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Gregory of Nazianzus

Gregory of Nazianzus

329 CE–390 CE · Arianzus (near Nazianzus)

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 1 of 9329–345Birthplace, Childhood

Arianzus (near Nazianzus)Turkey

What they did here

Born c. 329 at Arianzus, his family's estate near Nazianzus in Cappadocia, where his father Gregory the Elder was bishop.

About Arianzus (near Nazianzus)

Arianzus, a hamlet near Nazianzus in southwestern Cappadocia, central Turkey. It was the family estate and birthplace of Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329), who retired and died there.

See other sages who lived in Arianzus (near Nazianzus)→

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)