Post #5876

Gregory therefore, having returned home after some time and ordained a priest in 361, was first created bishop of Sasima, then administrator of the church of Nazianzus. In 379 he was then called to Constantinople to rule that church there: there, firm defender of the consubstantiality of the Word, he presided over the Constantinopolitan Council I of 381, proving himself the bitter enemy of the insurgent heresies and herald of the integrity of the Catholic faith. He purged the city of the errors of heresy and brought it back to the Catholic faith, which should have reconciled him with the greatest affection from all and instead attracted the envy of many. And having manifested great dissension among the bishops regarding him, he spontaneously renounced the episcopate, applying the words of the prophet: "Take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. " (Jonah 1:12). Then returning to Nazianzus, after giving to Elalius the government of that church, he devoted himself entirely to the contemplation and composition of divine things. He then wrote much, and in prose and verse, with marvelous piety and eloquence; and in the opinion of learned and holy people, nothing is found in these writings that does not conform to the rules of true piety and the Catholic faith, nothing that can be reasonably disputed by anyone. He was always the staunch defender of the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father. And just as he is inferior to none in the sanctity of life, so he easily surpasses all others in the gravity of his style. Busy in reading and composing these things, he lived in the solitude of the countryside as a monk, and, exhausted by old age, he went to heavenly life around the year 390, under the emperor Theodosius. From the X century his body was venerated in Rome. Saint Pius V, in 1568, proclaimed him a Doctor of the universal Church.