Basil and Gregory, Friends in Defense of the Nicene Faith

Basil and Gregory lived at the same time, and they were recognized as equally devoted, so to speak, to the cultivation of the virtues. In their youth both had studied at Athens under Himerius and Prohaeresius, the most esteemed sophists of the age, and afterward at Antioch under Libanius the Syrian. But later they came to despise the sophists’ art and the study of law, and they resolved to pursue philosophy according to the law of the church. After spending some time on the branches of learning taught by the pagan philosophers, they took up the study of the commentaries on the Holy Scriptures written by Origen and by the most approved authors who lived before and after him. [a]

They gave great help to those who, like themselves, held the Nicene doctrines. They boldly opposed the teachings of the Arians, showing that these heretics understood neither the premises they started from nor the opinions of Origen, on which they chiefly relied. These two holy men divided the dangers of their undertaking between them, either by mutual agreement or, as I have been told, by lot. The cities around Pontus fell to Basil’s share. There he founded many monasteries, and by teaching the people he persuaded them to hold the same views as himself. After his father’s death, Gregory acted as bishop of the small city of Nazianzus, but on account of this work he lived in a number of places, and especially at Constantinople. Not long afterward he was chosen by the vote of many priests to preside over the people there; for at that time there was neither bishop nor church in Constantinople, and the doctrines of the Council of Nicaea had almost died out. [d]