Gregory of Nyssa

Younger brother of Basil the Great and the philosopher of the Cappadocian trio, Gregory was drafted by Basil into the bishopric of the small town of Nyssa. After Basil's death he emerged as the most daring mind of the age, completing the case Against Eunomius and helping to secure the faith confessed at the Council of Constantinople in 381. His Life of Moses reads the patriarch's ascent of Sinai as the soul's endless progress into God's darkness — a founding text of Christian mysticism. He credited much of his formation to his sister Macrina, whose life and deathbed conversation he lovingly recorded.

He taught that perfection is never finished: even in eternity the soul stretches endlessly forward into God — a doctrine he called epektasis.

Gregory of Nyssa has 24 commentary entries in HolyStudy’s verse-by-verse Church Fathers commentary. Open any Gospel chapter, tap a verse, and choose the Church Fathers tab.