche Est (face
Nord), croisée du transept de la Martorana, également connue comme Santa Maria
dell’Amiraglio à Palerme, Sicile.
BENEDETTO XVI
UDIENZA GENERALE
San Gregorio di Nazianzo
I: Vita e scritti
Cari fratelli e sorelle,
mercoledì
scorso ho parlato di un grande maestro della fede, il Padre
della Chiesa san Basilio. Oggi vorrei parlare del suo amico Gregorio di
Nazianzo, anche lui, come Basilio, originario della Cappadocia. Illustre
teologo, oratore e difensore della fede cristiana nel IV secolo, fu celebre per
la sua eloquenza, ed ebbe anche, come poeta, un’anima raffinata e sensibile.
Gregorio nacque da una
nobile famiglia. La madre lo consacrò a Dio fin dalla nascita, avvenuta intorno
al 330. Dopo la prima educazione familiare, frequentò le più celebri scuole
della sua epoca: fu dapprima a Cesarea di Cappadocia, dove strinse amicizia con
Basilio, futuro Vescovo di quella città, e sostò poi in altre metropoli del
mondo antico, come Alessandria d’Egitto e soprattutto Atene, dove incontrò di
nuovo Basilio (cfr Discorso 43,14-24). Rievocandone l’amicizia,
Gregorio scriverà più tardi: «Allora non solo io mi sentivo preso da
venerazione verso il mio grande Basilio per la serietà dei suoi costumi e per
la maturità e saggezza dei suoi discorsi, ma inducevo a fare altrettanto anche
altri, che ancora non lo conoscevano ... Ci guidava la stessa ansia di sapere
... Questa era la nostra gara: non chi fosse il primo, ma chi permettesse
all’altro di esserlo. Sembrava che avessimo un’unica anima in due corpi» (Discorso 43,16.20).
Sono parole che rappresentano un po’ l’autoritratto di quest’anima nobile. Ma
si può anche immaginare che quest’uomo, che era fortemente proiettato oltre i
valori terreni, abbia sofferto molto per le cose di questo mondo.
Tornato a casa, Gregorio
ricevette il Battesimo e si orientò verso la vita monastica: la solitudine, la
meditazione filosofica e spirituale lo affascinavano. Egli stesso scriverà:
«Nulla mi sembra più grande di questo: far tacere i propri sensi, uscire dalla
carne del mondo, raccogliersi in se stesso, non occuparsi più delle cose umane,
se non di quelle strettamente necessarie; parlare con se stesso e con Dio,
condurre una vita che trascende le cose visibili; portare nell'anima immagini
divine sempre pure, senza mescolanza di forme terrene ed erronee; essere
veramente uno specchio immacolato di Dio e delle cose divine, e divenirlo sempre
più, prendendo luce da luce ...; godere, nella speranza presente, il bene
futuro, e conversare con gli angeli; avere già lasciato la terra, pur stando in
terra, trasportati in alto con lo spirito» (Discorso 2,7).
Come confida nella sua
autobiografia (cfr Poesie[storiche] 2,1,11 sulla sua vita 340-349),
ricevette l’ordinazione presbiterale con una certa riluttanza, perché sapeva
che poi avrebbe dovuto fare il Pastore, occuparsi degli altri, delle loro cose,
quindi non più così raccolto nella pura meditazione: Tuttavia egli poi accettò
questa vocazione e assunse il ministero pastorale in piena obbedienza,
accettando, come spesso gli accadde nella vita, di essere portato dalla
Provvidenza là dove non voleva andare (cfr Gv 21,18). Nel 371 il suo
amico Basilio, Vescovo di Cesarea, contro il desiderio dello stesso Gregorio,
lo volle consacrare Vescovo di Sasima, un paese strategicamente importante
della Cappadocia. Egli però, per varie difficoltà, non ne prese mai possesso, e
rimase invece nella città di Nazianzo.
Verso il 379, Gregorio fu
chiamato a Costantinopoli, la capitale, per guidare la piccola comunità
cattolica fedele al Concilio di Nicea e alla fede trinitaria. La maggioranza
aderiva invece all’arianesimo, che era «politicamente corretto» e considerato politicamente
utile dagli imperatori. Così egli si trovò in condizioni di minoranza,
circondato da ostilità. Nella chiesetta dell’Anastasis pronunciò
cinque Discorsi teologici (27-31) proprio per difendere e rendere
anche intelligibile la fede trinitaria. Sono discorsi rimasti celebri per la
sicurezza della dottrina, l’abilità del ragionamento, che fa realmente capire
che questa è la logica divina. E anche lo splendore della forma li rende oggi
affascinanti. Gregorio ricevette, a motivo di questi discorsi, l’appellativo di
«teologo». Così viene chiamato nella Chiesa ortodossa: il «teologo». E questo
perché la teologia per lui non è una riflessione puramente umana, o ancor meno
frutto soltanto di complicate speculazioni, ma deriva da una vita di preghiera
e di santità, da un dialogo assiduo con Dio. E proprio così fa apparire alla
nostra ragione la realtà di Dio, il mistero trinitario. Nel silenzio
contemplativo, intriso di stupore davanti alle meraviglie del mistero rivelato,
l’anima accoglie la bellezza e la gloria divina.
Mentre partecipava al
secondo Concilio Ecumenico del 381, Gregorio fu eletto Vescovo di
Costantinopoli, e assunse la presidenza del Concilio. Ma subito si scatenò
contro di lui una forte opposizione, finché la situazione divenne insostenibile.
Per un’anima così sensibile queste inimicizie erano insopportabili. Si ripeteva
quello che Gregorio aveva già lamentato precedentemente con parole accorate:
«Abbiamo diviso Cristo, noi che tanto amavamo Dio e Cristo! Abbiamo mentito gli
uni agli altri a motivo della Verità, abbiamo nutrito sentimenti di odio a
causa dell’Amore, ci siamo divisi l’uno dall’altro!» (Discorso 6,3). Si
giunse così, in un clima di tensione, alle sue dimissioni. Nella cattedrale
affollatissima Gregorio pronunciò un discorso di addio di grande effetto e
dignità (cfr Discorso 42). Concludeva il suo accorato intervento con
queste parole: «Addio, grande città, amata da Cristo ... Figli miei, vi
supplico, custodite il deposito [della fede] che vi è stato affidato
(cfr 1 Tm 6,20), ricordatevi delle mie sofferenze (cfr Col 4,18).
Che la grazia del nostro Signore Gesù Cristo sia con tutti voi» (cfr Discorso 42,27).
Ritornò a Nazianzo, e per
circa due anni si dedicò alla cura pastorale di quella comunità cristiana. Poi
si ritirò definitivamente in solitudine nella vicina Arianzo, la sua terra
natale, dedicandosi allo studio e alla vita ascetica. In questo periodo compose
la maggior parte della sua opera poetica, soprattutto autobiografica: le Poesie
sulla sua vita, una rilettura in versi del proprio cammino umano e
spirituale, cammino esemplare di un cristiano sofferente, di un uomo di grande
interiorità in un mondo pieno di conflitti. È un uomo che ci fa sentire il
primato di Dio, e perciò parla anche a noi, a questo nostro mondo: senza Dio
l’uomo perde la sua grandezza, senza Dio non c’è vero umanesimo. Ascoltiamo
perciò questa voce e cerchiamo di conoscere anche noi il volto di Dio. In una
delle sue poesie aveva scritto, rivolgendosi a Dio: «Sii benigno, Tu, l’Aldilà
di tutto» (Poesie [dogmatiche] 1,1,29). E nel 390 Dio accoglieva tra
le sue braccia questo servo fedele, che con acuta intelligenza l’aveva difeso
negli scritti, e che con tanto amore l’aveva cantato nelle sue poesie.
Saluti:
J’accueille avec plaisir
les pèlerins francophones, particulièrement les membres du pèlerinage organisé
par les Chanoines réguliers de Saint-Augustin, le groupe de Mende ainsi que les
pèlerins venus d’Égypte. Que le Seigneur vous aide à grandir dans une
connaissance authentique de sa personne pour que vous puissiez en vivre et en
témoigner parmi vos frères! Avec ma Bénédiction apostolique.
I greet all the
English-speaking visitors and pilgrims present at today’s Audience, including
groups from Ireland, Israel, the Far East, and North America. I extend a
special welcome to the pilgrims who have travelled here from Da Nang in
Vietnam. May the peace and joy of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and may God
bless you all!
