10Jan
Saint Gregory, bishop of Nisis (a city in Cappadocia)
This great saint was born in the city of Nisis in Cappadocia from a truly holy family. His father Basilos, and his mother Emilia, and his sister Makrina, and his brother Basil the great bishop of Caesarea, were all distinguished holy people. Gregory grew up surrounded by this holy ambiance, and strived since his early age to grow up in loving God and his Church. However, as an adolescent he grew attracted to earthly life, and directed his efforts to make money, then he got married and neglected the great spiritual heritage, and the life of virtues he acquired in his family.
Later, and thanks to a letter addressed to him by Saint Gregory of Nizzianz, wherein he urges him to read the Sacred Scripture, Gregory seemed to change, and got more attached to reading the Scriptures and seeking in them to understand the sublime teaching of the Church. He then agreed with his wife that she would join a convent, while he entered the seminary and ended up getting ordained a priest. Then he was ordained a bishop by his brother Basil in the year 372. He always was showed readiness to defend and nurse his people with all what God gave him, especially through preaching, defending the true faith against heresies and especially Arianism in writing great theological books and conducting a holy life before his people. Consequently it was inevitable for him to face the Arians, who hate him and charged their boss, king Valence to destroy him. Gregory was made to step down from his Cathedral and sent to exile under king Valence in 375. But he was reestablished in his eparchy under the new king Grasian. Gregory got to visit his sister, mother Makrina in her convent shortly after he died, where he celebrated her funeral ceremony. And when his brother Basil passed away, Gregory took over the good fight against Arians that his brother was busy leading.
In 381 Gregory attended the second ecumenical council of Constantinople, and supported with philosophical and theological arguments, the truth of the divine nature of the Holy Spirit, and worked to excommunicate Makdonios and his followers who denied the divinity of the Holy Ghost. In 394 he participated in another council, always in Constantinople, where the fathers of the council promoted him to the rank of Metropolitan (Archbishop). He continued his fierce fight against the enemies of the true faith, leading his people first by his holy way of life, until he died in the Lord in 394. He truly enriched the Church with his theological and biblical writings; and became an important reference for the fathers of the Church and theologians especially in Trinitarian Theology matter. May his prayers be with us. Amen.