In the penultimate battle of the Round of 32, Gregory of Nazianzus squares off against Elizabeth the New Martyr. This marks the appearance of the fourth and final Elizabeth of Lent Madness 2020. How have the Elizabeths fared so far? Elizabeth of Hungary went down in flames, losing to Herman of Alaska, but the Biblical Elizabeth and Elizabeth Fry both emerged victorious and punched their respective tickets to the Saintly Sixteen.
Yesterday, Joanna the Myrrhbearer made it past Junia 62% to 38% and will face Bartimaeus in the next round.
In case you missed Monday Madness, in which Tim and Scott previewed the Saintly Sixteen while practicing Xtreme social distancing, you can watch it here. Also, get your priorities in order!
Gregory of Nazianzus
Gregory of Nazianzus desired nothing more than a solitary monastic life steeped in contemplation. Yet by responding to the needs of the church and the call of God, he came to be counted among the influential figures in Christianity, helping restore and establish Nicene Christianity in Constantinople.
Gregory was born around 329 ce in Nazianzus, in the Cappadocia region of present-day Turkey. He was the son of a bishop. Gregory received an excellent education in Athens, where he became a close friend of Basil of Caesarea. Leaving Athens in 351, Gregory sought the solitary monastic life, but after two years, he was called home to assist his father in the management of his diocese and affairs, and—against his will—was ordained priest.
Basil became the bishop of Caesarea, and when a rival who espoused Arian Christianity gained standing, Basil consecrated his old friend Gregory as bishop of Sasima, a hostile border town. The move strained Basil and Gregory’s friendship; Gregory had no desire to live in a difficult place or to become a pawn in church politics. They later reconciled, but the friendship was never the same. In time, Gregory again returned to his father in Nazianzus. But Gregory desired a solitary, contemplative life, and he withdrew to a monastery.
By 379, Constantinople was desperately in need of a strong and able bishop after years of Arian domination. Neighboring bishops sent for Gregory to restore the community; again, he tried to demur but ultimately consented. While Constantinople presented exactly the opposite of Gregory’s desired solitude, his time there proved pivotal for Christianity. He made his house into a church and preached a famous series of sermons on the Trinity that convinced all around him of his faith and understanding of the divinity of Christ and the nature of the Godhead. During the Ecumenical Council of 381, Gregory was installed as bishop of Constantinople and helped restore Christian orthodoxy to the crossroads of East and West.
Yet position and privilege were never Gregory’s desire. After the Council, he returned to Nazianzus, where at long last, he had the simple, contemplative life he craved. He died in Nazianzus in 390.
Collect for Gregory
Almighty God, who has revealed to your Church your eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like your bishop Gregory of Nazianzus, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.
Elizabeth the New Martyr
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna of Russia was born February 24, 1864. She was the second daughter of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom. Her younger sister, Alexandra Fyodorovna, was the last empress of Russia. When Elizabeth was fourteen years old, her mother and youngest sister died of diphtheria. Elizabeth avoided the same fate because she was not living at home at the time. For a time, she was raised by her grandmother, Queen Victoria. Although she was pursued by her cousin, William II, Elizabeth ultimately chose to marry Grand Duke Sergei of Russia in 1884. After her marriage, Elizabeth embraced Orthodox Christianity.
In 1905 Elizabeth again was forced to confront tragedy when her husband was assassinated with a bomb. In the midst of the assassination Elizabeth is said to have comforted her husband’s coachman as he lay dying. She also later approached her husband’s killer in prison, offering him scriptures and inviting him to the faith.
After her husband’s death, Elizabeth divested her considerable wealth. With the funds she established the Martha and Mary Home in Moscow, a place for women to demonstrate both their devotion to Christ and their commitment to service. In 1909 she and other members of the home were dedicated as Sisters of Love and Mercy. She was engaged in a variety philanthropic ventures for nearly a decade.
In 1918, the Communist government exiled her, along with others from royal families, first to Yekaterinburg and then to Alapayevsk. On July 18, 1918, while still in Alapayevsk, she and others were murdered by local Bolsheviks. They were cast into an abandoned mine shaft and grenades were thrown in after them. Witnesses reported hearing them sing hymns as they died. One of Elizabeth’s last acts was to use her handkerchief to bandage the wounds of one of the princes murdered with her.
Elizabeth was proclaimed as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1981 and by the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole in 1992.
Collect for Elizabeth
O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Elizabeth, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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149 comments on “Gregory of Nazianzus vs. Elizabeth the New Martyr”
Well done, Celebrity Bloggers. You are making the votes quite difficult this year.
Tough choice, as always. I admire Elizabeth's piety, but the depiction of Gregory's service and leadership despite his preference for the contemplative life wins my appreciation, and my vote.
Ok, I didn't get what Gregory really did. Really though, I kind of had to vote for Elizabeth as she was born exactly 100 years before me.