Voller Freude begrüße ich
die Pilger und Besucher aus dem deutschen Sprachraum. Unter ihnen heiße ich
besonders die vielen Jugendlichen aus dem Feriencamp Baia Domizia und die
Passionsspieler aus Altmühlmünster in der Diözese Regensburg willkommen. -
Bitten wir um das Licht der Gnade, damit wir, wie der heilige Gregor von
Nazianz, den Plan Gottes für unser Leben erkennen und ihn auch dann annehmen,
wenn er uns nicht gefällt. Euch allen wünsche ich eine erholsame Sommerzeit und
Gottes reichen Segen.
Saludo cordialmente a los
visitantes de lengua española. En particular, saludo a las Misioneras Hijas de
la Sagrada Familia de Nazaret, que celebran su Capítulo General, a los
seminaristas de la Diócesis de Granada, así como a los distintos grupos venidos
de España, México y de otros países latinoamericanos. Que vuestra peregrinación
a la tumba de los apóstoles Pedro y Pablo fortalezca vuestra fe y acreciente
vuestro amor a la Iglesia. ¡Gracias por vuestra visita!
Saúdo com afeto e
simpatia os peregrinos de língua portuguesa, especialmente os que aqui se
encontram provindos do Brasil e de Portugal, e invoco do
Altíssimo abundantes dons que sirvam de estímulo para a sua vida cristã, ao
conceder benevolamente minha Bênção Apostólica.
Saluto in lingua polacca:
Witam polskich
pielgrzymów. Dziękuję za waszą duchową bliskość i modlitwy w intencji Papieża i
Kościoła. Niech nawiedzanie grobów apostołów Piotra i Pawła umacnia w was
wiarę, dodaje odwagi do dawania świadectwa Chrystusowi i ożywia ducha
braterskiej miłości. Niech Bóg błogosławi wam i waszym najbliższym.
Traduzione italiana:
Do il benvenuto ai
pellegrini polacchi. Vi ringrazio per la vostra vicinanza spirituale e per le
preghiere secondo le intenzioni del Papa e della Chiesa. La visita alle tombe
degli Apostoli Pietro e Paolo rafforzi la vostra fede, vi incoraggi a dare la
testimonianza a Cristo e ravvivi lo spirito dell’amore fraterno. Dio benedica
voi e i vostri cari.
Saluto in lingua
ungherese:
Isten hozta a magyar
zarándokokat, különösen is a veszprémi és a győri híveket. Kedves Barátaim,
köszönöm látogatástok és szívesen kérem számotokra és egyházközségeitek számára
a mennyei kegyelmeket, hogy egyre inkább tanúságot tudjatok tenni keresztény
hitünkről. Apostoli áldásommal. Dicsértessék a Jézus Krisztus!
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto cordialmente i
pellegrini ungheresi, particolarmente i gruppi di Veszprém e di Győr. Cari
amici, vi ringrazio per la vostra visita ed invoco volentieri su di voi e sulle
vostra Comunità copiosi doni celesti per una sempre più solida testimonianza
cristiana. Con la mia benedizione. Sia lodato Gesù Cristo!
* * *
Rivolgo un cordiale
benvenuto ai pellegrini di lingua italiana. In particolare, saluto le Ancelle
Parrocchiali dello Spirito Santo e le Figlie di Nostra Signora del
Sacro Cuore che celebrano i rispettivi Capitoli Generali. Care Sorelle, vi
auguro di continuare con entusiasmo il servizio che rendete al Vangelo e alla
Chiesa ed invoco per voi il sostegno del Signore perché possiate operare con sempre
più grande fecondità nell'ambito della nuova evangelizzazione. Saluto poi
voi, Suore Francescane Elisabettine Bigie, che celebrate l'ottavo
centenario di nascita di santa Elisabetta d'Ungheria. Possa questa provvida
ricorrenza suscitare in ciascuna di voi un rinnovato desiderio di testimoniare
ovunque l'amore di Cristo per ogni persona umana, specialmente verso i più
deboli, sulle orme del vostro fondatore il beato Ludovico da Casoria. Saluto
ora voi, cari Seminaristi provenienti dai Seminari maggiori di
diverse Diocesi italiane, e riuniti a Sacrofano per un incontro estivo: vi
auguro di far tesoro degli insegnamenti e delle esperienze spirituali di questi
giorni.
Infine, il mio pensiero
va ai giovani, ai malati e agli sposi novelli. Ricorre oggi
la memoria di San Domenico di Guzman, instancabile predicatore del Vangelo, e
domani sarà la festa di Santa Teresa Benedetta della Croce, Edith Stein,
compatrona d'Europa. Questi due Santi aiutino voi, cari giovani, ad avere
sempre fiducia in Cristo. Il loro esempio sostenga voi, cari malati a
partecipare con fede alla potenza salvifica della sua Croce. Incoraggi voi,
cari sposi novelli, ad essere immagine luminosa di Dio, attraverso la
vostra reciproca fedeltà.
© Copyright 2007 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070808.html
en:Gregory of Nazianzus and paupers
(miniature, Homilies of Gregory Nazianzus, en:Agiou Panteleimonos monastery, en:Mount
Athos, cod. 6)
BENEDETTO XVI
UDIENZA GENERALE
San Gregorio di Nazianzo
II: La dottrina
Cari fratelli e sorelle,
nella serie di ritratti
di grandi Padri e Dottori della Chiesa che cerco di offrire in queste
catechesi, ho
parlato la scorsa volta di san Gregorio Nazianzeno, Vescovo del IV secolo;
vorrei ora completare questo ritratto. Cercheremo oggi di raccogliere alcuni
suoi insegnamenti. Riflettendo sulla missione che Dio gli aveva affidato, san
Gregorio Nazianzeno concludeva: «Sono stato creato per ascendere fino a Dio con
le mie azioni» (Discorso 14,6 sull’amore per i poveri). Di fatto,
egli mise al servizio di Dio e della Chiesa il suo talento di scrittore e di
oratore. Compose numerosi discorsi, varie omelie e panegirici, molte
lettere e opere poetiche (quasi 18.000 versi!): un’attività veramente
prodigiosa. Aveva compreso che questa era la missione che Dio gli aveva
affidato: «Servo della Parola, io aderisco al ministero della Parola; che io
non acconsenta mai di trascurare questo bene. Questa vocazione io l’apprezzo e
la gradisco, ne traggo più gioia che da tutte le altre cose messe insieme» (Discorso 6,5;
cfr anche Discorso 4,10).
Il Nazianzeno era un uomo
mite, e nella sua vita cercò sempre di fare opera di pace nella Chiesa del suo
tempo, lacerata da discordie e da eresie. Con audacia evangelica si sforzò di
superare la propria timidezza per proclamare la verità della fede. Sentiva
profondamente l’anelito di avvicinarsi a Dio, di unirsi a Lui. È quanto esprime
egli stesso in una sua poesia, dove scrive: tra i «grandi flutti del mare della
vita, / di qua e di là da impetuosi venti agitato, /... / una cosa sola m'era
cara, sola mia ricchezza, / conforto e oblio delle fatiche, / la luce della
Santa Trinità» (Poesie [storiche] 2,1,15).
Gregorio fece risplendere
la luce della Trinità, difendendo la fede proclamata nel Concilio di
Nicea: un solo Dio in tre Persone uguali e distinte – Padre, Figlio e Spirito
Santo –, «triplice luce che in unico / splendor s’aduna» (ibid. 2,1,32).
Quindi, afferma sempre Gregorio sulla scorta di san Paolo (1 Cor 8,6),
«per noi vi è un Dio, il Padre, da cui è tutto; un Signore, Gesù Cristo, per
mezzo di cui è tutto; e uno Spirito Santo, in cui è tutto» (Discorso 39,12).
Gregorio ha messo in
grande rilievo la piena umanità di Cristo: per redimere l’uomo nella sua
totalità di corpo, anima e spirito, Cristo assunse tutte le componenti della
natura umana, altrimenti l’uomo non sarebbe stato salvato. Contro l’eresia di
Apollinare, il quale sosteneva che Gesù Cristo non aveva assunto un’anima
razionale, Gregorio affronta il problema alla luce del mistero della salvezza:
«Ciò che non è stato assunto, non è stato guarito» (Ep. 101,32), e se
Cristo non fosse stato «dotato di intelletto razionale, come avrebbe potuto
essere uomo?» (Ep. 101,34). Era proprio il nostro intelletto, la nostra
ragione che aveva e ha bisogno della relazione, dell’incontro con Dio in
Cristo. Diventando uomo, Cristo ci ha dato la possibilità di diventare a nostra
volta come Lui. Il Nazianzeno esorta: «Cerchiamo di essere come Cristo, poiché
anche Cristo è divenuto come noi: di diventare dèi per mezzo di Lui, dal momento
che Lui stesso, per il nostro tramite, è divenuto uomo. Prese il peggio su di
sé, per farci dono del meglio» (Discorso 1,5).
