Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen

Their story

Basil and Gregory were born around 330 in Cappadocia, in what is now central Turkey, and met as young students. They studied together in Athens and became lifelong friends. Gregory later wrote that they seemed to have one soul in two bodies, and that they knew only two roads: the one to church and the one to school. Both came from deeply Christian families. Basil's grandmother, mother, sister and two brothers are all honored as saints. After his studies Basil gave up a promising career and lived for a time as a monk. The rules he wrote for monastic life are still followed in the Eastern Churches. In 370 he became bishop of Caesarea. He stood firm against the Arian heresy, which denied that Jesus is truly God, even when the emperor pressured him. He also built a great complex outside the city with a hospital, a guesthouse and care for the poor, and he worked in it himself. Gregory was a quieter man who loved prayer and study and would have been happy to stay out of public life. Basil and others kept drawing him into service. In 379 he went to Constantinople, where only a small community still held to the faith of Nicaea. In a little chapel he preached his famous sermons on the Trinity, which earned him the title "the Theologian." He briefly led the Council of Constantinople in 381, then resigned for the sake of peace and went home to pray and write poetry. Basil died in 379 and Gregory around 390. Both are Doctors of the Church, and their friendship shows how holy friends help each other become saints.