Today we celebrate the feast of...

Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople

The pastoral flute of your theology
conquered the trumpets of orators
For it called upon the depths of the Spirit
and you were enriched with the beauty of words
Intercede to Christ our God, O Father Greogory, that our souls may be saved

Apolytikion (1st tone)

During the year 379, St Gregory came to the assistance of the Church of Constantinople, which had already been troubled for forty years by the Arians; by his supremely wise words and many labours he freed it from the corruption of heresy. He was elected Archbishop of that city by the Second Ecumenical Council, which assembled there in 381, and condemned Macedonius, Archbishop of Constantinople, 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 Saint Anastasia the Martyr. From there he began to preach his famous five sermons 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.

Like an unwandering star beaming with splendour,
Thou bringest us by mystic teaching, O Father,
To the Trinity's sunlike illumination,
O mouth breathing with fire, Gregory most mighty.