Maria, che ha dato la
natura umana a Cristo, è vera Madre di Dio (Theotókos: cfr Ep. 101,16),
e in vista della sua altissima missione è stata «pre-purificata» (Discorso 38,13;
quasi un lontano preludio del dogma dell’Immacolata Concezione). Maria è
proposta come modello ai cristiani, soprattutto alle vergini, e come
soccorritrice da invocare nelle necessità (cfr Discorso 24,11).
Gregorio ci ricorda che,
come persone umane, dobbiamo essere solidali gli uni verso gli altri. Scrive:
«“Noi siamo tutti una sola cosa nel Signore” (cfr Rm 12,5), ricchi e
poveri, schiavi e liberi, sani e malati; e unico è il capo da cui tutto deriva:
Gesù Cristo. E come fanno le membra di un solo corpo, ciascuno si occupi di
ciascuno, e tutti di tutti». Poi, riferendosi ai malati e alle persone in
difficoltà, conclude: «Questa è l’unica salvezza per la nostra carne e la
nostra anima: la carità verso di loro» (Discorso 14,8 sull’amore per
i poveri). Gregorio sottolinea che l’uomo deve imitare la bontà e l’amore di
Dio, e quindi raccomanda: «Se sei sano e ricco, allevia il bisogno di chi è
malato e povero; se non sei caduto, soccorri chi è caduto e vive nella
sofferenza; se sei lieto, consola chi è triste; se sei fortunato, aiuta chi è
morso dalla sventura. Da’ a Dio una prova di riconoscenza, perché sei uno di
quelli che possono beneficare, e non di quelli che hanno bisogno di essere
beneficati ... Sii ricco non solo di beni, ma anche di pietà; non solo di oro,
ma di virtù, o meglio, di questa sola. Supera la fama del tuo prossimo
mostrandoti più buono di tutti; renditi Dio per lo sventurato, imitando la
misericordia di Dio» (ibid., 14,26).
Gregorio ci insegna
anzitutto l’importanza e la necessità della preghiera. Egli afferma che «è
necessario ricordarsi di Dio più spesso di quanto si respiri» (Discorso 27,4),
perché la preghiera è l’incontro della sete di Dio con la nostra sete. Dio ha
sete che noi abbiamo sete di Lui (cfr Discorso 40, 27). Nella
preghiera noi dobbiamo rivolgere il nostro cuore a Dio, per consegnarci a Lui
come offerta da purificare e trasformare. Nella preghiera noi vediamo tutto
alla luce di Cristo, lasciamo cadere le nostre maschere e ci immergiamo nella
verità e nell’ascolto di Dio, alimentando il fuoco dell'amore.
In una poesia, che è allo
stesso tempo meditazione sullo scopo della vita e implicita invocazione a Dio,
Gregorio scrive: «Hai un compito, anima mia, / un grande compito, se vuoi. /
Scruta seriamente te stessa, / il tuo essere, il tuo destino; / donde vieni e
dove dovrai posarti; / cerca di conoscere se è vita quella che vivi / o se c’è
qualcosa di più. / Hai un compito, anima mia, / purifica, perciò, la tua vita:
/ considera, per favore, Dio e i suoi misteri, / indaga cosa c’era prima di
questo universo / e che cosa esso è per te, / da dove è venuto, e quale sarà il
suo destino. / Ecco il tuo compito, / anima mia, / purifica, perciò, la tua
vita» (Poesie [storiche] 2,1,78). Continuamente il santo Vescovo
chiede aiuto a Cristo, per essere rialzato e riprendere il cammino: «Sono stato
deluso, o mio Cristo, / per il mio troppo presumere: / dalle altezze sono
caduto molto in basso. / Ma rialzami di nuovo ora, poiché vedo / che da me
stesso mi sono ingannato; / se troppo ancora confiderò in me stesso, / subito
cadrò, e la caduta sarà fatale» (ibid., 2,1,67).
Gregorio, dunque, ha
sentito il bisogno di avvicinarsi a Dio per superare la stanchezza del proprio
io. Ha sperimentato lo slancio dell’anima, la vivacità di uno spirito sensibile
e l’instabilità della felicità effimera. Per lui, nel dramma di una vita su cui
pesava la coscienza della propria debolezza e della propria miseria,
l’esperienza dell’amore di Dio ha sempre avuto il sopravvento. Hai un compito,
anima – dice san Gregorio anche a noi –, il compito di trovare la vera luce, di
trovare la vera altezza della tua vita. E la tua vita è incontrarti con Dio,
che ha sete della nostra sete.
Saluti:
Je salue cordialement les
pèlerins francophones présents ce matin, en particulier les pèlerins du diocèse
d’Obala, au Cameroun, les appelant, à l’exemple de saint Grégoire de Nazianze,
à trouver dans l’écoute de la Parole de Dieu et dans la charité envers les
pauvres la volonté de servir toujours davantage le Christ et l’Église.
I am pleased to greet all
the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims present at today’s Audience,
especially the groups from England, Ireland, Hungary, Sweden, Japan, Australia
and the United States of America. Upon all of you, I invoke Almighty God’s
blessings of joy and peace.
Frohen Herzens heiße ich
alle Pilger und Besucher aus dem deutschen Sprachraum willkommen. Besonders
begrüße ich die vielen jungen Menschen, die heute hier sind. Liebe Freunde,
begegnet euren Mitmenschen, wie Gregor uns sagt, mit christlicher Liebe und
Güte, Gottes Güte nachahmend. So helfen wir, am Frieden in der Welt mitzubauen.
- Gott, der Herr, geleite euch auf euren Wegen, jetzt in der Freizeit und Zuhause!
Saludo ahora a los
visitantes de lengua española, en especial a los diversos grupos parroquiales y
cofradías, a los miembros de la Juventud Mariana Vicentina, así como a los
peregrinos de varios Países latinoamericanos. Una vez más deseo recordar con gran
afecto y cercanía espiritual al querido pueblo peruano, tan probado en estos
días, pidiendo gestos de solidaridad cristiana, como enseña san Gregorio
Nacianceno. ¡Que Dios os bendiga!
Saúdo afetuosamente os
peregrinos presentes de língua portuguesa, mormente os que vieram de Portugal;
a todos desejo graça e paz em Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo. Penhor da daquela
juventude de alma e coração que brota do Espírito Santo em ação na Igreja e no
mundo, seja para vós e vossos familiares a minha Bênção Apostólica.
Saluto in lingua polacca:
Pozdrawiam Polaków, a
zwłaszcza księży zmartwychwstańców, którzy od stu pięćdziesięciu lat opiekują
się sanktuarium maryjnym na Mentorelli. To miejsce, które tak chętnie odwiedzał
Jan Paweł II i mnie jest bardzo drogie. Dziś obchodzimy wspomnienie Matki Bożej
Królowej. Wszystkich tu obecnych zawierzam Jej opiece i serdecznie wam
błogosławię.
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto i polacchi, e in
particolare i padri risurrezionisti che da centocinquanta anni si prendono cura
del santuario mariano della Mentorella. Questo posto, che così volentieri
visitava Giovanni Paolo II, anche a me e molto caro. Oggi celebriamo la memoria
della Beata Maria Vergine Regina. Alla sua protezione affido tutti voi qui
presenti e vi benedico di cuore.
Saluto in lingua
ungherese:
Isten hozta a magyar
híveket. Kedves Barátaim, Szent Péter sírjánál megtapasztaljátok az Egyház
egyetemességét is. Szép lelki élményeket kívánva szívből adom apostoli
áldásomat. Dicsértessék a Jézus Krisztus!
Traduzione italiana:
Saluto cordialmente i
pellegrini ungheresi! Cari amici, presso la tomba di San Pietro sperimentate
anche l’universalità della Chiesa. Augurandovi l’approfondimento della Vostra
fede imparto di cuore la Benedizione apostolica. Sia lodato Gesù Cristo!
