Letter 76 To Gregory of Nyssa
prelude 2: st gregory nazianzen
Letter 76 To Gregory of Nyssa14 Gregory of Nyssa wrote to Gregory Nazianzen to tell him the news of Basil's death (late September, 378). The latter may have still been at the monastery of St Thecla in Seleucia,15 or he may have already returned to Arianzus to put his affairs in order for his coming journey to Constantinople, for he assures us that such a project was not without Basil's approval, and Basil must have still been in a condition to give his opinion.16 The present letter is Gregory Nazianzen's first response to the news of Basil's death. He grieves that he is prevented by serious illness even from coming to pay honour at Basil's tomb and share in the consolation of his friends. A much longer and far more considered response to Basil's death was to come some two or three years and many tumultuous events later in the form of his
Oration 43, his own esplendent tribute to Basil's life.
To Gregory of Nyssa 1. This too was reserved for my painful life, that I should hear of the death of Basil and the departure of that holy soul who has left us to be with the Lord, for which he had been training himself his whole life long. 2. But after all the other privations there is now this, that because of my present bodily illness of which I am still in great peril, I cannot kiss that holy dust17 or be with you to philosophise fittingly and to console our common friends.
3. But to witness the desolation of his church, shorn of such a glory and bereft of such a crown is a sight that no one—at least no one of any feeling—can bear to let his eyes look upon or lend his ear to. 4. But I think that you, though you have many friends and receive many words of condolence, will not draw as much comfort from anyone else as from your own self and your memory of him.
For you two were a pattern to all others of philosophy, a kind of spiritual standard, both of good order in prosperity and of steadfastness amid adversities, for these things two philosophy affirms: to bear success with moderation and adversity with dignity. 5. This is what we have to say to your Excellence.
14 Mss.: YM, LA, PR, P, IF, BJ, ed.: Gallay I, 93–94, tr.: NPNF 2nd ser. 7, 460–461.
15 After a period of pastoral activity in Nazianzus from Easter 372 to 375, Gregory had retired in poor health to the monastery of St Thecla in Seleucia of Isauria.
16 Oration 43.2. See T. D. Barnes, 'The Collapse of the Homoeans in the East', SP 29 (1997), 3–16 at 13.
17 As did the younger Gregory after he had buried Macrina: 'I first cast myself on the tomb and embraced the dust', VSM 39.1 (GNO 8.1, 410, Maraval, 256).