Gregory of Nyssa (ca. 330 – ca. 395)
Greek Church Father. One of the three Cappadocian Fathers, and the brother of Basil and Macrina. He was appointed bp. of Nyssa ca. 371. A considerable number of his works were translated into Syriac in the 5th/6th cent., and many of these survive complete, though very few have yet been published (details are given in Parmentier 1989). The extant complete (or nearly so) translations are: ‘to Eustathius on the Trinity’ ( CPG 3137), ‘to Ablabius’ ( CPG 3139), ‘to Theophilus’ ( CPG 3143), ‘to Letoius’ ( CPG 3148), ‘Great Catechetical Oration’ ( CPG 3150), ‘on the Creation of Man’ ( CPG 3154), ‘Homilies on the Song of Songs’ ( CPG 3158), ‘on the Lord’s Prayer’ ( CPG 3160), ‘on the Beatitudes’ ( CPG 3161), ‘on Virginity’ ( CPG 3165), ‘Funeral oration on Meletius’ ( CPG 3180), ‘Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus’ ( CPG 3184), ‘Encomium on Stephen’ ( CPG 3186), ‘Homily on the Nativity’ ( CPG 3194), ‘Letter to his brother Peter’ ( CPG 3196; for editions of this see under Basil, Letter 38).
A Syriac homily on Poverty is attributed to Gregory, but this has been shown (Parmentier 1993) to be an abbreviation of Philoxenos, Discourse 9.
His commemoration is given as either 10 Jan. or 15 Nov.
Sources
- CPG 3135–3226.
- M. van Esbroeck, ‘Versions syriaques du panégyrique de Grégoire le Thaumaturge’, ARAM 5 (1993), 537–53.
- A. Meredith, Gregory of Nyssa (1999). (for the wider background)
- M. Parmentier, ‘Syriac translations of Gregory of Nyssa’, OLP 20 (1989), 143–93. (detailed inventory, publishing many excerpts)
- M. Parmentier, ‘Pseudo-Gregory of Nyssa’s Homily on Poverty’, ARAM 5 (1993), 401–26.
- F. Pericoli Ridolfini, ‘Dedica e sommario del De Opificio Hominis di Gregorio de Nissa nel Vat. sir. 106’, OCP 66 (2000), 295–316.
- C. Van den Eynde, La version syriaque du commentaire de Grégoire de Nysse sur le Cantique des Cantiques (1939).