Today is the memorial of St. Gregory of Nyssa. Unlike the memorials of the other Cappadocian Fathers, Gregory’s day doesn’t appear on the calendar in the United States, so I let this one slip by. Gregory was born, in the mid-fourth century, into a family with a remarkable Christian pedigree. His grandparents had been martyrs; his parents would one day be venerated; his siblings were bishops, nuns, and great saints of the Church. Gregory entered religious life by fits and starts. He married; but then he and his wife decided to live “as brother and sister.” Gregory became one of the leading theologians of his time — and of all time. He wrote one of the earliest catechisms, as well as mystical interpretations of Scripture, letters on practical matters, and treatises on prayer. He also became a bishop, but his work in that capacity was less than memorable. He suffered much, sometimes because of the sins of his flock (and fellow bishops), and sometimes because of his own shortcomings.

I’ve posted on him before, in various contexts. I wrote about his intellectual brilliance and administrative incompetence. I wrote about his interpretation of the Song of Songs. I wrote about his eulogy for his sister, Macrina, and about his relationship with the other Cappadocians, his brother St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen.

You want to read something, right? The best place to begin is with From Glory to Glory: Texts from Gregory of Nyssa’s Mystical Writings — an amazing book. Then go on to his Life of Moses (in the Classics of Western Spirituality series).

Gregory plays a leading role in two of my books, The Fathers of the Church, Expanded Edition and Living the Mysteries: A Guide for Unfinished Christians.

Yesterday the pope continued his series of catecheses on the origins of the Church. He’s moved now from the apostles to the Apostolic Fathers, specifically Clement of Rome. As I pointed out in an earlier post, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger once defended the earlier dating of Clement’s Letter to the Romans, a position advocated by John A.T. Robinson and others. If he’s right, then Clement wrote his missive in the 60s rather than the 90s of the first century. Vatican Information Service, however, seems to be favoring the later date, and perhaps this signals a change in the opinion of the Holy Father. It will be interesting to read the full text, when it’s available. In any event, we know that Pope Benedict is a scholar who has spent quality time with Clement. It’s a good thing so many people turned out to hear him do patrology. Some 16,000 attended yesterday’s audience. Here’s the scoop from Vatican Information Service:

The Pope turned his attention to the figure of St. Clement, the third successor of St. Peter after Sts. Linus and Anacletus, who reigned in the late first century. Clement, as Bishop St. Irenaeus of Lyon writes, had known the Apostles personally and “still had their preaching in his ears and their tradition before his eyes.”

The author of an important Letter to the Corinthians, which represents “the first exercise of the primacy of Rome after the death of Peter,” Clement returns to “the perennially important theological dialectic between the indicative of salvation and the imperative of moral commitment.” And he invites people to respond to “the announcement of salvation with a generous and courageous journey of conversion.”

The Letter gives Clement the possibility to describe “the identity of the Church and her mission” and, recalling the liturgy of ancient Israel, he “unveils his idea of the Church,” in which “the clear distinction between the laity and the hierarchy does not mean conflict but the organic interconnection of a body, an organism with various functions.”

For this Apostolic Father, the Pope went on, “the Church is not a place of confusion and anarchy,” but “an organized structure in which each member undertakes his or her mission according to their vocation. … St. Clement highlights how the Church has a sacramental and not a political structure. The action of God, which we draw near to in the liturgy, precedes our own decisions and our own ideas.”

The “great prayer” with which the Letter ends is particularly important, said the Holy Father, being “an invocation on behalf of political leaders. After the texts of the Old Testament this is the oldest prayer for political institutions,” and contains “a teaching that, down the centuries, has guided the attitude of Christians towards politics and the State.”

Clement wrote his Letter shortly after the death of the emperor Domitian and his persecution of Christians who, “though aware that the persecutions would continue, did not cease to pray for those same authorities that had unjustly condemned them.

“Praying for the authorities,” the Holy Father added in conclusion, “Clement recognized the legitimate authority of political institutions in the order established by God. At the same time he expressed his concern that those authorities … should exercise their power with peace and gentleness, Caesar is not everything. There is another kingship, the origin and essence of which are not of this world.”

UPDATE: Click below for the full text of the papal address.
Continue reading The Patrologist Pope

Adrian Murdoch offers us an image of Boethius from the philosopher’s own lifetime. The image was etched in ivory during his consular year, 510, many years before he fell afoul of Theodoric. In prison awaiting execution he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy.

The Arian Theodoric suspected the Catholic Boethius of conspiring with the Byzantines. The Catholics of Italy honor their man as a martyr, as they have since the time of his death.

The Feast of St. Joseph is less than two weeks away, and I’m prepping by reading Father Joseph Lienhard’s St. Joseph in Early Christianity: Devotion and Theology: A Study and an Anthology of Patristic Texts (a lovely book). More on patristic josephology as the day approaches. Meantime, I share a quote beautiful for its clear and simple summary of the Fathers’ method of interpreting Scripture:

In their study of the Bible, moreover, the Fathers accepted in faith three controlling truths: the Holy Spirit is one, and thus, in the whole Bible speaks with one voice and teaches one truth; the Holy Spirit is no fool, and nothing in the Bible is trivial or irrelevant; and the Holy Spirit speaks to me, so that everything the Bible says should, when understood rightly, foster my Christian faith and life.

If you don’t already own the book, you can probably order it today and have it in time for March 19. The Augustine material alone is worth the price of admission, and it’s joined by passages from Jerome, Origen, Justin, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, and others. Father Lienhard’s essay provides excellent analysis and synthesis. What a great way to celebrate a great day, a great life.

Phil’s drawing lessons from Tertullian.

Phil’s got the Patristic Roundup up.

Someone just alerted me to hours of free audio. EWTN has posted the sound from four of the television series I’ve done with Scott Hahn. Other folks are posting the entire archive of “The Roman Observer,” where I appear every now and then. In both places, you can find my stuff by typing my last name as a keyword: Aquilina.