Saint Gregory of Naziansus
Gregory of Nazianzus (330 – 389) was educated in Caesarea in Palestine, Alexandria, and Athens where his good friendship started with Basil the Great.
He preferred the seclusion of a monastery in Isauria to the bishopric nominated to him.
After the death of emperor Valens, who had favored the Arians, Gregory became the champion of the Nicene Creed and took his place at The First Council of the Constantinople (381).
He spent the rest of his life in rural retirement in Cappadocia, writing in defense of the doctrine of the Trinity as it had first been formulated at the Council of Nicaea in 325.
In his writings, he mentions a visit to the pilgrimage site of St. Thecla near Seleucia on the Calycadnus (Silifke).
The Theologian of Cappadocia
Gregory was born around 329 on the family estate of Arianzus, near Nazianzus in the southwest of Cappadocia, in the region of today’s Güzelyurt, where his father was the bishop. Together with Basil the Great and Basil’s brother Gregory of Nyssa, he is one of the three Cappadocian Fathers, whose writings shaped Christian theology.
Basil made him bishop of the small town of Sasima, a post Gregory never really accepted. In 379 he was called to Constantinople, where his famous Five Theological Orations, preached in a small chapel, defended the doctrine of the Trinity. He became the archbishop of the city and presided for a short time over the Council of Constantinople in 381, before resigning and returning to Cappadocia, where he spent his last years writing poetry and letters. He died around 390.
The Orthodox Church honors him with the title of “the Theologian”. In Güzelyurt, the 19th-century church built in his name can still be visited, and our guides tell his story on a visit to the Ihlara Valley and the villages of western Cappadocia.
Cappadocia in winter, from the air
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