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- Our Venerable Father Gregory the Wonderworker, Bishop of Neocaesarea (~275)
- He was born to a prominent pagan family in Neocaesarea, where
Christianity was at the time almost unknown. Nonetheless, Gregory found
and embraced the faith of Christ at an early age. His parents educated
him at the finest schools of the day in Athens, Alexandria, and Beirut;
he and his brother spent five years studying under the great Origen,
though, the Synaxarion is quick to note, "They
possessed enough discernment, however, to avoid certain errors into
which Origen was led by the excessive boldness of his speculations about
the mysteries of God."
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Refusing many tempting offers of worldly position, Gregory withdrew to the wilderness to
live in ascesis. However, the Archbishop of Amesia, familiar with his holiness and ability,
consecrated him Bishop of Neocaesarea against his will, and Gregory in obedience took up his see at about the age of thirty.
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When he entered the city as bishop, it contained only seventeen Christians. Through the
Saint's tireless and grace-filled preaching, and through the steady stream of miracles that he
wrought there, he brought so many to the faith that when he died, only seventeen of the city's
inhabitants were still pagans.
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Bishop Gregory's countless miracles were so famed that he became
known to all as the
Wonderworker. Once, the Most Holy Mother of God appeared to him with
Saint John the
Theologian and revealed divine mysteries to him directly, a grace
granted to very few. Even his detractors called him a second Moses. He
reposed in peace in 275.
source: http://www.abbamoses.com/ |
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Category: Today's saint |
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