Bishops Famous in Asia and Pontus

Among the bishops were the two Gregorys, the one of Nazianzus and the other of Nyssa. The second was the brother, and the first the friend and fellow worker, of the great Basil. These were the foremost champions of godliness in Cappadocia. In the front rank with them was Peter, born of the same parents as Basil and Gregory. Though he had not received a foreign education as they had, he lived, like them, a life of brilliant distinction. [a] In Pisidia Optimus, and in Lycaonia Amphilochius, fought in the front rank for the faith of their fathers and drove back the enemy’s assaults. [c]

In the West, Damasus, bishop of Rome, and Ambrose, who had been entrusted with the government of Milan, struck at those who attacked them from far away. Alongside them, bishops who had been forced to live in remote regions strengthened their friends and undid their foes by their writings. So the Governor of the universe granted pilots able to cope with the greatness of the storm. Against the violence of the foe he set the virtue of his captains in battle array, and provided fitting means to ward off the troubles of those difficult times. And this was not the only kind of protection the churches were granted by their loving Lord; they were counted worthy of yet another kind of guidance as well.