* * *
Saluto ora i pellegrini
italiani. In particolare, le Suore Zelatrici del Sacro Cuore, che
ricordano il 25° anniversario dell'approvazione pontificia. Care Sorelle, con
ardente spirito missionario, proseguite nel servizio ai più bisognosi e
dappertutto testimoniate in maniera concreta il Vangelo della speranza e
dell'amore. Saluto, inoltre, i partecipanti alla Festa del pellegrino in
onore di san Gabriele dell'Addolorata, augurando a ciascuno che la sosta presso
le Tombe degli Apostoli sia per tutti incoraggiamento a un proficuo
rinnovamento spirituale. Il mio pensiero va poi alle Famiglie e ai laici
animatori vocazionali Rogazionisti. Cari amici, continuate con gioia e
generosità nel vostro impegno in favore delle vocazioni di speciale
consacrazione, secondo l'esempio e gli insegnamenti di sant'Annibale Maria Di
Francia.
Rivolgo infine, come di
consueto, un cordiale saluto ai giovani, ai malati e agli sposi
novelli. Eleviamo lo sguardo verso il Cielo per contemplare lo splendore della
Santa Madre di Dio, che quest'oggi la liturgia ci invita a invocare come nostra
Regina. Cari giovani, ponete voi stessi e ogni vostro progetto sotto la
materna protezione di Colei che ha donato al mondo il Salvatore. Cari malati,
in attesa del ricupero della salute, pregateLa ogni giorno per ottenere la
forza di affrontare con pazienza la prova della sofferenza. Cari sposi
novelli, coltivate verso di Lei una devozione sincera, perché vi sia accanto
nella vostra quotidiana esistenza.
© Copyright 2007 -
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/it/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070822.html
GREGORIO di Nazianzo,
santo
di Alberto Pincherle -
Enciclopedia Italiana (1933)
GREGORIO di Nazianzo,
santo
Nacque fra il 325 e il
330 nel fondo paterno di Arianzo, presso Nazianzo o Diocesarea in Cappadocia,
quando il padre, Gregorio, era già vescovo di Nazianzo. Nelle scuole di Cesarea
di Cappadocia conobbe Basilio il Grande, che doveva ritrovare, riannodando
un'amicizia durata tutta la vita, in Atene, dove G. terminò gli studi di
filosofia e retorica, già continuati a Cesarea di Palestina e Alessandria. Poco
dopo Basilio, in età di 30 anni (si oscilla fra il 355-56 e il 358-59: dalla
fissazione di questa data dipende quella della nascita) ritornò in patria, dove
ricevette il battesimo. Ma la madre lo aveva già consacrato a Dio e G., in
pericolo nella traversata da Alessandria ad Atene, aveva rinnovato il voto; a
lungo il suo animo fu diviso tra l'aspirazione alla vita religiosa in
solitudine e l'amore per la letteratura e l'insegnamento: entrambi
manifestazioni di una fondamentale avversione per la vita e l'attività pratica,
specie se rendessero necessario il lottare. Ché tutta la vita di G. è un
alternarsi di momenti in cui egli cede a circostanze o pressioni altrui che lo
chiamano all'azione, e di momenti in cui, obbedendo al proprio impulso, si
ritira nella contemplazione. La cronologia è, per i primi anni, difficile da
determinare: alternò periodi in cui visse presso Basilio, nel Ponto, ad altri
in cui, ordinato sacerdote già nel 361 o 362, aiutò il padre a governare la
chiesa di Nazianzo, intervenendo a mettere pace in un dissidio tra il padre,
che in buona fede aveva sottoscritto una formula ariana, e i monaci fermi
nell'ortodossia nicena.
Basilio, divenuto vescovo
di Cesarea (370), essendo stata la Cappadocia divisa in due provincie e
trovandosi in conflitto con il vescovo Antimo di Tiana, volle consacrare
l'amico vescovo della minuscola località di Sasima. G. resistette a lungo,
rifiutando di stabilirsi in quel luogo selvaggio; rifugiatosi di nuovo in una
solitudine montana, acconsentì a ricevere la consacrazione, ma a Sasima non si
recò mai e rimase a Nazianzo, dove, dopo la morte del padre (374) continuò ad
amministrare la chiesa: non avendo ottenuto però che si nominasse un successore
al padre, si ritirò a Seleucia in Isauria, dove stette più di 3 anni.
Quivi lo raggiunsero la
notizia della morte dell'amico e la chiamata della piccola comunità ortodossa
di Costantinopoli che, dopo la morte dell'imperatore ariano Valente, poteva
sperare tempi migliori. G. raggiunse la capitale, dove predicò con grande
efficacia contro l'eresia e riuscì a ottenere, dopo la venuta di Teodosio, che
le chiese fossero dagli ariani restituite ai cattolici.
Una prima amarezza gli
aveva procurato il tentativo di un Massimo, già filosofo cinico poi fattosi
cristiano e da G. pubblicamente lodato; fattosi consacrare vescovo da Pietro di
Alessandria (già si manifestano i primi dissensi tra le due sedi), costui aveva
cercato, con l'aiuto di marinai egiziani, di cacciare G.; ma questi ebbe
l'appoggio di Teodosio, e Massimo dovette allontanarsi. Poco dopo, il concilio
di Costantinopoli, nel maggio 381, cercò di regolare la situazione,
riconoscendo G. (che, ufficialmente vescovo di Sasima, poteva essere
considerato solo un amministratore temporaneo) come vescovo della capitale. Ma,
dopo la morte di Melezio, il suo tentativo di far riconoscere Paolino,
pacificando così lo scisma antiocheno, incontrò l'opposizione degli
Occidentali, d'accordo con gli Egiziani, capitanati ora da Timoteo di
Alessandria.
Nel concilio si ricordò
al vescovo di Sasima (se pure poteva dirsi tale veramente) il canone niceno che
vietava i trasferimenti; e allora G., vedendosi così contrastato, preferì
ritirarsi (giugno 381), ritornando a Nazianzo. Qui, due anni dopo, procurò alla
chiesa vacante un vescovo, nella persona del cugino Eulalio, ritirandosi poi
nella sua terra d'Arianzo, dove morì, secondo S. Girolamo, nel 389 o 390.
G. ricevette il
soprannome di "teologo" (ὁ ϑεολόγος); pure, per noi, egli è
soprattutto oratore e, fra i tre grandi Padri cappadoci del sec. iv, il
meno significativo dal punto di vista della teologia. Delle sue 45 omelie (e si
direbbero meglio "Discorsi"), la maggior parte sono panegirici,
orazioni funebri e commemorative (per il fratello Cesario, la sorella Gorgonia,
il padre, S. Atanasio e S. Basilio il Grande; Oratt. 7, 8, 18, 21, 43)
discorsi d'occasione (compresi quelli riguardanti la sua fuga prima di ricevere
il sacerdozio, Or. 2; la sua consacrazione a vescovo di Sasima, Oratt.
9-11; l'episodio di Massimo, Oratt. 25-26; il Supremum vale alla
chiesa di Costantinopoli, Or. 42 e le invettive contro Giuliano
l'Apostata, Oratt. 4 e 5, posteriori alla morte di lui) o in celebrazione
di feste (p. es. quelle sul Natale e l'Epifania, Oratt. 38 e 39, base
dello scritto di H. Usener e della controversia sull'origine e la diffusione
delle due feste). Una sola si può dire esegetica (Or. 37, su Matteo, XIX,
1 segg.), una sola morale (Or. 14, sull'amore dei poveri); più numerose quelle
di contenuto dottrinale, tra cui spiccano - avendogli procurato il soprannome -
i 5 discorsi, da G. stesso chiamati teologici, tenuti a Costantinopoli (Oratt.
27-31).
Numerose (247) sono anche
le lettere di G.; v. sotto: Edizioni nn. 101 e 102 a Cledonio; 202, a Nettario
vescovo di Costantinopoli; 243, sono di carattere teologico e piuttosto
discorsi che lettere: le prime tre contro Apollinare di Laodicea, l'ultima è uno
scritto "al monaco Evagrio intorno alla divinità" (Πρὸς Εὐάγριον μόναχον
περὶ ϑεότητος), attribuito anche a Gregorio di Nissa e a Gregorio il
Taumaturgo, certo della 2ª metà del sec. IV, e probabilmente del Nazianzeno. La
raccolta attuale risale senza dubbio a una fatta da G. stesso su richiesta del
pronipote Nicobulo, al quale è rivolta la lettera 51, con precetti intorno allo
stile epistolare che mostrano come G. conoscesse e seguisse anche in questo
campo le regole della retorica del suo tempo. E con varî retori, quali Temistio
e Libanio, G. fu in relazione. Molte altre sono semplici lettere di
raccomandazione, consolatorie o di felicitazione.
