The Biographical Works of Gregory of Nyssa: Proceedings of the Fifth International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa, Mainz, 6-10 September 1982 (Patristic monograph series)

280 Pages·1984·9.634 MB·English

by  Ed. Spira, Andreas

PATRISTIC MONOGRAPH SERIES, No. 12
The Biographical Works
of Gregory of Nyssa
Proceedings
of the Fifth International Colloquium
on Gregory of Nyssa
(Mainzj 6-10 September 1982)
Edited by Andreas Spira
ST. VLADIMIR’S SEMINARY LIBRARY
575 SCARSDALE ROAD
CRESTWOOD, TUCKAHOE, N.Y. 10707
Published by
iladelphia Patristic Foundation, Ltd.
The Philadelphia Patristic
Foundation
99 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
U.S,A.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 84-81655
ISBN: 0-915646-11-0
*Η γ&p των εύπολετεύτων άνδρών ιστορία
OL.ÖV τε φως τοίς σωζομέυοες
πρφς ττϊν του βίου όδδυ έμποεεί.
Basilius, In Gord. mart. 1.
Ill

Preface
This volume contains the greater part of the pa­
pers given at the Fifth International Colloquium on
St. Gregory of Nyssa, held from 6 to 10 September 1982
in Mainz. The times are not propitious to the publica­
tion of "collected papers". So my thanks are first due
to Dr. Donald Winslow, who encouraged this publication
with his kind readiness to include once more a volume
of Gregorian proceedings in the Patristic Monograph
Series.
My second great obligation is to those who, with
public funds becoming increasingly meagre these days,
provided the means for establishing a complex research
manuscript: to the Philadelphia Patristic Foundation
Ltd., who gave us the financial start; to the founda­
tion "Freunde der Universität Mainz e.V." for a very
substantial grant; to Dr. Josef A. Kohl for a most
liberal private donation; and, finally, to Professor
Otto Saame, who kindly let us have for many months the
word processor of his institute.
Impossible to give adequate thanks to all those
who gave, as Seneca said, what even the most grateful
mind is unable to restore, namely their time: to Frau
Irmgard Schilling, who typed this multilingual
manuscript; to Dr. Manfred Moser, who took care of the
layout and to whose taste and patience is due whatever
in this book is optically pleasing; to Marie-Luise
Gnad and Henriette Meissner, without whose reiterated
vigilant proof-reading I would not have dared to ready
this work for the public.
The colloquium itself would not have materialized
without the considerable financial support by the
Volkswagen Foundation and without the kind hospitality
of the Rev. Klaus Reinhardt, who put to our disposal
the beautiful baroque building of the Mainz seminary
with all its modern facilities. Further thanks are due
to the former Vicepresident and now President of the
University of Mainz, Professor Dr. rer.nat. Klaus Bey-
ermann, for opening the conference; to His Eminence
Hermann Cardinal Volk, then Bishop of Mainz, for his
exhortatory salutation; and to the Right Reverend Mau­
rus Berve, O.S.B., Abbot of Neuburg, for his important
inaugural lecture.
Mainz 1984 A. S.
The Sixth International Colloquium on St.Gregory of Nyssa, which is
appointed to take place from 1 to 5 September 1986 in Pamplona,
Spain, will deal with the first book of Gregory's Contra Eunomium
and be organized by Professor Lucas F. Mateo-Seco of the University
of Navarra.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction i
Georg LUCK,
Notes on the Vita Macrinae by Gregory of Nyssa 21
Monique ALEXANDRE,
Les nouveaux martyrs. Motifs martyrologiques
dans la vie des saints et themes hagiographiques
dans l'éloge des martyrs chez Grégoire de Nysse 33
Marguerite HARL,
Moïse figure de l'évêque dans l'Eloge de Basile
de Grégoire de Nysse (381). Un plaidoyer
pour l'autorité épiscopale 71
Basil STUDER,
Meletius von Antiochien, der erste Präsident
des Konzils von Konstantinopel (381),
nach der Trauerrede Gregors von Nyssa 121
Martin ESPER,
Enkomiastik und Christianismos in Gregors
epideiktischer Rede auf den Heiligen Theodor 145
Christoph KLOCK,
Architektur im Dienste der Heiligenverehrung.
Gregor als Kirchenbauer (Ep. 25) 161
