E01884: Gregory of Nyssa in his Life of *Gregory the Miracle-Worker (bishop and missionary in Pontus, S00687), of the late 370s or the 380s, reports that the saint refused to be buried in a privately owned tomb. Written in Greek in Asia Minor.

Gregory of Nyssa, Life of *Gregory the Miracle-Worker (CPG 3184, BHG 715-715b), 95

For the context of this passage, see $E01878

95. Τοῦτον δὲ τὸν τρόπον ἐμπολιτευόμενος τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ καὶ σπουδὴν ἔχων πρὸ τῆς ἐκ τοῦ βίου μεταστάσεως πάντας ἰδεῖν πρὸς τὴν σωτήριον πίστιν ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων μετατεθέντας ἐπειδὴ προέγνω ἑαυτοῦ τὴν μετάστασιν, σπουδῇ πᾶσάν τε τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὴν περιοικίδα διηρευνήσατο μαθεῖν θέλων εἴ τινες εἶεν ὑπολειφθέντες ἔξω τῆς πίστεως. ἐπεὶ οὖν ἔγνω τοὺς παραμεμενηκότας τῇ ἀρχαίᾳ πλάνῃ μὴ πλείους εἶναι τῶν ἑπτακαίδεκα, σκυθρωπὸν μὲν καὶ τοῦτό φησι πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἀποβλέψας τὸ λείπειν τι τῷ τῶν σῳζομένων πληρώματι, πλὴν ἀλλὰ μεγάλης εὐχαριστίας ἄξιον ὅτι τοσούτους καταλείπει τοὺς εἰδωλολάτρας τῷ μετ᾽ αὐτὸν ἐκδεχομένῳ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ὅσους αὐτὸς Χριστιανοὺς ὑπεδέξατο. ἐπευξάμενος δὲ τοῖς τε πεπιστευκόσιν ἤδη τὴν εἰς τὸ τέλειον αὔξησιν καὶ τὴν ἐπιστροφὴν τοῖς ἀπίστοις οὕτω τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου βίου πρὸς τὸν θεὸν μετανίσταται ἐπισκήψας τοῖς ἐπιτηδείοις μὴ κτήσασθαι τόπον αὐτῷ πρὸς ταφὴν ἰδιάζοντα †εἰ γὰρ ζῶν κύριος κληθῆναι τόπου τινὸς οὐ κατεδέξατο ἀλλὰ παροικῶν ἐν ἀλλοτρίοις τὸν βίον διήγαγεν, οὐδὲ μετὰ θάνατον τῇ παροικίᾳ πάντως ἐπαισχυνθήσεται ἀλλ᾽ „Ἔστω”, φησὶ, „τῷ μετὰ ταῦτα βίῳ διήγημα ὅτι Γρηγόριος οὔτε ζῶν ἐπωνομάσθη τόπῳ τινὶ καὶ μετὰ θάνατον ἀλλοτρίων τάφων ἐγένετο πάροικος πάσης τῆς ἐν τῇ γῇ κτήσεως ἑαυτὸν ἀποστήσας ὡς μηδὲ ἐνταφῆναι ἰδίῳ καταδέξασθαι τόπῳ· μόνην γὰρ αὐτῷ κτῆσιν τιμίαν ἐκείνην εἶναι ἣ πλεονεξίας ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτῆς ἴχνος οὐ δέχεται.”†

‘95. Since he governed the Church in this fashion, and was concerned to see everyone transferred from the idols to the saving faith before his departure from this life, when he foresaw his own departure, he zealously searched throughout the whole city and its surrounding area, wishing to see if any still remained outside the faith. And when he found out that those who had remained in the ancient error were no more than seventeen, he looked up to God and said that it was indeed sad that something should be lacking to the sum of the saved, yet still it was a cause for great thanksgiving that he was leaving as many idolaters to his successor in the Church as he himself had found Christians. He prayed for the growth to perfection of those who had already believed, and for the conversion of unbelievers, and thus departed this human life for God, having ordered his closest associates not to purchase a private tomb for his burial. For, if during his lifetime he had not deigned to be called owner of any place, but had spent his whole life as a visitor at other people’s places, neither would he be ashamed at all to be a guest even after his death, but he said: “Let posterity have the story that, while he lived, Gregory’s name was never ascribed as a title of ownership to any place, and even after death he became a lodger of a foreign grave; for he stayed so much aloof from every kind of earthly possession that he did not accept even to be buried in a place of his own. For him the only precious possession was that which admits of no trace of greed.”’

Text: Heil 1990 (paragraph numbers after Maraval 2014).
Translation: Efthymios Rizos (using Slusser 1998).