20 /38 TO BHMA
THE THREE HIERARCHS –
PATRONS OF EDUCATION
By Mario Baghos
It seems that in the Orthodox Church
there is an inter-relation of unity and
diversity which is manifested not only in
its elaborate rituals and other external
expressions, but in the very life of the
Church, feeding and nourishing its won-
derful tradition throughout the centuries.
This unity and diversity which is so char-
acteristic of the Orthodox faith exists in a
perfect, archetypal way in the life of the
Holy Trinity: three distinct persons,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are con-
substantial in their essence, so that we
praise them as the one and only Lord and
God of all creation. God’s revelation to
this world, which is fulfilled in the
Church, pertinently manifests this unity
and diversity: the faithful are united to
Christ and to each other in their struggle
for virtue, in their participation in the
Divine Liturgy, and in their partaking of
the sacraments – especially the sacrament
of Holy Commu-nion. The faithful in the
Church thereby truly constitute members
of Christ’s body. Yet this powerful unity
does not compromise or annihilate their
individuality, but paradoxically fulfils it.
The members of the body of Christ are
extremely diverse, with their own unique
personalities and gifts bestowed on them
by God freely and out of his boundless
love.
You may be wondering what any of this has
to do with the feast of the Three Hierarchs -
St Basil the Great, St Gregory the
Theologian, and St John Chrysostom - three
of the Church’s greatest exponents. In the
11th century, there arose in Constantinople a
vehement dispute over which of the three
was greatest. According to tradition, the three
of them appeared to St John Mauropous,
Bishop of Euchaita, in a vision, exclaiming
that “There are no divisions among us and no
opposition to one another”. The Bishop of
Euchaita proceeded to create a shared feast
day for the three which is celebrated on 30th
January, thus ending the controversy and
emphasising the unity of these renowned
Church figures. Indeed, this unity has sever-
al dimensions:
• all three are Saints of our Church;
• all three are theologians, though only St
Gregory has had that sacred epithet perma-
nently attached to his name, and
• all three are considered Patrons of
Orthodox education and literacy.
Yet despite their profound similarities, each
one of them contributed to the life of the
Church in his own unique and special way.
St Basil (329/333 -379 A.D.) was thoroughly
educated in the curriculum of late antiquity
and prided himself on being a ‘philosopher’.
This meaningful term, however, came to
mean much more to him than a love of wis-
dom in any general or abstract sense.
Although he appreciated and even extolled
the positive features of classical philosophy,
he frequently related the term to a life of total
obedience to God, to monasticism. His
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ardent dedication to the monastic life is
expressed in his writings, such as his Moralia
and Asketika, which outline the ethical and
spiritual guidelines to be observed by those
in monastic communities. A Bishop of the
Church of Caesarea, Basil was also commit-
ted to the temporal and spiritual needs of his
congregation. This is not only manifested in
his sermons, such as the renowned On the Six
Days of Creation, but in his ceaseless chari-
table works. He set up countless philanthrop-
ic institutions and provided for the poor and
underprivileged; his prodigious charity hav-
ing been described to me once as facilitating
a sort of ‘cultural revolution’ in the ancient
world. But he was also an insightful ecclesi-
astic. Basil did not compromise on matters of
Church doctrine, such as those established at
the First Ecumenical Council in 325 A.D.
Despite the theological controversies which
raged in his day, he maintained the divinity of
the Holy Spirit against those who would dis-
parage the Spirit’s importance in relation to
the Father and the Son, leading him to affirm
that “It is impossible to worship the Son
except in the Holy Spirit; it is impossible to
call upon the Father except in the Spirit of
adoption”.
Modern scholarship usually distinguishes St
Gregory (329-389 A.D.) from other Saints of
the same name by the appellation
‘Nazianzen’, which is the name of the town
in Cappadocia where he sojourned, studied,
and preached. The Orthodox Church, how-
ever, has applied to him the solemn title of
‘Theologian’, thus demonstrating not only
his importance with reference to his ‘lan-
guage about God’, but also the difference in
perception between the Church and the
world, the former preferring to emphasise his
ability, as much as humanly possible, to
express the divine mystery as opposed to his
mere geographical associations.
A contemporary of St Basil, St Gregory col-
laborated with his ‘brother of the spirit’ to
compose a collection of extracts from the
writings of the ill-fated Christian writer
Origen entitled the Philokalia. The work
JANUARY 2008
illustrates the didactic importance of these
two Fathers, with Gregory maintaining that
the work would be of great use to serious stu-
dents of theology. Later in life he became the
Bishop (Patriarch) of Constantinople, but he
spent his final years writing in relative soli-
tude. St Gregory’s work is distinguished by a
mature rhetorical style that undoubtedly
reflects his great erudition, which, like Basil,
he put to use in his defence of the Holy Spirit
and his remarkable contributions to
Trinitarian theology. Indeed, he was both a
theologian and a skilled poet, the latter being
linked to the former due to the fact that a poet
endeavours to say something about the reali-
ty which exists behind or beyond the visible.
It can be said that a theologian struggles to do
the same thing without attempting to circum-
scribe the mystery of this reality, the source
of which is our ineffable God. St Gregory’s
poetry and theology therefore reflect his pro-
found sensitivity to the divine reality, a sensi-
tivity which is vividly expressed when he
says of his poetic gift: “I am an organ of the
Lord, and sweetly... do I glorify the King”.
It is true that throughout his life St John
Chrysostom (347-407A.D) was engaged in
many bitter conflicts resulting in exiles, the
last of which he did not survive. Yet it is par-
adoxically in light of these tragedies that he
emerges as the Church’s ‘golden mouthed’
preacher. As a young man, St John dedicated
himself to rigid forms of asceticism, which,
although permanently damaging his health,
endowed him with the necessary disposition
to shepherd the inhabitants of the city where
he would become Bishop – Constantinople.
Here, St John exercised his eloquent speak-
ing skills, delivering his sermons with bril-
liance and solidifying his reputation of one of
the greatest orators of Christian antiquity. His
knowledge of the Bible was vast; his inter-
pretation of it was directly relevant to con-
temporary situations and highly praised. The
primary worship of the Orthodox Church is
the Liturgy which bears his name. His reform
of the clergy and his vehement criticism of
the excesses of the imperial authorities are a
testament to his unyielding commitment to
the Church, and the Church reciprocates by
honouring him as our Father amongst the
Saints.
On 30th January each year, therefore, we
venerate the three great Hierarchs. Three
diverse personalities, each one of them hav-
ing their own respective feast day; each one
of them edifying the people of God and con-
tributing to the life of the Church in his own
unique way. Yet there is also much signifi-
cance in the fact that we venerate them
together on a single day, for despite their
varying talents, theological expressions and
emphases, they are all witnesses of a single
truth: the reality of the Trinity and of God
made flesh in Jesus Christ. They are a testa-
ment to the unity and diversity inherent with-
in Orthodoxy and, as confirmed by the vision
of St John Mauropous in the 11th century,
they forever remain ‘without opposition and
division’ in terms of the faith they espoused,
the faith revealed to humanity by God
through grace and embodied in the Church.