Life
Saint Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople, is one of the Three Holy Hierarchs and one of the deepest Christian theologians of all time. He was born around 330 in Arianzus in Cappadocia (present-day central Turkey), in a devout family. His father was Bishop Gregory the Elder, and his mother Nona was a woman of exceptional spirituality who is herself numbered among the saints. His brother Caesarius and sister Gorgonia are also glorified in the Church.
For his education Gregory went to Caesarea in Cappadocia, Caesarea in Palestine, Alexandria, and finally to Athens — the most prestigious educational center of the Hellenistic world at the time. In Athens he became friends with Basil the Great, a friendship that marked his entire life; together they attended lectures and lived ascetically. On returning home he was baptized and received the monastic tonsure.
His father ordained him priest in the Cappadocian churches, but Gregory, devoted to the contemplative life and theological study, initially resisted the pastoral vocation. He nevertheless accepted the mission and engaged himself remarkably in the defense of Orthodoxy at a time when Arianism was almost the official policy of the empire. Basil ordained him Bishop of the small and neglected see of Sasima in 372.
The summit of his ecclesiastical activity came between 379 and 381, when he was called to Constantinople to restore the Orthodox community in a city almost completely captured by heresies. There, in a small chapel called the Anastasia (Resurrection), he delivered the celebrated theological sermons on the Holy Trinity — five theological orations that earned him the title “the Theologian.” His eloquence, theological precision, and spiritual ardor attracted enormous crowds; but they also provoked fierce attacks from heretical mobs who stoned him and attempted to kill him.
At the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in 381, Gregory presided as Archbishop. The Council definitively confirmed the Nicene Symbol of Faith and formulated the doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit. Exhausted by conflicts and in poor health, Gregory withdrew from the throne, delivering one of the most moving farewell addresses that patristics has ever known, and returned to Cappadocia. There he spent his final years in poetry, theology, and prayer. He reposed on January 25, 389 or 390.
Gregory left a rich literary heritage: forty-five theological orations, more than two hundred epistles, and about a thousand theological poems. His theology of the Trinity and his pneumatology — the doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit — are foundations of Orthodox dogmatics to this day.
Tropar (Tone 1)
The pastoral pipe of thy theology overcame the trumpets of the philosophers; as thou didst seek the depths of the Spirit and wast granted the beauties of eloquence, O Gregory the Theologian, our Father — intercede with Christ God to save our souls.
Kontakion (Tone 3)
Thy tongue opened with divine wisdom and with holy lips as a divine trumpet, O Gregory most wise — with thy divine theology thou hast confirmed true faith.