Anthony MEREDITH,
A Comparison between the Vita S. Macrinae of
Gregory of Nyssa, the Vita Plotini of Porphyry
and the De Vita Pythagorica of Iamblichus 181
Lucas F. MATEO-SECO,
El cristiano ante la vida y ante la muerte.
Estudio del Paneglrico de Gregorio de Nisa
sobre Gregorio Taumaturgo 197
Elias MOUTSOULAS,
La "sainteté" dans les oeuvres biographiques
de Grégoire de Nysse 221
John T. CUMMINGS,
The Holy Death-Bed. Saint and Penitent.
Variation of a Theme 241
Appendix:
Gregorian Studies and Manuscripts in Rumania.
A Report by Theodor BODOGAE 265
Contributors 271
Participants 273
Introduction
The Biographical Works of Gregory of Nyssa
I. The Subject of the Colloquium. - XI. The Ancient Literary
Portrait. - III. The Contributions of the Colloquium.
I
The importance of Gregory of Nyssa lies in an an­
thropology which, owing to the unique way he presented
it became inextinguishable ever after: the life of man
seen as an infinite progress towards an infinite God.
Though neither found by Gregory nor later connected
with his name any longer, it was by the consistency of
his thought and imagination, by the intensity of his
reasoning and imagery, and by the burning colours, in
which he painted his vision, that this genuine Chris­
tian idea could fully develop its dynamic power and
gain a momentum never to fail, not even in its secu­
larized form when, having lost its celestial scope, it
appeared but as the Faustian restlessness of the
West.1
No wonder that after the rediscovery of Gregory in
this century by Werner Jaeger and Jean Daniélou, the
many minds soon attracted by him should first of all
have been interested in the intricate philosophical
and theological implications of his anthropological
concept. Consequently, also the first three in the
series of international colloquia on Gregory, estab­
lished in 1969 by Marguerite Harl, were devoted to
Gregory's theology and philosophy, explicitly those of
1969 and 1972,2 and in way of studying the difficult
tract On Infants' Early Deaths, the meeting of 1974.3
But the medium of Gregory's thought were the lan­
guage and the literary conventions of his time. Taken
into account to some degree at the fourth colloquium
in 1978, which was dedicated to Gregory's Easter ser­
mons,1' this aspect became a central point of dis­
cussion at the meeting which is to be made public now.
The 5th International Colloquium on St.Gregory of
Nyssa, which took place from 6 to 10 September 1982 in
Mainz, dealt with Gregory's biographical works and
was, therefore, an opportunity to study the use made
by Gregory of a literary genre; a genre which, though
of little consequence today, had much weight wiçh an­
tiquity. In preparation of the conference the partici­
pants had been invited to give their special attention
to the "interrelation of the historical, theological
and literary constituents of Gregory's presentation of
a holy life". For it cannot be denied that in all
these works (lives, encomia and funeral speeches), the
historical facts presented are shaped by theological
ideas and by the conventions of art. This concurrence
of what we cannot but call incompatibilities, is the
reason why it is so difficult for us to understand
this kind of literature. Yet, however, disparate these
different exigencies may appear, their coexistence in
one work is characteristic not only of Gregory's bi­
ographies or of ancient hagiography, but of the
ancients' approach to the past in general. Since the
contributions contained in this volume are all concen­
trated on Gregory himself, it will not be out of
place, before presenting them, to make a few general
remarks on a phenomenon which, being typical of an­
tiquity, is also typical of Gregory wherever he draws
the lineaments of a holy face. The question is how to
look at an ancient literary portrait.
II
There seems to be no better way to find the spirit
of antiquity than by reading an ancient historical
work. For in such a work we meet an attitude towards
the past so different from ours that we may well take
it as indicating an essential difference between our