Today, January 2, is the memorial of Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzen.
Doctors of the Church.
These men began their friendship while away at school and later became bishops who were the backbone of Catholic Orthodoxy during a period of doctrinal struggle and confusion.
Basil was a highly intelligent student in Cappadocia (Turkey). He lived the monastic life for a time, just like Gregory who also came from Cappadocia.
In 370, Basil became bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Gregory became bishop of Constantinople in 381.
Both Basil and Gregory passionately fought the Arian heresy, named after Arius, a monk from Alexandria in northern Egypt, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. It was Basil’s teaching in particular which influenced the Council of Constantinople (381) in revising the Nicaean Creed of 325 into the form now used on Sundays and feasts.
Basil died in 379, around the age of 48 to 50. Gregory passed away in 390 at age 60 or 61.