Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Gregory was born around 335 in Cappadocia into a remarkable family of saints: his older brother was Saint Basil the Great and his sister Saint Macrina the Younger, whom he called his teacher. He worked for a time as a teacher of rhetoric before Basil drew him into the service of the Church, and around 372 he was made bishop of Nyssa, a small town in Cappadocia.

Opposed by the Arians, he was deposed and exiled for a time, but returned in 378. At the Council of Constantinople in 381 he was a leading defender of the faith in the Trinity. His writings, including The Life of Moses and his homilies on the Song of Songs, describe the Christian life as a never-ending ascent toward God. He died around 395.

Together with Basil and Gregory Nazianzen he is honored as one of the three Cappadocian Fathers. The Eastern Churches revere him as a great teacher, and the Second Council of Nicaea called him "the Father of Fathers." The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on January 10.