# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 08 04_S197
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

197

received from them, for they condemn us as heretics, and boast of being the true Christians, which we ought not to tolerate, consent to, or suffer, unless we would condemn God's Word and ourselves.

Nonna.

Among the women of Christian antiquity who, though remaining modestly within the circle of the home, were yet permitted through their sons to exert a far-reaching influence upon the whole Church, three have especially commended themselves to the blessed remembrance of Christendom: Anthusa, the mother of John Chrysostom; Monica, the mother of Augustine; and she to whom we dedicate these pages, Nonna, the mother of Gregory of Nazianzus. Through this son Gregory, one of the most distinguished Greek teachers of the Church in the fourth century, honored with the surname "the Theologian" for his zealous and successful defense of the doctrine of the Godhead of Christ, the name of the mother also has become renowned in the Church.

The land in which she lived, first perhaps on a country estate, Arianzus, then in the small town of Nazianzus, bore at that time the name Cappadocia and, belonging to the interior of Asia Minor, formed a part of the vast Roman Empire. The Cappadocians were reputed brave, but also faithless, crafty, and savage, and were themselves ill-famed in a current proverb. Yet precisely among a savage race the divine Spirit often raises up the more powerful instruments, and amid corrupt surroundings the Christian life develops the purer, firmer, and stricter. To this it may be added that Christianity at that time was indeed widely spread in these regions, but had not yet penetrated everywhere. There was thus still a struggle with heathenism and a stern opposition to everything heathen. All this we see mirrored in the character of Nonna.

Nonna, descended from a respected family, Christian for a long time, had been carefully brought up in Christianity. Her husband, on the other hand, who was likewise named Gregory, belonged to a non-Christian religious party whose members bore the name Worshipers of the Most High, Hypsistarians. To the zealously Christian Nonna it was a deep wish of her heart to win her spouse for Christianity. With constant supplication to God she pressed him with entreaties and admonitions; but above all she sought to commend her faith to him by active piety and loving devotion. The latter was without doubt the most effectual. We cannot doubt this when we call to mind the character of Nonna in the words of her son: "She was a housewife after the mind of Solomon; in all things subject to her husband according to the laws of marriage, she was not ashamed, in true piety, to be his teacher and guide. She solved the hard problem of uniting a higher education, especially in the knowledge of divine things, and strict exercise of devotion, with punctual care for her household. When she was busy in the house, she seemed to know nothing of the exercises of piety; when she occupied herself with God and his worship, every earthly business seemed foreign to her: so entirely and undividedly was she present in each. Experiences had instilled in her an unbounded confidence in the effects of believing prayer. She was therefore the most diligent of those who pray, and through prayer overcame even the deepest feelings of grief over her own and others' sufferings. She had thereby gained such power over her soul that, in all sorrowful things that befell her, she never uttered a cry of lamentation before she had thanked God for it. Least of all did she think it fitting to shed tears or put on mourning garments on the days of Christian festal joy; so completely was she penetrated by the thought that a soul that loves God must subordinate everything human to the divine. More important to her than the exercises of devotion was active service of God: support of widows and orphans, visiting the poor and the sick. Inexhaustible was her liberality, even almost degenerating into passion, so that she was wont to say—these also are the words of her son—that she would, if it were possible, sell herself and her children, in order to give the money received to the poor." Such a daily example could not remain without influence upon the husband. He found himself at last overcome by his wife, and a dream either confirmed his resolution or brought it to full clearness. It seemed to him as if he were singing the passage Psalm 122:1: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." Gregory was baptized in the presence of bishops who were just then journeying to the first great council at Nicaea (325); he did not remain long afterward in the lay estate, but became a priest and soon after was appointed bishop of the congregation of Nazianzus, which had lately been neglected. This office he filled with strength and gentleness for 45 years, to an age of almost a hundred years. "He was"—to cite concerning him also the testimony of his son—"a man of fiery spirit and calm countenance; his life was full of dignity, his mind full of humility; his character simple and upright, pious without hypocrisy; his dress plain, his intercourse gentle and courteous; he gladly imparted, but the joy of giving he left to his wife."

After Nonna had in such a manner won her husband for Christianity and churchly work, the firm foundation for a Christian family life was laid. The parents had three children, a daughter Gorgonia, two sons, Gregory and Caesarius. They were very different from one another, especially the brothers. Nearest to the mother's heart stood probably the son Gregory, the afterwards renowned theologian, and upon him her spirit passed over most of all, one may say with his mother's milk.

Nonna had wished for a son, and had vowed him, if he should fall to her lot, to the service of God even before his birth. When she was indeed delivered of a boy, who was named Gregory after his father, she hastened with him to the church and, as a sign of consecration, laid his tender hands upon the Holy Scriptures. Gregory afterward often compared his mother with Hannah, who likewise had devoted her son Samuel to the service of the Lord even before his birth. Naturally Nonna brought up the son given to her wholly in the spirit of her vow. Early she gave him, after the pattern of the first consecration, the Holy Scriptures also to read and to lay to heart, and cultivated in him the earnest, inward mind, withdrawn from the world, which formed a fundamental trait of his character.

The mother Nonna outlived all her family, with the exception of her son Gregory, who could render to her also the last duties of love and veneration.

First, about the year 368 or 369, died Caesarius. When his earthly remains were carried to the graves of the martyrs, Nonna also followed the procession, not in mourning dress, but in the white garment of festal joy. She recognized the Christian significance of death as a birth to a higher life, and overcame her grief by holy psalms.

Soon after, the sister Gorgonia followed in death. She too had been, after the manner of her mother, a worthy housewife and a pious Christian. Longing for death, she had not only a foretaste of it, but also a presentiment of the time of its coming. She prepared herself for it as for a feast day, gathered her husband, children, and all her kindred about her couch, and took leave of them in Christian conversation about a better life. It was a holy celebration, in which the aged mother also took part. The dying woman seemed already no longer to breathe, when once more her lips moved and breathed out with her spirit the words of the song of praise: "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep."

After a long and severe illness, in which the consolations of the Gospel were his strength, the father Gregory also departed, probably in the spring of 374. His son set up to him in a funeral oration a lasting monument. In this oration the son calls out to his lonely mother the following words: "Life, my mother, and death, as men call it, although they seem to be very different, yet pass over into one another and take each other's place. Life begins from corruption, our common mother, and passes through corruption, in that the present is always snatched away from us