Saint Spotlight: St. Gregory the Wonderworker
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While studying law with his brother in Beirut, the great thinkers of antiquity were not able to quench his thirst for knowledge, however. Truth was revealed to him only in the Holy Gospel, and the young man became a Christian. To continue his studies, Saint Gregory went to Alexandria, known at that time as a center for pagan and Christian learning, to study for eight years under the priest Origen at the Alexandrian Catechetical School.
St. Gregory's ascetical life and purity aroused the envy of his conceited and sin-loving peers, who decided to slander Saint Gregory. Once, when he was conversing with philosophers and teachers in the city square, a harlot came up to him and demanded payment for a sin he had supposedly committed with her. At first St. Gregory gently remonstrated with her, saying that perhaps she had mistaken him for someone else. But the profligate woman would not be silenced. Then he asked a friend to give her the money. Just as the woman took the unjustified payment, she fell to the ground in a demonic fit, and the fraud was revealed. Saint Gregory prayed over her, and the demon was expelled. This was the first of his miracles.
St. Gregory would flee from worldly affairs by becoming a desert ascetic where through fasting and prayer he attained the gifts of clairvoyance and prophecy. St. Gregory wished to stay in solitude for the rest of his life, but the Lord willed otherwise. Learning of St. Gregory’s ascetical life, Bishop Phaidemos of Amaseia, decided to make him Bishop of Neocaesarea. St. Gregory did not wish this for himself so the saint hid from the hierarch's messengers. Bishop Phaidemos would consecrate Saint in absentia. St. Gregory regarded the extraordinary event as a manifestation of God's will, and he did not dare to protest.
During this time, a heresy of false teachings regarding the Holy Trinity arose. St. Gregory prayed fervently and diligently imploring God and His most pure Mother to reveal the truth to him. The Theotokos and Apostle John the Theologian appeared to him and taught the Saint the correct way to speak of the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. St. Gregory wrote down all that St. John revealed to him which would later be affirmed during the 1st Ecumenical Council and added to the Creed.
The Saint's sermons were direct, lively, and fruitful. He taught and worked miracles in the name of Christ: he healed the sick, helped the needy, and settled disputes and complaints.
After becoming a hierarch, St. Gregory journeyed to Neocaesarea. Along the he cast out the demons from a pagan temple, the priest of which he converted to Christ. That convert was a witness to yet another of the Saint's miracles: at his word a large stone moved from its place.
Two brothers who shared an inheritance were unable to agree about their dead father's property. A large lake was the cause of their dispute, for each brother wanted the lake for himself. Both of them gathered their friends together, and were ready to come to blows. Saint Gregory persuaded them to delay their fight until the following day, while he prayed all night long on the shore of the lake which had sparked the quarrel. When dawn came, everyone saw that the lake had dried up or gone underground. Now, by the Saint's intense prayer, there was only a stream, and its course defined the boundary line.
Another time, during the construction of a church, he commanded a hill to move and make room for the foundation to be dug.
When the persecution of Christians began under Emperor Decius (249-251), St. Gregory led his flock to a faraway mountain. A certain pagan, who knew where the Christians were hiding, informed the persecutors, and soldiers surrounded the mountain. The Saint went out into an open place, raised his hands to heaven, and ordered his deacon to do the same. The soldiers searched the entire mountain, and several times they went right past those who were praying. Unable to see them, they gave up and went away. In the city they reported that there was nowhere to hide on the mountain. There were no people, just two trees standing next to each other. The informer was struck with amazement, he repented of his ways and became a devout Christian.
Saint Gregory returned to Neocaesarea after the end of the persecution. With his blessing, Church Feasts were established in honor of the martyrs who had suffered for Christ.
By the holiness of his life, his effective preaching, his miracles, and inspired guidance of his flock, the Saint increased the number of converts to Christ. When Saint Gregory first came to his See, there were only seventeen Christians in Neocaesarea. At the time of his repose, only seventeen pagans were left in the city.
Source: OCA