Evidence ID
E01234Type of Evidence
Literary - Sermons/HomiliesEvidence not before
382Evidence not after
382Activity not before
382Activity not after
382Place of Evidence - Region
Asia Minor
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Nazianzos
Kaisareia/Caesarea in CappadociaPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Nazianzos
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
Nicomedia
Kaisareia/Caesarea in Cappadocia
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
NicomediaMajor author/Major anonymous work
Gregory of NazianzusCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related textsCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - bishopsSource
Gregory was born in c. 330 to a wealthy Christian family in Cappadocia. He was educated at Nazianzos, Kaisareia/Caesarea, Athens, and Alexandria, and in 361 he returned to Nazianzos where he was ordained priest by his father, Gregory the Elder, who was bishop of Nazianzos. He was ordained bishop of Sasima in Cappadocia by Basil of Caesarea in 372, but stayed in Nazianzos, administering the local community after the death of his father. After retreating as a monk in Isauria for some years, he moved to Constantinople in 379, in order to lead the struggle for the return of the city to Nicene Orthodoxy. Two years later, the Arians were ousted by the emperor Theodosius I, and Gregory became bishop of Constantinople. In 381, he convened the Council of Constantinople, at the end of which he resigned his throne and retired to Cappadocia where he died in 390.
Oration 43 was probably delivered during a memorial for Basil held in Kaisareia/Caesarea, on 1 January 382 or later.
On the manuscript tradition of this Oration (550 manuscripts), see Bernardi 1992, 40-45, and:
http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre/7597/Bibliography
Text and French translation:
Bernardi, Jean. Grégoire De Nazianze. Discours 42-43. Sources Chrétiennes 384. Paris: Cerf, 1992, 25-45, 116-307.
English Translations:
Schaff, P., and Wace, H. (eds.), A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: Second Series. Vol. 7 (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1894), 395-423.
McCauley, L.P., "On St. Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea," in: Funeral Orations by Saint Gregory Nazianzen and Saint Ambrose (Fathers of the Church 22; Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1968), 27-99.
Further reading:
Bernardi, J., La prédication des pères Cappadociens (Université de Paris, Sorbonne, 1968).
Daley, B.E., Gregory of Nazianzus (The Early Church Fathers; London: Routledge, 2006).
McGuckin, J.A., St Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2001).
Rousseau, P., Basil of Caesarea (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).
