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After their studies at Athens, Gregory became Basil's fellow [[ascetic]], living the monastic life together with him for a time in the [[hermit]]ages of Pontus. His father [[ordination|ordained]] him [[presbyter]] of the Church of Nazianzus, and St. Basil consecrated him Bishop of Sasima (or Zansima), which was in the [[archdiocese]] of Caesarea. This consecration was a source of great sorrow to Gregory, and a cause of misunderstanding between him and Basil; but his love for Basil remained unchanged, as can be plainly seen from his ''Funeral Oration on Saint Basil'' (Orat. XLIII).
About the year 379, Saint Gregory came to the assistance of the [[Church of Constantinople]], which had already been troubled for forty years by the [[Arianism|Arians]]; by his supremely wise words and many labours he freed it from the corruption of [[heresy]], and was elected Archbishop of that city by the [[Second Ecumenical Council]], which assembled there in 381, and condemned [[MacedoniusI of Constantinople|Macedonius]], Archbishop of Constantinople, as the enemy of the [[Holy Spirit]]. When St. Gregory came to Constantinople, the Arians had taken all the churches and he was forced to serve in a house chapel dedicated to St. Anastasia the [[Martyr]]. From there he began to preach his famous five [[sermon]]s on the [[Trinity]], called the ''Triadica''. When he left Constantinople two years later, the Arians did not have one church left to them in the city. St. Meletius of Antioch (see [[February 12|Feb. 12]]), who was presiding over the Second Ecumenical Council, died in the course of it, and St. Gregory was chosen in his stead; there he distinguished himself in his expositions of dogmatic theology.
Having governed the Church until 382, he delivered his farewell speech—the ''Syntacterion'', in which he demonstrated the Divinity of the Son—before 150 bishops and the Emperor [[Theodosius the Great (emperor)|Theodosius the Great]]; in this speech he requested, and received from all, permission to retire from the see of Constantinople. He returned to Nazianzus, where he lived to the end of his life, and reposed in the Lord in 391, having lived some sixty-two years.
