Gregory of Nyssa
Younger brother of Basil and the third Cappadocian Father. Author of the Life of Moses, Catechetical Oration, and Life of Macrina.
Why Gregory matters
The deepest mystic of the Cappadocians and the one Eastern Orthodoxy turns to when it talks about the soul's ascent to God. Life of Moses uses Moses going up Sinai as a model for every Christian's interior journey: the more you know God, the more you know how unknowable He is. That paradox — known precisely as unknowable — runs through every later Christian mystic, from Pseudo-Dionysius to Bernard to John of the Cross.
Chain to Jesus
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Common questions
- Who was Gregory of Nyssa?
- Gregory of Nyssa (335–395) — Younger brother of Basil and the third Cappadocian Father. Author of the Life of Moses, Catechetical Oration, and Life of Macrina.
- Who taught Gregory of Nyssa?
- Macrina the Younger and Basil of Caesarea.
- Who did Gregory of Nyssa oppose?
- Apollinaris of Laodicea.
Works
- The Life of Mosesc. 390
Allegorical reading of Moses as the model of Christian spiritual progress.
- Catechetical Orationc. 385
Comprehensive catechism of Christian faith for instructing pagans and heretics.
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Sources for biography
- Gregory of Nyssa, Vita Macrinae primary
- Gregory of Nyssa, Contra Eunomium primary
- Jerome, De Viris Illustribus 128 primary
documented connections(3)
- taught by Macrina the YoungerGregory portrays Macrina as his teacher in De Anima et Resurrectione.Gregory of Nyssa, De Anima et Resurrectione (preface) · Gregory of Nyssa, Vita Macrinae
- taught by Basil of CaesareaGregory describes Basil as his teacher and elder brother.Gregory of Nyssa, Contra Eunomium 1.1
- opposed Apollinaris of LaodiceaGregory of Nyssa wrote the Antirrheticus adversus Apollinarem, a sustained refutation of Apollinaris's treatise on the Incarnation.Gregory of Nyssa, Antirrheticus adversus Apollinarem