I versi di G. furono
composti per lo più nell'età senile, come sfogo alla sua anima e anche per
mostrare che un cristiano poteva rivaleggiare, pur nella poesia, con i pagani.
Nell'edizione dei Maurini sono divisi in due "libri", ciascuno
ripartito in due sezioni: poemi teologici, cioè dogmatici e morali; poemi
storici, cioè intorno a sé stesso e intorno ad altri. I più interessanti sono
quelli del terzo gruppo, al quale appartengono il lungo poema autobiografico
(II,1, 11; Περὶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον, 1949 trimetri giambici) e quelli "Intorno
alle cose proprie" (II,1,1; Περὶ τῶν καϑ‛ ἐαυτόν) e "Lamento intorno
alle passioni della propria anima" (II, 1, 45: Θρήνος περὶ τῶν τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ψυχῆς
παϑῶν), che sono stati confrontati, non del tutto esattamente, con le Confessioni di
sant'Agostino. Parecchie di queste poesie sono puramente didascaliche e non
hanno gran valore poetico; ma in alcune, nonostante la retorica, e spesso la
monotonia e la povertà del linguaggio poetico, si manifesta una spontaneità e
vivacità d'impressioni, che a volte fa trovare a G. accenti lirici di sapore
moderno. La maggior parte di queste poesie sono nei metri tradizionali, benché
spesso i versi siano scorretti; G. ha inoltre cercato di variare al possibile
la forma metrica. Due poesie, poi, un Inno della sera ("Υμνος ἑσπερινός,
I,1, 32) e un'Esortazione alle vergini (I, 11, 3; Πρὸς παρϑένους παραινετικός)
sono invece in metro accentuativo e presentano perciò un particolare interesse
storico-letterario. Una serie dì 254 epigrammi di G. costituisce l'ottavo libro
dell'antologia di Costantino Cefala. Non è assolutamente di G. il dramma
medievale sulla Passione di Cristo (Χριστὸς πάσχων). Il temperamento
essenzialmente lirim di G. si manifesta anche nella sua oratoria, adorna,
ricca, non rifuggente da alcuno degli artifizî della retorica del suo tempo,
accurata nella lingua, con preoccupazioni puristiche (atticismo).
La sua passione di
letterato, il suo amore per la cultura classica si manifestano in lui
costantemente, dominano in tutta la sua produzione. Tuttavia, G. non rinnega
per ciò la sua fede cristiana; egli è anzi uno dei difensori dell'ortodossia,
eontro gli ariani spinti (eunomiani) e contro Apollinare. Nelle dottrine
trinitaria e cristologica alcune sue posizioni sono importantissime. Sulla
questione della processione dello Spirito Santo, G. non si spiega chiaramente,
e rivela anzi talvolta qualche incertezza; nella cristologia, pure tra
incertezze, egli rasenta una volta la formula definitiva, allorché spiega che
"altra cosa e altra cosa" (ἄλλο μὲν καὶ ἄλλο) sono (gli elementi) di
cui (consiste) il Salvatore.... ma non un altro e un altro (οὐκ ἄλλος δὲ καὶ ἄλλος)....
Infatti i due elementi sono una msa per l'unione, Dio diventando uomo, o l'uomo
diventando Dio, o come uno si voglia esprimere. Ma dico: altra cosa e altra
eosa, all'incontro di quanto ha luogo nella Trinità. Ivi infatti vi è un altro
e un altro, affinché noi non confondiamo le ipostasi, ma non altra cosa e altra
cosa, poiché i tre esseri sono una e l'identica cosa per la divinità" (ep.
101). In un altro passo celebre, egli condanna esplicitamente chi non ritenga
che Maria è madre di Dio (ϑεοτόκος; ep. 101). Quanto al peccato originale
e alla redenzione, nonostante un passo citato da sant'Agostino (e che non si
ritrova nelle sue opere), G. non sembra ammettere una vera e propria
contaminazione dell'anima umana, che ne abbia menomato la capacità di
autodeterminarsi al bene. Egli sembra inoltre respingere la dottrina che
interpreta l'espiazione come un mezzo di riscatto pagato a Satana, così
scostandosi da Gregorio di Nissa. Su altri spunti, ripete le dottrine di
Basilio. Ma è da osservare, che G. stesso non fu, come si è detto, un vero
teologo, bensì un oratore; e non ha lasciato opere sistematiche.
Ediz.: Editio
princeps, Basilea 1550, riprodotta con aggiunte, Parigi 1609-1611, voll. 2;
ristampe della precedente, Parigi 1630 e "Colonia" (ma Lipsia) 1690;
l'edizione dei Maurini, interrotta dalla rivoluzione, Parigi 1778-1840, voll.
2, riprodotta con aggiunte in Patrol. Graeca, XXXV-XXXVIII. Tra le
edizioni parziali: Oratt. 7 e 43, di F. Boulenger, Parigi 1908; i 5
discorsi teologici, di A. J. Mason, Cambridge 1899; una lettera, di G. Mercati,
in Varia sacra, Roma 1903, p. 53 (l'altra, a p. 86, è l'ep. 238); due
lettere, da papiri, di H. Gerstenger, in Sitzungsber. d. Wien. Akad.,
CCVIII, 3 (1928); i due poemi in metro accentuativo, in W. Meyer, Gesammelte
Abhandl. zur mittellatein. Rhythmik, II, Berlino 1905. Una nuova
edizione è stata progettata dall'Accademia di Cracovia: lavori preparatorî di
T. Sinko, De traditione orationum Greg. Naz., Cracovia 1917-1923,
voll. 2 (Meletemata patristica, II e III); id., in Eos, XII (1906), p. 21
segg., e 98 segg.; XV (1909), p. 63 segg.; I. Saidak, ibid., XVII (1911),
p. 193 segg.; S. Witkowski, ibid., XIII (1907), p. 40 segg.; G.
Przychocky, ibid., XVI (1910), p. 100; id., De Greg. Naz. epistulis
quaestiones selectae, Cracovia 1912.
Bibl.: A. Benoît, Saint
Gr. de Naz., 2ª ed. Parigi 1885, voll. 2; C. Cavallier, Saint Gr. de Naz.,
par l'abbé A. Benoît, Montpellier 1886; O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte d.
altkirchl. Literatur, III, 2ª ed., Friburgo in B. 1923, pp. 162-188 e 671; O.
Stählin, in W. v. Christ, Gesch. d. griech. Lit., II, 2, Monaco 1924,
pagine 1413-1420; A. Puech, Hist. de la littér. grecque chrét., III,
Parigi 1930, pp. 318-395; U. v. Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, Die griech. Literat.
d. Altertums, in Die Kultur der Gegenwart, I, viii, 3ª ed.,
Lipsia-Berlino 1924, p. 293 segg. (giudizio letterario); A. Cataudella, Le
poesie di Greg. Naz., in Atene e Roma, 1927, pp. 88-96; id., Il
prologo degli "Αιτια e Greg. Naz., in Riv. di filol. class., p.
509; E. Fleury, Hellénisme et christianisme: Saint Gr. de N. et son temps,
Parigi 1930.
SOURCE : https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/gregorio-di-nazianzo-santo_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/
.jpg)
Григорий
Богослов Школа или худ. центр: Москва
1408
г. 314 × 106 см Государственная Третьяковская галерея, Москва, Россия Инв.
19725
Из
деисусного чина Успенского собора во Владимире
Andrei
Rublev, Gregorios teologen (1408), Innsovelseskatedralen i
Vladimir.
Gregory
of Nazianzus from Vasilyevskiy chin (15th c., GTG)
Den hellige Gregor av
Nazianz den yngre (329-~390)
Minnedag: 2.
januar
Skytshelgen for diktere; for en god avling; kirkelærer
(1568). Feires
sammen med den hellige Basilios den Store
Den hellige Gregor ble
født i år 329 i Arianz, et ensomt beliggende landgods ved Nazianz (Nazianzos) i
Kappadokia; i dag Nenizi ved Aksaray i Sentral-Tyrkia. I likhet med den hellige
Basilios kom han fra en hellig familie. Han var eldste sønn av de hellige
Gregor av Nazianz den eldre og Nonna, og begge
hans to søsken, de hellige Caesarius av Nazianz og
Gorgonia, regnes også blant helgenene. Det samme gjør en fetter. Faren, Gregor
den Eldre, var fra ca 328 biskop av Nazianz i 45 år.
