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Gregory of Nazianzus

Gregory of Nazianzus

329 CE–390 CE · Caesarea in Cappadocia

Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329/330–c. 389/390), a Cappadocian Father and bishop, was born on his family's estate at Arianzus near Nazianzus in Cappadocia. His education took him successively to Caesarea in Cappadocia, Caesarea in Palestine (where he studied rhetoric under Thespesius), Alexandria, and finally Athens, where he studied for roughly five years under Himerius and Proaeresius and formed his lifelong friendship with Basil of Caesarea. He was ordained priest by his father in 361 to assist with the diocese of Nazianzus, was nominally appointed bishop of Sasima by Basil in 372 but never took up the post, and from 379 led the small Nicene community in Constantinople, delivering the Five Theological Orations that earned him the title "the Theologian." After attending the opening of the First Council of Constantinople (381) and then resigning, he retired to his family estate at Arianzus, where he died around 389/390.

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Stop 2 of 8345–348Early Schooling

Caesarea in CappadociaTurkey

What they did here

Gregory and his brother Caesarius studied at the provincial capital Caesarea (modern Kayseri) under the teacher Carterius; here Gregory and Basil of Caesarea first became acquainted.

About Caesarea in Cappadocia

Caesarea in Cappadocia (ancient Mazaca, modern Kayseri, central Turkey), the metropolis of Cappadocia. It was the see of Basil the Great and a major centre of 4th-century theology; Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa were closely associated with its church.

In Caesarea in Cappadocia at the same time

Gregory of Nyssa

See other sages who lived in Caesarea in Cappadocia→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Gregory of Nazianzus’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Gregory of Nazianzus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(9)