Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 5 (Gregory of Nyssa)

one of them who did not owe their settlement in the faith and their consistent Christian conduct to her religious influence.

This admirable woman had been betrothed in early life, but her intended husband died of fever. She permitted herself to contract no other alliance, regarding herself as still united to her betrothed in the world to come. She devoted herself to a religious life, and eventually, with her mother Emmelia, established a female conventual society on the family property in Pontus, at a place called Annesi, on the banks of the river Iris.

It was due to her persuasions that her brother Basil also gave up a worldly life and retired to lead a devout life in a wild spot in the immediate neighborhood of Annesi. Here, for a while, he was a hermit, and here he persuaded his friend Gregory Nazianzen to join him. They studied the works of Origen together and published a selection of extracts from his commentaries, which they called the Philocalia. Upon a friend's suggestion, Basil expanded his vision and converted his hermit’s seclusion into a monastery, which eventually became the center of many others that sprang up in that district.

His inclination toward the monastic life was greatly influenced by his acquaintance with the Egyptian monks, who had impressed him with the value of their system as an aid to religious devotion. He had also visited the hermit saints of Syria and Arabia, and learned from them the practice of severe asceticism, which both injured his health and shortened his days.

Gregory of Nyssa was the third son and one of the youngest in the family. He had an elder brother, Nectarius, who followed their father's profession as a rhetorician and, like him, died early. He also had a younger brother, Peter, who became Bishop of Sebaste.

Beyond the uncertainty regarding the year and place of his birth, it is not known where he received his education. Given his weak health and delicate constitution, it was most likely at home. It is interesting, in the case of one so highly educated, to know who took charge of his intellectual upbringing following his father's early death; his own words leave no doubt that, insofar as he had a teacher, it was Basil, his senior by several years. He constantly speaks of him as the revered "Master." To take one instance, he says in his Hexaemeron (at the beginning) that all that is striking in that work is due to Basil, while the inferior parts belong to the "pupil." Even regarding his style, he says in a letter written in his youth to Libanius that, although he enjoyed his brother’s society for only a short time, Basil was the author of his oratory; and it is safe to conclude that he was introduced to all that Athens had to teach—perhaps even to medicine—by Basil, for Basil had been at Athens. On the other hand, we have no difficulty in crediting his mother, of whom he always spoke with the tenderest affection, and his admirable sister Macrina with the care of his religious instruction. Indeed, few could be more fortunate than Gregory in his home influences. If, as there is every reason to believe, the grandmother Macrina survived Gregory’s early childhood, then, like Timothy, he was blessed with the religious instruction of another Lois and Eunice.

In this chain of female relationships, it is difficult to say which link is worthier of note: grandmother, mother, or daughter. Of the first, Basil—who attributes his early religious impressions to his grandmother—tells us that as a child she taught him a Creed that had been drawn up for the use of the Church of Neo-Caesarea by Gregory Thaumaturgus. This Creed, it is said, was revealed to the Saint in a vision. It has been translated by Bishop Bull in his Fidei Nicenae Defensio (Defense of the Nicene Faith). In its language and spirit, it anticipates the Creed of Constantinople.

It is certain that Gregory did not have the benefit of residing at Athens or of foreign travel. Such experiences might have given him the strength of character and breadth of experience that he certainly lacked. His shy and retiring disposition induced him to remain at home.