Gregor (ofte kalt den
Yngre for å skjelne ham fra faren) fikk en god utdannelse, først i Caesarea
Cappadociae (i dag Kayseri i Tyrkia), hvor han traff Basilios, og deretter
fortsatte han til retorikkskolen i Caesarea Palaestinae (i dag sør for Haifa i
Israel) og Alexandria, hvor han lærte den hellige Athanasius å kjenne. Ca 348
kom han til det ennå hedenske Aten, og der avsluttet han utdannelsen med ti års
jusstudier. Der utdypet han det livslange vennskapet med Basilios. De studerte
også sammen med den fremtidige keiser Julian den Frafalne (Apostata).
I 359 forlot Gregor Aten,
ga opp en juridisk karriere og slo seg ned som eremitt sammen med Basilios i
Annesi i Pontos, i naturskjønne omgivelser ved bredden av Iris (i dag
Yesilirmak), nær Neocaesarea (i dag Niksar i Nord-Tyrkia). I likhet med
Basilios ble han først døpt på denne tiden. Vennenes regelmessige diskusjoner
om teologi og klosterliv bar frukter i Basilios' aktive organisering og i
Gregors teologiske dybde og innsikt. Sammen skrev de en regel for de østlige
munkene, ofte kalt Basilianermunker.
Etter to år dro Gregor i
hjem for å hjelpe sin far, som nå var over åtti år, med å styre hans bispedømme
og eiendommer. Faren var også blitt tilknyttet en slags kjettersk sekt, men ble
omvendt til ortodoksien av sin mer begavede sønn i 361. Mot sin vilje ble
Gregor ordinert til prest av sin far ca år 362, og i panikk flyktet han til
Basilios og ble der i ti uker. Men han forsto snart det tåpelige i flukten, og
til slutt vendte han tilbake til sine nye plikter. Han skrev en apologia
(forsvarsskrift) for sin flukt, som ble en klassiker om prestedømmets natur og
plikter.
Basilios den Store ble
erkebiskop av Caesarea i 370. Han sto overfor en ariansk rival i Tyana, så
omkring år 372 konsekrerte han den motvillige Gregor til biskop av den
fiendtlige og urolige grensebyen Sasima ikke langt fra Nazianz, et sete som
bare besto av en ørliten landsby og som han opprettet i den hensikt å
opprettholde sin egen innflytelse i et omstridt område som biskop Anthimos av
Tyana krevde jurisdiksjon over.
Men i stedet for å dra
til sitt bispedømme, som han aldri kom til å besøke, virket Gregor som
hjelpebiskop hos sin far i Nazianz. Dette forårsaket en uoverensstemmelse
mellom de to vennene. Basilios beskyldte ham for slapphet, mens Gregor ikke var
klar til å bo i en fiendtlig og utrivelig by, enda mindre å bli en brikke i et
kirkepolitisk spill. Han sa at han aldri kom til å slåss for en kirke (i fysisk
forstand). Senere ble de forsonet, men deres vennskap fikk aldri tilbake sin
tidligere varme. Den ulykkelige konflikten varte egentlig til Basilios' død i
379, som var en stor sorg for Gregor. Tre år senere prekte Gregor begeistret
over sin venn og mante frem minner om deres dager sammen i det «gylne Aten».
Gregor fortsatte som
hjelpebiskop til faren døde i 374. Deretter administrerte han setet til en
etterfølger ble valgt, for han ville ikke selv bli byens biskop. Men han
foretrakk alltid eneboerlivet, og hans helse brøt sammen i 375. Han bodde i et
kloster i Seleukia i Isauria de neste fem årene.
Etter at
kristenforfølgeren keiser Valens døde i 378, vendte freden tilbake til Kirken.
Men mye gjenoppbygging var nødvendig, spesielt i selve Konstantinopel. I mer
enn tretti år hadde hovedstaden vært dominert av arianere, slik at de ortodokse
ikke en gang hadde noen kirke. Nabobiskopene sendte i år 379 bud etter Gregor
for å gjenreise byens kristne samfunn. Nok en gang protesterte han, men gikk
til slutt med på det, selv om denne lærde og kontemplative mannen fant
intrigene og volden i Konstantinopel ytterst frastøtende. Til tross for hans
åpenbare fattigdom og at han ble eldet før tiden, var de neste fem årene de
viktigste i hans liv.
Gregor bodde først i et
hus som tilhørte slektninger, men han gjorde om huset til en kirke viet til den
hellige Anastasia. Der holdt han sine berømte prekener om treenigheten som ga
ham tilnavnet Theologos, «Teologen», det vil si den som har innsikt i troen og
forståelse av Kristi guddom. Gjennom hans dyktige og grundige lære spredte hans
ry seg, og hans tilhørerskare økte. Arianere og apollinaristene angrep ham
gjennom sladder, fornærmelser og vold, men han fortsatte å forkynne troen og
doktrinene fra Nikea. Han tiltrakk seg også store personligheter som Evagrius
av Pontos og den hellige Hieronymus.
Det oppsto kontroverser
med en Maximus, som prøvde å avsette ham mens han var syk, men Gregor seiret
til slutt. Hans veltalende forkynnelse i Konstantinopel betydde mye for at
arianismen igjen ble forkastet på det store konsilet der i mai 381 under den
nylig døpte keiser Theodosios I. Konsilet bekreftet vedtakene fra Nikea som
autentisk kristen lære, og både i dette og andre doktrinære vedtak spilte
Gregor en viktig rolle. Keiseren ba arianerne om å underkaste seg eller
forsvinne. De fleste forsvant.
Under konsilet ble Gregor
utnevnt til erkebiskop av Konstantinopel av keiser Theodosios og innsatt i basilikaen
St. Sofia. Men opposisjonen mot Gregor avtok ikke, og vanskelighetene ble så
alvorlige, angrepene så sterke og intrigene så motbydelige at han ga opp etter
få ukers forløp. Han trakk seg tilbake for fredens skyld, ettersom hans viktige
arbeid med å gjenreise ortodoksien i hovedstaden nå var fullført, og keiseren
gikk motvillig med på det. Han ville ende sitt liv i kontemplasjon i nærheten
av sitt fødested. Gregor passet ikke som biskop, det var pennen som var hans
redskap. Han hadde evnen til å begeistre sine tilhørere, men han skal også lett
ha blitt mismodig.
Etter et verdig og
rørende farvel med Konstantinopel vendte han tilbake til hjembyen Nazianz, som
igjen var uten biskop. Han administrerte setet inntil en ny biskop (hans
fetter) ble utnevnt. Ca 384 trakk han seg tilbake til sine eiendommer på
fødestedet Arianz og tilbrakte tiden med å lese og skrive, mens han levde et
asketisk liv og gledet seg over hagen med sine fontener og skyggefulle
skogholt. Fra denne tiden stammer hans religiøse dikt (400 er bevart) og hans
selvbiografi. Som disse utdrag av hans biografi viser, var Gregor et følsomt
menneske med trang til et tilbaketrukket liv. Han var lite egnet til et
offentlig liv og dets gjøremål, som han ikke brød seg om. Hans prekener og
andre taler (44 er bevart) viser at han må ha vært en av de fineste talere på
sin tid, og han var også dikter. Hans 244 bevarte brev, blant annet til den
hellige Hieronymus, kaster ytterligere lys over hans karakter og hans venner og
viser en meget sympatisk personlighet, det samme gjør det lange,
selvbiografiske diktet De vita sua.
Gregor døde i Nazianz en
25. januar ca 390. Hans relikvier ble overført, først til Apostelkirken i
Konstantinopel i 950 og senere under korstogstiden til Peterskirken i Roma.
Han regnes er en av de
tre kappadokiske kirkefedrene (de andre er Basilios den Store og Gregor av Nyssa).
Han og Basilios er også to av Kirkens fire store greske kirkelærere (sammen
med Johannes
Krysostomos og Athanasius); de
ble utnevnt i 1568 av den hellige pave Pius V (1566-72).
Sammen med de to andre «kappadokiske fedre» bidro han til den endelige
overvinnelse av det arianske kjetteri.
I vestkirken ble han fra
1505 minnet den 9. mai med translasjonsfest den 11. juni. Men etter
kalenderreformen i 1969 ble hans minnedag slått sammen med Basilios den Stores.
