GREGORY, ST., OF NYSSA (c. 331—c. 396), one of the four great fathers of the Eastern Church, and younger brother of Basil the Great, was born probably at Neocaesarea. In 371 or 372 he was ordained by Basil to the bishopric of Nyssa, a small town in Cappadocia, and there parted from his wife Theosebia, who became a deaconess. His strict orthodoxy concerning the Trinity and the Incarnation made him peculiarly obnoxious to the Arians, and in 3 75 the synod of Ancyra, convened by Demetrius the Arian governor of Pontus, condemned him for alleged irregu larities in his election and in the administration of the finances of his diocese. In 376 he was exiled, and did not return till the publi cation of the edict of Gratian in 378. Shortly afterwards he took part in the synod which met at Antioch in Caria to consider the Meletian schism. At the Council of Constantinople in 381, he was a conspicuous champion of orthodoxy, and in 382 he was com missioned to set in order the churches of Arabia, in connection.
with which mission he also visited Jerusalem. In 394 he was present at the synod held in Constantinople under the presidency of Nectarius to settle ecclesiastical disorders in Arabia. The exact date of Gregory's death is unknown. His festival is observed by the Greek Church on Jan. ro, and by the west on March 9.
Gregory of Nyssa was not so able an administrator as his brother Basil, nor so magnificent an orator as Gregory of Nazian zus, but he excelled them both as a speculative and constructive theologian. His teaching, though strictly trinitarian, shows con siderable freedom, and in many points, affinities with Origen, as in his Christology and his doctrine of final restoration.
Gregory's numerous works may be classified under five heads : (I) Treatises in doctrinal and polemical theology, the most im portant of which are that Against Eunomius, which defends the Nicene creed against Arianism and vindicates the character of Basil; the Oratio catechetica or defence of Christianity against pagans and Jews; On Faith, against the Arians; On Common Notions, in explanation of the terms in current employment with regard to the Trinity; Ten Syllogisms, against the Manichaeans; To Theophilus, against the Apollinarians; Against Fate and De anima et resurrectione. (2) Practical treatises, -including the tracts On Virginity and On Pilgrimages and the Canonical Epistle upon the rules of penance. (3) Expository and homiletical works, including the Hexaemeron, and the discourses On the Creation of Man, On the Titles of the Psalms, On the Sixth Psalm, On Ecclesi astes. (4) Biographical, consisting chiefly of funeral orations. (5) Letters.
The works were edited by Fronton le Duc (Paris, 1615, 1618 and 1638), by Migne, Patrol. Graec., vols. 44-46 and by V. Jaegar (Berlin, 192I seq.). G. H. Forbes edited the Hexaemeron and the De opificio hominis (Burntisland, 1855 and 1861), and F. Oehler the Opera dog matica (1865). There have been numerous editions of single treatises, e.g., the Oratio catechetica (J. G. Krabinger, Munich, 1838 ; J. H. Srawley, 1903) , and Eng. trans. of the Letters and select works in The Library of Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (1893) . Monographs cited in Hauck Herzog's Realencyk. vii.