Gregory Thaumaturgus

Gregory Thaumaturgus or Gregory the Wonderworker (c. 213 – 270 AD) was a Bishop of Neocaesarea and is recognized as a saint. He had been won over to Christianity by Origen.

For the most part, righteousness of life leads a man to poverty.

By a woman came the flood of our ills, and by a woman also our blessings have their spring.

Quotes

The Oration and Panegyric Addressed to Origen

• Like some spark lighting upon our inmost soul, love was kindled and burst into flame within us—a love at once to the Holy Word, the most lovely object of all, who attracts all irresistibly toward Himself by His unutterable beauty, and to this man [Origen], His friend and advocate. And being most mightily smitten by this love, I was persuaded to give up all those objects or pursuits which seem to us befitting, and among others even my boasted jurisprudence,— yea, my very fatherland and friends... There arose but one object dear and worth desire—to wit, philosophy, and that master of philosophy, this inspired man.

• The soul is free, and cannot be coerced by any means, not even though one should confine it and keep guard over it in some secret prison-house. For wherever the intelligence is, there it is also of its own nature and by the first reason. And if it seems to you to be in a kind of prison-house, it is represented as there to you by a sort of second reason. But for all that, it is by no means precluded from subsisting anywhere according to its own determination.

A Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes

• If wisdom follows knowledge, so troubles attend on wisdom.

• How great is the envy which follows a man from his neighbours, like the sting of a wicked spirit... he who receives it, and takes it as it were into his breast, has nothing else but to eat his own heart, and tear it, and consume both soul and body, finding inconsolable vexation in the good fortune of others.

• I put a poor youth, if he be wise, before an aged prince devoid of wisdom.

• The fool is proved above all things by his finding no satisfaction in any lust.

• For the most part, righteousness of life leads a man to poverty.

• For men who lie on earth there is but one salvation, that their souls acknowledge and wing their way to Him by whom they have been made.

On All the Saints

• Since the hour when Christ despoiled Hades, men have danced in triumph over death.

• As Goliath had his head cut off with his own sword, so also is the devil, who has been the father of death, put to rout through death (Heb 2:14); and he finds that the selfsame thing which he was wont to use as the ready weapon of his deceit, has become the mighty instrument of his own destruction. Yea, if we may so speak, casting his hook at the Godhead, and seizing the wonted enjoyment of the baited pleasure, he is himself manifestly caught while he deems himself the captor, and discovers that in place of the man he has touched the God.

• Since the second Adam has brought up the first Adam out of the deeps of Hades... and has set forth him who was deceived as a citizen of heaven to the shame of the deceiver, the gates of Hades have been shut, and the gates of heaven have been opened, so as to offer an unimpeded entrance to those who rise there in faith.

On the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin Mary, The Third Homily

• For what purpose was she espoused? In order that the spoiler might not learn the mystery prematurely. For that the King was to come by a virgin, was a fact known to the wicked one. ... Wherefore the Lord came by an espoused virgin, in order to elude the notice of the wicked one.

• Hail, thou that are highly favoured! The Lord is with you. No longer shall the devil be against you; for where of old that adversary inflicted the wound, there now first of all does the Physician apply the salve of deliverance. Where death came forth, there has life now prepared its entrance. By a woman came the flood of our ills, and by a woman also our blessings have their spring.

A Declaration of Faith

• There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image.

• There is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence from God, and being made manifest by the Son, to wit to men: Image of the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect; Life, the Cause of the living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, of Sanctification; in whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, who is through all.

• There is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent.