#1655: Part 1 of On the Soul and the Resurrection by St. Gregory of Nyssa

On the Soul and the Resurrection is a philosophical and theological dialogue between St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Macrina, when she was on her deathbed, and he was freaking out. (Another brother, St. Basil the Great, had just died a few months back, and St. Gregory was still mourning him when he found out his eldest sister was about to kick the bucket, too.) It’s probably fictionalized for educational purposes, but also seems to try to preserve St. Macrina’s teaching as faithfully as possible. I think you’ll find it interesting, especially once it really gets rolling next week.

This dialogue comes chronologically right after Part 2 and before Part 3 of The Life of St. Macrina. I’ll finish up The Life next week or so (there’s about three parts to go); but On the Soul and the Resurrection will take a lot longer.

Part 1.

9:30.

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#1654: Part 2 of The Life of St. Macrina by St. Gregory of Nyssa

The Life of St. Macrina continues, as she persuades her mother to turn the household into a religious community.

Part 2.

18:14.

I have to say that I really love the 4th century habit of calling the religious life or the Christian life “philosophy”, and of calling religious and hermits “philosophers”. It’s beautiful and fitting, but also very very Greek. 🙂

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#1653: Part 1 of The Life of St. Macrina by St. Gregory of Nyssa

The Life of St. Macrina is a biography — or to be exact, a panegyric or praise — of a brilliant, well-educated, well-born, rich, and beautiful lady of the Roman Empire, (from what today is Turkey) who chose the religious life over any other form of happiness. (Also, there’s a lot about her mother, St. Emmelia. That lady’s not named in the book, but you probably wanted to know.)

It was written by one of her little brothers, St. Gregory of Nyssa. He was the comparative black sheep of the ten children in this extremely Christian family descended from confessors of the faith, and yet he turned out to become a bishop and famous theologian. Some black sheep. 🙂

Part 1.

22:48.

Btw, Roger Pearse said I should record some more of his stuff soon. So now you know where I found the text of The Life of St. Macrina. 🙂

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Patristics Podcast: A Word from the Holy Fathers

Me not pay attention to other sites. Me sleeping through exciting parts.

Monachos.net is a pretty well known Orthodoxy site that’s been around a long time, and which has tons of good patristics material, and links to good stuff on other sites. But for various reasons, I haven’t been over there for about five zillion years. So I didn’t realize that they were podcasting.

I guess the general idea is much like Father Z does when he podcast on patristics — quotes from the Fathers, and then reflecting on them. It’s called A Word from the Holy Fathers. I’m sure it’s worth a listen.

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