Den ble lagt til 2. januar, så nær Basilios' dødsdag (1. januar) som mulig,
siden Gregors dødsdag 25. januar faller på festen for apostelen Paulus'
omvendelse. Hos grekerne har Gregor festdager 19., 25. og 30. januar, mens
syrerne feirer ham den 1. januar og georgierne den 23. august. Hans navn står i
Martyrologium Romanum. Han fremstilles som biskop av gresk eller latinsk ritus
ved en skrivepult og med en due på skulderen.
Kilder: Attwater
(dk), Attwater/John, Attwater/Cumming, Farmer, Jones, Bentley, Lodi,
Benedictines, Butler (I), Delaney, Schnitzler, Schauber/Schindler, Melchers,
Gorys, Dammer/Adam - Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden -
Sist oppdatert: 2001-11-02 15:31
SOURCE : http://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/gnazians
.jpg)
Ambigramme miroir
ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ (Nipson anomemata me monan opsin, Lave tes
péchés, pas seulement ton visage) inscrit en grec ancien au-dessus d'une
fontaine d'eau bénite, à l'extérieur de l'église Sainte-Sophie à Constantinople.
Toutes les lettres sont symétriques verticalement, avec le N stylisé Ͷ dans la
partie droite, ainsi la phrase n'est pas seulement un palindrome mais
aussi un ambigramme miroir, qui peut être lu de la même
manière dans les deux sens. La phrase a d'abord été écrite en haut de l'entrée
de l'église, et est attribuée à Grégoire de Nazianzus.
Gregor von Nazianz
Beiname: der Theologe
auch: der Jüngere
Gedenktag katholisch: 2. Januar
gebotener Gedenktag
gebotener Gedenktag im Erzbistum Granada, im Erzbistum Zaragoza und im Bistum Jaca: 3. Januar
Todestag: 25. JanuarGedenktag III. Klasse 9. Mai (Todestag)
Übertragung der Gebeine von Konstantinopel in den Petersdom nach Rom: 11. Juni
Gedenktag evangelisch: 8.
Mai (EKD), 10. Januar (LCMS), 14. Juni (ELCA)
Gedenktag anglikanisch:
2. Januar
Gedenktag orthodox: 25.
Januar, 30. Januar
Übertragung der Reliquien im Jahr 950: 19. Januar
bedacht in der Proskomidie
Gedenktag armenisch: 25. Januar
liturgische Feier am 6. Samstag nach dem Kreuzerhöhungssonntag
und am 2. oder 3. Samstag nach Theophanie (elfter
Gedenktag im Theophaniefestkreis)
Gedenktag koptisch: 25. Januar, 21. September
bedacht in der Basilius-Anaphora
Gedenktag äthiopisch-orthodox: 25. Januar
Todestag
Gedenktag syrisch-orthodox: 25. Januar (Gedenken), Mittwoch der vierten Woche vor der Fastenzeit, 24. November
bedacht in der Jakobus-Anaphora
Name bedeutet: der Wachsame (griech. -
latein.)
Bischof von Sasima, Erzischof von Konstantinopel, Kirchenvater / -lehrer
* um 330 auf dem Landgut Arianz bei Nazianz, heute wohl das Klostertal bei Güzelyurt in der Türkei
† 25. Januar (?) um 390 daselbst
Gregor war ein reicher, gebildeter Adliger. Seine
Mutter Nona war
eine fromme Christin, die ihren Mann, Gregor
von Nazianz den Älteren, zum christlichen Glauben brachte. Erst spät kam
Gregor auf die Welt. Er studierte in Cäsarea in Kappadokien - dem
heutigen Kayseri -,
in Cäsarea in
Palästina und in Alexandria,
wo er Athanasius kennenlernte,
sowie etwa ab 348 Rhetorik in Athen 1,
wo er er Basilius begegnete,
mit dem ihn von da an eine lebenslange innige Freundschaft verband; hier lernte
er auch den späteren Kaiser und Christenverfolger Julian Apostata kennen,
dessen Rückkehr er dann 364 in zwei erhaltenen Orationes, Reden kritisierte
und dessen Untaten er prognostizierte.
Durch seinen Vater wurde er 360 getauft und zum
Priester geweiht; aus diesem Anlass verfasste Gregor eine Abhandlung über das
Priestertum. Danach begab er sich in die Einsamkeit zu Basilius,
der mit einigen Gleichgesinnten am Fluss Iris - dem heutigen Fluss Yeşil Irmak
- in der Gegend von Neocäsarea - dem heutigen Niksar -
in strenger klösterlicher Zucht lebte.
Ungern trennte Gregor
sich, als ihn sein Vater 362 nach Nazianz -
heute ein unausgegrabener Hügel bei Gülağaç - zurückrief, damit er ihm in der
Arbeit als Bischof beistehe. Gregor versuchte, in den Konflikten zwischen den
Mönchen und seinem Vater und zwischen Anhängern des Arianismus und
seinem den Beschlüssen des 1.
Konzils von Nicäa treuen Vater zu vermitteln, dazu Lösungen zu finden
in Auseinandersetzungen der Bevölkerung mit der römischen Verwaltung um die
Höhe der Steuern. 370 half er seinem Vater, Basilius als Bischof von Cäsarea durchzusetzen.
372 brachte Basilius Gregor
dazu, die Leitung der Diözese von Sasima - dem heutigen Dorf Hasaköy bei
Niğde - zu übernehmen; Basilius hatte das Bistum errichtet, weil die Anhänger
des Arianismus in
Tyana - dem heutigen Niğde -
das Bistum übernommen hatten; Gregor konnte jedoch sein Amt nicht ausüben, weil
er sich gegen den arianischen Bischof nicht durchsetzen konnte. Gregor fügte
sich und verwaltete weiterhin das Amt seines Vaters, bis dieser 374
hundertjährig starb. Dann ging er 376 zum Heiligtum der Thekla
von Ikonium nach Seleukia am Kalykadnos - dem heutigen Silifke -, wo
er drei Jahre lang blieb; aus dieser Zeit stammen fünf Diskurse über die
Dreieinigkeit, welche seinen theologischen Ruf als führender Kirchenvater des
4. Jahrhunderts begründeten.
379 berief die nicänische Gemeinde
in Konstantinopel,
die unter der Übermacht der großen arianischen Gemeinde
litt, Gregor als Priester zu sich. Nur wenige Rechtgläubige hielten noch zu
ihm, viele Angriffe bis zur tätlichen Verfolgung seiner Person hatte er zu
erdulden. Er hielt Gottesdienst im Haus einer Anastasia; 380 wurde er in der
Hagia Sophia zum Bischof erhoben, 381 vom 1.
Konzil von Konstantinopel als rechtmäßiger Amtsinhaber anerkannt und
zu seinem Vorsitzenden gewählt. Seine arianischen Gegner fochten aber sein Amt
und seine Wahl an, da er nun gleichzeitig zwei Bistümer verwaltete und die
Arianer den Primatsanspruch für ihren Bischof erhoben; Gregor trat vom Vorsitz
im Konzil zurück und dankte 383 von seinem Bischofsamt mit einer ergreifenden
Predigt ab, um eine Ausweitung des Schismas zu verhindern. Er zog sich dann
endgültig auf sein Landgut Arianz zurück,
verwaltete das Bistum seines Vaters und verbrachte hier seine letzten Jahre,
die er ganz seiner literarischen Betätigung widmete; er konnte nun zu den
theologischen Fragen seiner Zeit, vor allem der Trinitätslehre und
Christologie, gründlich Stellung nehmen. Jahrelang ertrug er eine sehr
schmerzhafte Krankheit, bis er um 390 durch den Tod erlöst wurde.
Gregor war ein
begeisternder Prediger, schrieb Briefe und Gedichte und war ein bedeutender
Mystiker. 45 seiner Predigten, 243 Briefe sowie 407 dogmatische und moralische
Verse sind erhalten. Er gilt als einer der ganz großen Theologen. Zusammen mit
seinem Freund und Lehrer Basilius und
mit Gregor
von Nyssa war er der Begründer der Orthodoxie gegen den Arianismus.
Er bekämpfte die Lehre, wonach der Heilige Geist Gottes Geschöpf sei und die
Leugnung der menschlichen Natur Christi.
Gregor wurde auf dem Familiensitz in Arianz bestattet. Seine Gebeine wurden
956 nach Konstantinopel in
die Hagia Sophia übertragen; dessen gedenkt die Orthodoxe
Kirche am 19. Januar. Während des 4.
