The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

Canonised Father of the Church

Gregory of Nyssa

Basil's younger brother, the most speculative of the Cappadocians, whose account of the soul's endless progress into God shaped Orthodox mystical theology.

  • Received Orthodox teachingTaught consistently and received throughout the Orthodox Church, though not necessarily formulated in a conciliar definition. This is not a claim that no Father ever wrote differently.
  • Individual patristic opinionThe view of a particular Father that the Church has not received as its own teaching. The Fathers are not individually infallible: some speculated, some changed their minds, some were later corrected.
  • Historical consensusBroadly agreed among historians working from the surviving evidence. Consensus can shift when the evidence or the method changes.

Primary evidence verified Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

What still needs checking (3)
  • Archive the Life of Moses and On the Soul and the Resurrection.
  • Confirm the commemoration date against an official Orthodox source.
  • Establish, from an official Orthodox source, how Gregory's universalist passages are treated given the later condemnation of Origenism.

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Dates
around 335 - around 395 — Both dates approximate.
Region
Cappadocia
See
Nyssa
Language of composition
Greek
Commemoration
10 January (Orthodox Church in America and other Orthodox jurisdictions) — Julian-calendar jurisdictions observe the date thirteen days later on the civil calendar.

Life

Gregory was made bishop of the small town of Nyssa by his brother Basil, apparently against his own inclination and, by Basil's own account, without much administrative aptitude. He was deposed by Arian opponents and restored after the death of Valens.

After Basil's death he came into his own, taking a leading part at the Council of Constantinople in 381 and writing the works for which he is now chiefly read.

Works

Generally accepted as authentic

  • On 'Not Three Gods'
  • The Life of Moses — Not archived here.
  • On the Soul and the Resurrection — A dialogue with his sister Macrina. Not archived here.
  • The Great Catechism — Not archived here.
  • Against Eunomius — Not archived here.

Theological and spiritual contribution

On 'Not Three Gods' answers the obvious objection to the Trinitarian formula: if Peter, James and John are three men, why are Father, Son and Spirit not three gods? Gregory's answer turns on the unity of the divine activity — the three do not perform three separate operations — and on the inadequacy of counting where the divine nature is concerned.

His account of the spiritual life is his most distinctive contribution: because God is infinite, the soul's approach to God never terminates. Progress into God is endless, and the desire that is satisfied is at the same moment deepened. This idea, usually called epektasis, runs through later Orthodox mystical writing.

He is also unusually clear that the divine ousia is unknowable, and that theology proceeds by denial as much as by affirmation.

Controversy and reception

Gregory writes in several places of a final restoration in which evil is exhausted and all rational creatures are healed. This is close enough to positions later condemned under the name of Origen that his reception has required care. He is honoured as a saint and a Father; those particular passages are not received as the Church's teaching, and this site labels them as individual patristic opinion rather than as received doctrine.

  • Basil the Great

    Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, organiser of monastic life and of the Church's care for the poor, and the theologian whose work on the Holy Spirit made the Council of Constantinople possible.

    Father or writer

  • Gregory the Theologian

    One of only three figures the Orthodox Church calls the Theologian, whose five orations on the Trinity settled how the Church would speak of God, and who resigned the see of Constantinople rather than prolong a quarrel.

    Father or writer

  • Origen

    The greatest biblical scholar of the ancient Church and the source of much later exegesis, condemned by name in the sixth century. His influence and his condemnation are both real and neither cancels the other.

    Father or writer

  • Theosis

    Becoming by grace what God is by nature — and what that does and does not mean.

    Theme

  • The Holy Trinity

    One God in three persons: how the Church came to say it, and why the words were fought over.

    Theme

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Sources for this page

  1. Tier C Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) On 'Not Three Gods' translated edition of primary texts Archived in full. Source record
  2. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) The Second Ecumenical Council: Historical Introduction annotated edition of conciliar texts On his role at the council. Source record

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