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

That is, the life of continence. Finally, those who adopt this tradition must still account for the fact that no mention of Theosebeia as his wife, and no letter addressed to her, is to be found in Gregory’s numerous writings. It is noteworthy that the Benedictine editors of Gregory Nazianzen (see Epistle 95) also hold this view.

His final recovery and conversion to the Faith, which he defended so strenuously thereafter, was due to her who, all things considered, was the guiding spirit of the family. Through the powerful persuasions of his sister Macrina, he finally, after much struggle, completely changed his way of life. He severed himself from all secular occupations and retired to his brother’s monastery in the solitudes of Pontus—a beautiful spot where, as we have seen, his mother and sister had established a similar association for women in the immediate neighborhood.

Here, Gregory settled for several years, devoting himself to the study of the Scriptures and the works of his master, Origen. Here, too, his love of natural scenery was deepened, finding later a constant and adequate expression in his works. In his writings, we find a great measure of that delight in the beauty of nature which, even when felt, appears only rarely in the entire range of Greek literature. A notable instance is the following from the Letter to Adelphus, written long afterwards:

“The gifts bestowed upon the spot by Nature, who beautifies the earth with an effortless grace, are these: below, the river Halys makes the place fair to look upon with its banks, and glides like a golden ribbon through their deep purple, reddening its current with the soil it washes down. Above, a mountain densely overgrown with wood stretches its long ridge, covered at all points with the foliage of oaks, more worthy of having a Homer to sing its praises than that Ithacan Neritus which the poet calls ‘far-seen with quivering leaves.’ But the natural growth of wood as it comes down the hillside meets at the foot the plantations of human husbandry. For immediately, vines spread out over the slopes, swells, and hollows at the mountain’s base, covering all the lower ground with their color like a green mantle; and the season was now adding to their beauty with a display of magnificent grape-clusters.”

Another is from the treatise On Infants’ Early Deaths:

“Look only at an ear of corn, at the germinating of a plant, at a ripe bunch of grapes, at the beauty of early autumn in fruit or flower, at the grass springing up unbidden, at the mountain reaching its summit to the height of the air, at the springs of the lower ground bursting from its flanks in streams like milk and running in rivers through the glens, at the sea receiving those streams from every direction yet remaining within its limits, with waves edged by stretches of beach and never stepping beyond those fixed boundaries—how can the eye of reason fail to find in them all that our education for Realities requires?”

The treatise On Virginity was the fruit of this life in Basil’s monastery.

From this point on, the fortunes of Gregory are more closely linked with those of his great brother, Basil.

About A.D. 365, Basil was summoned from his retirement to act as coadjutor an assistant bishop to Eusebius, the Metropolitan of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, and to aid him in repelling the assaults of the Arian followers of Arius, who denied the full divinity of Christ faction on the Faith. In these assaults, the Arians were greatly encouraged and assisted by the inclinations of the Emperor Valens. After several years of strenuous and successful resistance, and the endurance of great persecution from the Emperor and his Court—a persecution which pursued him through life—Basil was called by popular acclaim, upon the death of Eusebius in A.D. 370, to succeed him in the See. His election was vehemently opposed, but after much turmoil, it was eventually accomplished.

To strengthen his position and surround himself with defenders of the orthodox Faith, Basil obliged his brother Gregory, in spite of his emphatic protests, to undertake the Bishopric of Nyssa modern-day Nirse, a small town in the west of Cappadocia. When a friend expressed his surprise that he had chosen so obscure a place for a man like Gregory, he replied that he did not desire his brother to receive distinction from the name of his See, but rather to confer distinction upon it.