Whilst pleased to learn about Elizabeth, I have long admired Gregory and so my vote goes to him. A poem by John McGuckin speaks of a humble, holy man for whom 'every foray into speech / a costed regret.' I was unsurprised to see Elizabeth in the lead after I voted. Gregory would be more than happy with this state of affairs. On the death of his friend Basil he wrote in his eulogy to Basil, 'We were driven by the same hope: the pursuit of learning. This is a way of life notoriously open to jealousy; but between us there was none. Indeed, in some sense rivalry intensified our zeal. For there was indeed a contest between us. But it was not about who should have first place, but about how one could yield it to the other. For each of us regarded the achievement of the other as his own.'
Since I attend St Gregory the Great church, I am voting for St. Gregory.
I’m torn. My parish’s patron is the Trinity and Gregory is important in explaining the Trinity. But Elizabeth, like some other Elizabeths I could name, persisted and laid down her life.
And speaking of people named Elizabeth . . . God save the Queen . . . the last thing we need now is to lose her.
Ownership: Early Christian Teaching, a book by Charles Avila, informs us about Basil the Great of Cappadocia warning against private ownership of land. Gregory of Nazianzus was himself consecrated a Bishop by Basil of Cappadocia, so there's a direct connection with today's Lent Madness.
Decades ago, Charles Avila was a seminarian in the Philippines who spent time working with extremely impoverished people after he recognized their connection to some imprisoned peasants' rights activists whom he had visited.
Charles Avila (who left seminary without becoming a priest) wondered what the early Church Fathers had stated regarding land ownership, so he proposed to do a major research project.
His seminary professors thought it wasn't worth the effort! Charles Avila dug into the library, in ancient languages, and discovered a wealth of very pronounced teachings in early centuries of Christianity.
St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom of Constantinople, and St. Ambrose of Milan -- like St. Basil the Great of Cappadocia -- wrote strongly against the private ownership of land. This part of early Christianity had been largely neglected and forgotten by most of Christianity for centuries.
The more we learn, the easier it is to link something new to what we already know. In other words, this is a sidebar to today's Lent Madness, yet fascinating and worth reading Charles Avila's relatively short book.
The collect for Elizabeth swayed me.
Without Gregory, Christianity would not be the religion we know today, so I voted for him. I am curious about Elizabeth’s title? Why New Martyr? Surely there have been many others since, alas.
While I admire the royal Elizabeth, I have a deeper appreciation at the moment for Gregory, who answered his call more than once, even when it was not his will, to serve the Christian people – and then to seek God in silence. In this time of ‘social isolation’, may we all remember how important it is to serve others, and also to know how important it is to seek God, even if in solitude.
Well done, Micah.
Elizabeth's personal piety is awe inspiring. My life has a closer connection to Gregory who accepted calls to serve when he wished to worship in contemplation. Elizabeth's choice was how to react in the situation into which she was thrust. Gregory exercised free will and could have rejected the call of church authorities. His overall influence was greater.
This is a difficult one for a deacon. On the one hand, we have a person who gave up her wealth to help those in need, and risked and lost her own life in so doing. On the other, we have a leader who has a call to contemplation. A tough decision this week . . .
Gregory of Nazianzus has long held a special place in my heart. When I was a young adult, getting ready to take my first theology classes in college, I was happily Apollinarian -- Jesus had the mind of God in a human body, makes perfect sense. It was Gregory's observation that "that which is not assumed is not redeemed" that showed me why that's a mistake. Jesus took on all of our human situation: not just our fragile, pain-sensitive body, but our limited mind too. We're not omniscient, we can't perceive the world perfectly, and Jesus shared that. And, by doing so, Jesus redeemed not only our bodies but also our minds. Thanks, Gregory, for helping me to see the full depth of the Incarnation.
Vote Gregory!
I cast my lot with Elizabeth knowing that Gregory is responsible for much of our form of Christianity today. But Elizabeth is a rarity: a Russian martyr. Not everyday you get to vote for a Russian princess.
While Elizabeth demonstrated true discipleship, and did what Jesus asked of us, Gregory went that much further, in submitting himself totally to the will of God by taking on roles not of his choosing, going to place where he would not have opted to go given a choice. Gregory is a model of spiritual obedience. Yes, Gregory of Nazanzianus gets my vote today
I'm going to blame autocorrect for calling Kaiser Wilhelm William II.
I’m going to go with Gregory. There is something truly holy in your desires all leaning one way, yet still answering the call of necessity. The path of most resistance, so to speak. But good on Elizabeth. She passed through the eye of the needle.
I had trouble casting a vote for either saint here. I was never a big fan of the theological controversies that often divide rather unite us. And Elizabeth while showing her piety was part of that ugly Romanov family that were tone deaf to the people of Russia. But, her acts of piety and comforting others is commendable. I wonder if her kast act if charity was really true.
