Sainted Gregory Thaumatourgos, Bishop of Neocaesarea
Commemorated on November 17
Sainted Gregory
Thaumatourgos, Bishop of Neocaesarea, was born in the city of Neocaesarea
(northern Asia Minor) into a pagan family. Having received a fine education,
from his youth he strived for Truth, but the thinkers of antiquity were not
able to quench his thirst for knowledge. Truth was revealed to him only in the
Holy Gospel, and the youth became a Christian.
For the continuation
of his studies Saint Gregory set off to Alexandria, known then as a centre for
pagan and Christian learning. The youth, eager for knowledge, went to the
Alexandrian Catechetical School, where the presbyter Origen taught. Origen was
a famous teacher, possessing a great strength of mind and profound knowledge.
Saint Gregory became a student of the presbyter Origen. Afterwards, the saint
wrote thus about his mentor: "This man received from God a sublime gift –
to be an interpreter of the Word of God for people, to apprehend the Word of
God, as God Himself did use it, and to explain it to people, insofar as they
were able to understand it". Saint Gregory studied for eight years with
the presbyter Origen and received Baptism from him.
The ascetic life of
Saint Gregory, his continence, purity and lack of covetousness aroused envy
among his conceited and sin-loving peers – pagans that they were, and they
decided to slander Saint Gregory. One time, when he was conversing with
students on the city-square, a seductress notorious throughout the city came up
to him and demanded payment, for alleged sinful services rendered. At first
Saint Gregory gently took exception with her, that she was mistaken and assumed
that he was someone else. But the profligate woman would not be quieted. He
then asked a friend to give her the money. Just as the profligate woman took in
hand the unjust recompense, she immediately fell to the ground in a demonic
fit, and the fraud became evident. Saint Gregory said a prayer over her, and
the devil left her.
Having returned to
Neocaesarea, the saint renounced the worldly affairs into which influential
townsmen persistently sought to push him. He fled into the wilderness, where by
fasting and prayer he attained to high spiritual accomplishment and grace-bearing
gifts of perspicacity and prophecy. Saint Gregory loved life in the wilderness
and wanted to remain in solitude until the end of his days, but the Lord willed
otherwise.
The bishop of the
Cappadocian city of Amasea, Thedimos, having learned about the ascetic life of
Saint Gregory, decided to have him made bishop of Neocaesarea. But having
foreseen in spirit the intent of Vladyka Thedimos, the saint hid himself from
the messengers of the bishop who were entrusted to find him. Then Bishop
Thedimos ordained the out of sight saint as bishop of Neocaesarea, beseeching
the Lord, that He Himself would sanctify the unusual ordination. Sainted
Gregory perceived the extraordinary event as a manifestation of the will of God
and he did not dare to protest. This episode in the life of Saint Gregory was
recorded by Sainted Gregory of Nyssa (Comm. 10 January). He relates, that Saint
Gregory of Neocaesarea received the highest priestly dignity only after the
performing over him of all the sacerdotal requirements by Bishop Thedimos of
Amasea.
Before ordination,
when it was necessary for him to pronounce the Confession of the Faith, Saint
Gregory prayed fervently and diligently imploring God and the Mother of God to
reveal to him the true form of worship of the Most Holy Trinity. At the time of
prayer the All-Pure Virgin Mary appeared to him, radiant like unto the sun, and
together with Her was the Apostle John the Theologian dressed in archbishopal
vestments. At the bidding of the Mother of God, the Apostle John taught the
saint how to correctly and properly confess the Mystery of the Most Holy
Trinity. Saint Gregory wrote down everything that the Apostle John the
Theologian revealed to him. The Mystery of the Symbol-Creed of the Faith,
written down by Sainted Gregory of Neocaesarea – is a great Divine Revelation
in the history of the Church. On it is based the teaching about the Holy
Trinity in Orthodox Theology. Subsequently it was made use of by the holy
Fathers of the Church, – Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and Gregory
of Nyssa. The Credal-Symbol of Saint Gregory of Neocaesarea was later examined
and affirmed in the year 325 by the First OEcumenical Council, showing his
enduring significance for Orthodoxy.
Having become a
bishop, Saint Gregory set off to Neocaesarea. Along the way from Amasea he
expelled devils from a pagan-temple, the priest of which he converted to
Christ. The convert was witness to still another miracle of the saint, –
through his word a large heap of stone shifted from its place. The preaching of
the saint was direct, lively and fruitful. He taught and worked miracles in the
Name of Christ: he healed the sick, he helped the needy, he settled quarrels
and complaints. Two brothers in sharing an inheritance were not able to agree
over a lake property of their dead father. Each of the brothers gathered round
himself like-minded friends. They were ready to come to blows. Saint Gregory
persuaded them to delay the finish of their dispute until the following day,
and he himself prayed all night long at the shore of the lake causing the
quarrel. When dawn broke, everyone saw that the cause of the dispute was no
more – the lake had gone underground. Through the intense prayer of the saint
there now flowed but a stream, and the course of its flow defining the boundary
line. Another time, during the construction of a church, he gave command in the
Name of Christ for an hill to move and make room at the place of the
foundation.
When a persecution
against Christians began under the emperor Decius (249-251), Saint Gregory led
his flock to a faraway mountain. A certain pagan, knowing about the place of
the Christians, told this to the persecutors. Soldiers surrounded the mountain.
The saint went out into an open place, raised up his hands to heaven and,
having given orders to his deacon on what to do, he began to pray. The soldiers
searched the whole mountain, and they went several times right past those
praying, but not seeing them, they gave up and went. In the city they reported
that on the mountain there was nowhere to hide: no one was there, and only two
trees stood alongside each other. The informer was struck with amazement, he
repented his ways and became a fervent Christian.
Saint Gregory
returned to Neocaesarea after the end of the persecution. By his blessing
church feastdays were established in honour of the martyrs that had suffered
for Christ. During these times there began to spread about the false-teachings
of the heretic Paul of Samosata (Samosata was a city in Syria). This heretic
confused together the Essence of the UnDivided Trinity with the Essence of One
God the Father, confounding the minds of many Christians by his talks and
writings. The heretic Paul of Samosata was condemned at the first Antioch
Council, assembled in the year 264. Saint Gregory occupied a prominent place at
this Council.
By his saintly life,
his effective preaching, working of miracles and graced guiding of his flock,
the saint steadily increased the number of converts to Christ. Before his death
(c. 266-270) there remained in the city only 17 pagans. But when Sainted Gregory
Thaumatourgos, Bishop of Neocaesaea, first entered onto the cathedra, there
were in the city only 17 Christians.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
