Grégoire de Nazianze

329-390 4th century Feast day: January 2

Remembering God as one breathes: a prayer as continual as breath itself.

Who was Grégoire de Nazianze?

A bishop's son, inseparable friend of Basil of Caesarea, a poet whom honors always wounded. Called to Constantinople in 379 to revive a community reduced to a single house, he preached there the orations that earned him the title of Theologian, then resigned his see in the middle of the council assembly to give the Church back its peace. He ended his life withdrawn on the family land in Cappadocia, between poems and prayer.

In their own words

We ought to think of God even more often than we draw our breath.

Oration 27 (First Theological Oration), 4

That which He has not assumed He has not healed.

Letter 101, to Cledonius

Man has nothing so divine as beneficence. Be a god to the unfortunate, by imitating the mercy of God.

Oration 14, On Love of the Poor