The final Elizabeth to vote for this round gets it for singing to the end.
What a steadfast, heroic faith to help others.
Happy St. Patrick's Day, despite his loss to Lawrence and the closings of the bars due to Coronavirus.
Gregory fought Arianism which was a real threat to early Christianity. Would Elizabeth have worshipped the same faith had he not done this? He taught and about Jesus’ divinity and the Trinity. These concepts were just beginning to gel and are basic to our beliefs. Maybe we need a refresher course on Arianism.
Friends, I found a blog post from Eco-Justice Ministries offering a theological response to "social distancing" in the face of coronavirus. Given that we're talking about theology, and we're all practicing quarantine, I thought you might be interested. The theological virtue he is proposing is solidarity with the vulnerable. I figured that would be right up this group's alley:
http://www.eco-justice.org/E-200313.asp
Solidarity!
Another interesting discussion thread(s) going on today. First, to my vote. I try to vote before reading any of the posts and my thinking was this. Certainly Gregory was an admirable person, answering the call many times instead of replying with Barnaby the Scrivener's "I would prefer not to." And although I have my misgivings about royalty of all sorts (including those terrific royals in the Netherlands and Liechtenstein), I give credit to Elizabeth for looking beyond her own and doing her best to treat them in a humane fashion. So I voted for her.
One thing I will say about the threads above is there always people who feel there is a right way to vote and a wrong way, a right way to share and a wrong way, but in the end I think people have been granted the right to express themselves here however they wish. I do take exception to those who are cruel or merely trying to make trouble. But on the whole, I am willing to listen to those who are thoughtful and concerned about us all, even if I don't agree with them. That being said, "I wish you well, fellow Mad Lenters." If someone can come up with a better term for the members of this community, I would appreciate it.
An apt leade, who really would rather be meditating, is what all leaders ought to be, and for that, though Elizabeth's story is admirable, I'll support Gregory.
I feel bad because when you say someone should be the clear winner, it's like you're diminishing the other person, and in this case, I really don't want to do that. Elizabeth has a compelling personal biography, but Nanzianzus is one of the premier theologians in church history*, and truly ecumenical in the sense that he's equally revered in the East and West, something that would become increasingly rare after his time. I hope you, dear Voter, can reverse his fortunes. Kicking him to the curb after one round would be pretty amazing.
*This is basically the Lenten Madness version of the Kanye speech....
Like. Particularly the Kanye speech part.
I have loved Elizabeth since before I ever heard of Lent Madness. She showed love in the most difficult of circumstances.
Here is one way we can love our neighbors: Red Cross says they have a critical shortage of blood, due to many community blood drive cancellations. They have changed procedures to enable social distancing, etc, during the coronavirus pandemic. I've scheduled a "power red" donation (esp needed from type O and RH-negative donors) for March 31. Here's a link to the website: https://tinyurl.com/ua9c52q Blessings to all, whether you can donate or not.
I'm not so sure it's accurate to call Elizabeth a "martyr," because it seems the Bolsheviks would have murdered her due to her having been born to a "royal" family. Martyrs are supposed to be people murdered for standing up for their Christian faith, aren't they? In any case, I voted for Elizabeth, because she divested herself of her considerable wealth and showed great, selfless love.
I ask shocked that the greatest Trinitarian is losing to a nice, rich lady who was kind to the unfortunate.
I found it difficult to vote for either of these saints. Arian Christianity produced some of the world's most beautiful and meaningful Christian mosaics, which you can see in Ravenna, Italy (well not now but perhaps some day), now a UNESCO world heritage site. And ever since I first visited Ravenna to see the mosaics, over 20 some years ago, I have always found the Nicene creed to be more of a political statement than a spiritual one. Who are we to define the divinity of God? Who are we to say how God's holiness rested in Christ? For me, it's enough to try to follow Jesus and live in his way. Years ago, I read Bishop Spong's "This Hebrew Lord" and was very strongly influenced by his description of Jesus's Judaism as a religion of doing vs. the focus on belief that came with the Hellenization of Christianity. My creed are found in the Arian mosaics of San Apollinaire Nuovo in Ravenna, which show Jesus healing, teaching, feeding, blessing, turning water into wine. There is no crucifixion, either. We go from scenes of the Passion to the empty tomb. In late antiquity, they remembered all too well that crucifixion was a form of torture and execution.
As for Elizabeth, well, she got my vote but somewhat reluctantly. I am moved by her putting aside of her wealth to try to follow a Christian life. But given the history of the Russian royal family, and the harsh authoritarian history of that nation and the ways that authoritarianism is now impacting our nation it is hard for me to feel inspired by anything Russian at this time (and this from someone who studied Russian in college and is a great lover of Checkhov and Meyerhold).