Background
a Father of the Eastern Church, was born in Cappadocia and became a professor of rhetoric. Under the persuasion of his brother, St. Basil the Great, and of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, he adopted the monastic life and later, though unwilling, was through Basil's influence made bishop of Nyssa in Cappadocia.
He preached repeatedly at the imperial court of Constantinople, and assisted in the dogmatic work of the First Council of Constantinople (381) against various Trinitarian and Christological heresies. A somewhat impractical administrator, Gregory was an eloquent preacher and a profound speculative theologian.
Neoplatonic in background and fond of Origen, he strove to emphasize the beauty of Christian asceticism (especially in Life of Macrina, a eulogy of his sister, and in On Virginity) and the reasonableness of such mysteries as the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and the Atonement. His teaching follows generally that of Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus.