Gregory of Nyssa is the contemplative older brother of St. Peter of Sebaste and the brother of St. Basil of Caesarea. Gregory is a great theologian, honored by both the Eastern and Western churches, but his theology has only recently garnered the attention of contemporary Western theologians.

One of the giants of twentieth-century theology, Hans Urs von Balthasar, who studied Gregory’s writing and incorporated his thought into his theology, said that Gregory of Nyssa was all but unknown among his contemporaries.
Gregory of Nyssa was born around the year 335 in Cappadocia, in modern-day Turkey. In his early life, sources seem to confirm that Gregory of Nyssa took a more secular career path than his siblings Macrina and Basil of Caesarea. His father was a great teacher of classical rhetoric, and Gregory followed in his footsteps. Gregory was married but was soon convinced by his brother Basil to join his monastery.

Around the year 371, Basil, bishop of Caesarea (who apparently exerted great influence on his younger brother’s life choices) managed to get Gregory appointed the bishop of a small, politically insignificant town of Nyssa. As a bishop, however, legend has it that Gregory had a fairly eventful career—he was deposed by a synod and had to escape arrest by imperial troops. Despite these misadventures, Gregory was reinstated in Nyssa by the time of the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381. Thus, as an active bishop, Gregory was able to attend the council. The Council of Constantinople in 381 further solidified and defined trinitarian orthodoxy against several heresies, and purportedly further clarified the Christian Creed, resulting in the current iteration of the Nicene Creed that Catholics proclaim at Mass to this day.

Aside from his work with the council, Gregory himself made beautiful, dramatic contributions to the doctrine of the Trinity. One of his greatest works, Life of Moses, uses the story of Moses’ life—his birth in Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the journey through the desert—as an image of the soul’s journey with God. Gregory gleans spiritual lessons for Christians of all walks of life from Moses’ life.

In Moses’ encounter with God on Sinai, when God says: “No one may see me and live” (Exodus 33:20), Gregory ponders the meaning of this encounter. He writes: “This truly is the vision of God: never to be satisfied in the desire to see him.” Our ascent to God, our journey to see God is always one of desiring God intimately and this desire to be with God and behold his face never ends.

Gregory died several years after the Council of Constantinople, around the year 395.

Gregory’s theology has been an important newly unearthed treasure for contemporary theologians, as it emphasizes contemplative union with God and the mystical desire for God. Gregory offers a wealth of mystical wisdom for the Church in a new century, a century in which Karl Rahner famously said: “the Christian of the future will be a mystic, or he will be nothing.” Theologians like Rahner and Gregory remind us that union with God is not a calling only for great saints or theologians, but for all the children of God—for ordinary souls like you and me.
St. Gregory of Nyssa, Cappadocian Father, theologian, and mystic—pray for us!