Kreuzzuges wurden Reliquien nach der Eroberung Konstantinopels im Jahr
1204 nach Rom gebracht, sie ruhten zunächst in der Kirche S.
Maria della Concezione in Campo Marzio, ab 1580 in der Peterskirche,
bis Papst Johannes
Paul II. sie im Jahr 2004 dem orthodoxen Patriarchen von
Konstantinopel zurück gab. Weitere Reliquien sind in Moskau zu
finden.
Gregor hinterließ 47
Reden, 240 Briefe, eine Gedichtsammlung und ein Testament; seine Werke waren
weit verbreitet und hatten große Bedeutung in allen Kirchen des Ostens. Seine
Verfasserschaft für das Drama Der leidende Christus im
Stil des Euripides, der Liturgieschrift Anaphora, Hochgebet,
und der Kommentare zu den alttestamentlichen Büchern Ezechiel und
Weisheit sind umstritten. Gregor gehört zu den orthodoxen Kirchenvätern und
wird seit dem 5. Jahrhundert wegen seiner überzeugenden Verteidigung des
christlichen Glaubens als der Theologe bezeichnet; die westliche
Kirche bezeichnet ihn als Kirchenlehrer.
In der orthodoxen Tradition sei er mit 90 Jahren gestorben, tatsächlich wurde
er wohl nur rund 60 Jahre alt.
Attribute: Bischof am Schreibpult, Taube
Patron der Dichter; für gute Ernte
1 Nach 132 ließ Kaiser Hadrian in Athen die Hadriansbibliothek errichten und westlich davon eine Akademie,
nachdem Platons Akademie spätestens 86 zerstört und aufgegeben worden war
Worte des Heiligen
Die Wohltätigkeit verbindet uns mit Gott:
Durch nichts hat der Mensch so sehr an Gott Anteil als durch das Wohltun, mag der eine auch mehr, der andere weniger Wohltaten spenden; jeder verfährt, wie ich glaube, nach seinen Kräften. …
Bringe Hilfe, reiche Nahrungsmittel, schenke ein abgetragenes Kleid her, gib Arzneimittel, verbinde Wunden, erkundige dich nach dem Missgeschick, ermuntere zur Geduld, fasse Mut, gehe [auf die Menschen] zu! Du vergibst dir dadurch nichts, du wirst nicht angesteckt werden, wenn auch übertrieben ängstliche Menschen durch dummes Geschwätz verleitet dies meinen; oder vielmehr, sie schützen dies vor, weil sie für ihre Weichlichkeit und Gottlosigkeit eine Entschuldigung brauchen, und sie nehmen zur Feigheit, als wäre sie etwas Großes und Weises, ihre Zuflucht. …
Übersehe nicht deinen Bruder, geh an ihm nicht vorüber, wende dich nicht ab von ihm, als wäre er ein Verbrecher, ein Gräuel oder sonst etwas, das man fliehen und verfluchen müsste! Er ist ein Glied von dir, wenngleich er vom Unglück niedergebeugt ist. Der Arme ist dir als Gott anvertraut, magst du auch hochmütig an ihm vorübereilen. Vielleicht gelingt es mir, dich mit diesen Worten zu beschämen. Ich habe dich mit dem Argument der Menschenliebe konfrontiert, auch wenn der Widersacher dich dazu bringen möchte, deinem Glück zu widerstreben.
Jeder, der mit dem Schiff fährt, ist dem Schiffbruch nahe und zwar umso mehr,
je kühner seine Fahrt ist. Und jeder, der mit einem Leib ausgestattet ist, ist
unmittelbar den Leiden des Leibes ausgesetzt und zwar umso mehr, je aufrechter
er einherschreitet und je weniger er auf die achtet, welche vor ihm liegen.
Solange du mit günstigem Winde fährst, reiche dem Schiffbrüchigen die Hand;
solange du gesund und reich bist, bringe den Leidenden Hilfe! Warte nicht so
lange, bis du an dir selbst erfährst, wie schlimm die Unmenschlichkeit ist und
wie gut es ist, wenn sich den Notleidenden die Herzen öffnen!
Quelle: Gregor von Nazianz: Oratio 14, 27 - 28. In: Patrologia Graeca 35. Paris 1857, Sp. 891 - 896
Des heiligen Bischofs Gregor von Nazianz Reden. Aus dem Griechischen übersetzt
und mit Anmerkungen versehen von Philipp Haeuser. = BKV, Bd. 59. 2. Aufl.,
München 1928, S. 295 - 297; bearbeitet
Zitate von Gregor von
Nazianz:
Des Menschen Leben … ist der vorbeihuschende Augenblick des Lebendigen, ist unser Kinderspiel auf Erden, ein Lichtschatten, ein fliegender Vogel, Spur eines fahrenden Schiffes, Staub, Nebelhauch, Morgentau und aufbrechende Blume.
Denken wir bei heiterem Himmel an den Sturm und im Sturm an den Steuermann!
Keiner von uns ist einzig für sich auf der Welt, er ist auch für alle anderen da.
Lasst uns, solange es noch Zeit ist, Christus besuchen, Christus heilen, Christus nähren, Christus bekleiden, Christus beherbergen, Christus ehren.
Die Menschenfreundlichkeit duldet keinen Aufschub.
Ein wenig Wermut teilt dem Honig schnell seine Bitterkeit mit, dagegen nicht einmal die doppelte Menge Honig dem Wermut etwas von seiner Süßigkeit.
Mir scheint es die Kunst der Künste und die Wissenschaft der Wissenschaften zu
sein, den Menschen, das vielseitigste und unbeständigste Wesen, zu leiten.
Quelle:
https://www.aphorismen.de/suche?f_autor=1533_Gregor+von+Nazianz, abgerufen am
16. Oktober 2019
zusammengestellt von Abt em. Dr. Emmeram Kränkl OSB,
Benediktinerabtei Schäftlarn,
für die Katholische SonntagsZeitung
Die
Hintergründe der Rückgabe der Reliquien an
den orthodoxen Patriarchen von Konstantinopel und die Meinungsverschiedenheiten
schildert Paul Kreiner in seinem Zeitungsartikel Disput um heilige Gebeine.
Schriften
von Gregor gibt es online zu lesen in den Documenta Catholica Omnia
und auf Deutsch in der
Bibliothek der Kirchenväter der Universität in
Fribourg.
Die Hadriansbibliothek in
Athen und das Ausgrabungsgelände westlich davon ist täglich von 8 Uhr bis 20
Uhr geöffnet, der Eintritt beträgt 4 €. Für alle archäologischen Stätten in
Athen gibt es ein fünf Tage gültiges Kombiticket zum Preis von 30 €. (2019)
Artikel
kommentieren / Fehler melden
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Wikipedia: Artikel über
Gregor von Nazianz („der Jüngere”)
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Autor: Joachim
Schäfer - zuletzt aktualisiert am 15.02.2022
Quellen:
• Vera Schauber, Hanns Michael Schindler: Heilige und Patrone im Jahreslauf. Pattloch, München 2001
• Hiltgard L. Keller: Reclams Lexikon der Heiligen und der biblischen Gestalten. Reclam, Ditzingen 1984
• Karl Heussi: Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte. J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1976
• Erna und Hans Melchers: Das große Buch der Heiligen. 5. Aufl., Südwest, München 1982
• http://www.fairychimney.com/deutsch/cappadocia/history.htm
• Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, begr. von Michael Buchberger. Hrsg. von Walter Kasper, 3., völlig neu bearb. Aufl. Bd. 4. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1995
• http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasak%C3%B6y,_Ni%C4%9Fde
korrekt zitieren: Joachim Schäfer: Artikel Gregor von Nazianz („der Jüngere”), aus dem Ökumenischen Heiligenlexikon - https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienG/Gregor_von_Nazianz_der_Juengere.htm, abgerufen am 3. 1. 2023
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet das Ökumenische
Heiligenlexikon in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte
bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://d-nb.info/1175439177 und http://d-nb.info/969828497 abrufbar.
SOURCE : https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienG/Gregor_von_Nazianz_der_Juengere.htm
Voir aussi : Institut Orientaliste: Centre d'Études sur Grégoire de
Nazianze : http://nazianzos.fltr.ucl.ac.be/002Contenu.htm
Oriental Institute: Centre for the Study of Gregory of Nazianzus (C.E.G.N.)
: http://nazianzos.fltr.ucl.ac.be/002Contents.htm
http://www.patristique.org/spip.php?page=recherche&recherche=Gr%C3%A9goire+de+Nazianze
