ST GREGORY OF NYSSA, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR - 9 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 9th of March

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SAINT GREGORY OF NYSSA, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR

[Also celebrated on January 10.] Saint Gregory of Nyssa was younger brother to St Basil the Great; and was educated in polite and sacred studies.

HE RENOUNCED THE WORLD

He afterwards renounced the world, and was ordained lector; but was overcome by his violent passion for eloquence to teach rhetoric. St Gregory Nazianzen wrote to him in the strongest terms, exhorting him to renounce that paltry or ignoble glory, as he elegantly calls it. 

BISHOP OF NYSSA

This letter produced its desired effect. St Gregory returned to the sacred ministry in the lower functions of the altar: after some time he was called by his brother Basil to assist him in his pastoral duties, and in 372 was chosen bishop of Nyssa, a city of Cappadocia, near the Lesser Armenia. 

THE ARIANS TREMBLED AT HIS NAME

The Arians, who trembled at his name, prevailed with Demosthenes, vicar or deputy-governor of the province to banish him. Upon the death of the Arian emperor, Valens, in 378, St Gregory was restored to his see by the Emperor Gratian. Our holy prelate was chosen by his colleagues to redress the abuses and dissensions which heresy had introduced in Arabia and Palestine. 

HE ASSISTED AT THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE

He assisted at the council of Constantinople in 381, and was always regarded as the centre of the Catholic communion in the East. Those prelates only who joined themselves to him, were looked upon as orthodox. He died about the year 400, probably on January 10, on which the Greeks have always kept his festival: the Latins honour his memory on March 9.. 

"FATHER OF THE FATHERS"

The high reputation of his learning and virtue procured him the title of Father of the Fathers, as the seventh general council testifies. His sermons are the monuments of his piety; but his great penetration and learning appear more in his polemic works, especially in his twelve books against Eunomius. 

From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints 

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Gregory may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.