Hello everyone and welcome to Catholic Saints.

I'm Taylor Kemp, the Director of Formed, and with me today is Dr. Christopher Mooney.

Thanks for having me, Taylor.

I almost hazarded your middle name there and I decided not to.

Dr. Mooney, it is great to have you.

You're a professor here at the graduate school and today we are talking about St. Gregory Nazianzus.

So, where should we begin to learn about this saint?

Well, maybe I can say a little bit about his biography.

I think Gregory's life is a nice sort of prelude to get to know him.

So Gregory lived during the fourth century in the east in a period that's often thought

of as the golden age of patristic theology, the theology of the father.

So he died around 390, was born around 3.30.

His father before him was a bishop.

Now that sounds weird to us today, but, you know, clerical and Episcopal celibus.

He wasn't as established then.

It's good to point that out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But his father was actually converted by his mother, and then his father became bishop.

And Gregory's called Gregory of Nazianzianz, because their family estate was near Nazianzianz, which was a small town in modern-day Turkey called Capadocia.

So is he one of the Capodosha?

He's one of the Capodosians.

That's right, yeah, along with Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nissa.

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