The Ninth Day of Christmas: Wisdom from the East
Happy Ninth Day of Christmas! Today is the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church.
Well, it is in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite. On the older calendar, it is an entirely different feast, which we’ll talk about tomorrow.
Saints Basil and Gregory Nazianzen were contemporaries from Cappadocia and great theologians of the early Church.
They were lifelong friends and cohorts in fighting against the Arian heresy. Their names are sung together in the Litany of the Saints.
Saint Basil was a brilliant student who became a monk and abbot. He wrote the first monastic rule, which is still followed in the east. He was ordained a priest in 363 and became Bishop of Caesarea in 370. He died peacefully in 379 at the age of only 51.
Saint Gregory traveled the Empire seeking knowledge and wisdom, studying in Caesarea under Origen and in Alexandria and then Athens, where he studied and taught for thirty years. He spent several years in contemplation at his friend Basil’s monastery.
He left to follow his true vocation as a diocesan priest and catechist, teaching even the great Saint Jerome. In the year 372 he was consecrated a bishop, and seven years later raised to the office of Patriarch of Constantinople. His time there was spent in constant battle against the Arians. In an attempt to restore some peace to the city, he resigned his office during the First Council of Constantinople and retired. He died in the year 390.
Both men wrote voluminously on matters theological and pastoral. So important was their work, that not only were they honoured as saints, they were also named Doctors of the Church.
Doctors
A Doctor of the Church is saint “recognized as having made significant contribution to theology or doctrine through their research study, or writing”1. More precisely, a Doctor is a writer-saint who has exhibited eminens doctrina (eminent learning) and insignis vitæ sanctitas (a high degree of sanctity) and has therefore received Ecclesiæ declaratio (a proclamation by Church) of that status.
While there are tens of thousands of named saints, there are only 37 Doctors.
So if you’re looking for something to read, you could do worse than seeking out the works of today’s saints.
Friends
As mentioned above, these saints were life-long friends. A few years ago at the Catholic World Report, Father Stravinskas presented a wonderful article talking about this aspect of their lives and the meaning of Christian friendship.
What do those saints have to do with friendship, one might ask? The Second Reading for the Office of Readings for their mutual commemoration gives the answer very clearly: Gregory tells us plainly: “We seemed to be two bodies with a single spirit.” Truth be told, Gregory didn’t come up with that expression on his own; centuries before, Aristotle defined friendship as “a single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
He goes on to talk about friendship in the ancient world, in the Bible, and in the lives of the saints. An inspiring read, so go and check it out!
“Our rivalry consisted, not in seeking the first place for oneself but in yielding it to the other, for we each looked on the other’s success as his own.” (Saint Gregory Nazianzen)
- Rice, Fr. Larry (2015). “Doctors of the Church?” (PDF). usccb.org. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.