Saint Nonna of Nazianzus was the wife of

Gregory of Nazianzus the Elder Gregory the Elder or Gregory of Nazianzus the Elder ( – 374) was the bishop of the see of Nazianzus in Roman province of Cappadocia. However, he is better remembered as the patriarch of an important family of ecclesiastics. Career A member of ...

, and the mother of

Gregory the Theologian Gregory of Nazianzus ( el, Γρηγόριος ὁ Ναζιανζηνός, ''Grēgorios ho Nazianzēnos''; ''Liturgy of the Hours'' Volume I, Proper of Saints, 2 January. – 25 January 390,), also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory N ...

, Caesarius, and

Gorgonia ''Gorgonia'' is a genus of soft corals, sea fans in the family Gorgoniidae. Species The World Register of Marine Species lists these species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organi ...

. She lived in

Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revo ...

, a province of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

in present-day central

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Life

After Nonna married, she converted her husband Gregory to Christianity. He had been a member of the

Hypsistarians Hypsistarians, i.e. worshippers of the ''Hypsistos'' ( el, Ὕψιστος, the "Most High" God), and similar variations of the term first appear in the writings of Gregory of Nazianzus (''Orat''. xviii, 5) and Gregory of Nyssa (''Contra Eunom''. ...

, a Jewish-pagan sect that worshipped ''Hypsistos'', the "Most High" God. She was the mother of three children, each of whom became saints, the most notable of which being Gregory of Nazianzus. She outlived her husband and two of her children, dying in 374. Her son Gregory tells of an occasion in 351 when Nonna fell sick with a severe illness and appeared to be at the point of death. On his way to visit a friend, Gregory hurried instead to his mother who, in the meantime, had begun to recover. She had a vision in which Gregory had given her magical cakes marked with the

sign of the cross Making the sign of the cross ( la, signum crucis), or blessing oneself or crossing oneself, is a ritual blessing made by members of some branches of Christianity. This blessing is made by the tracing of an upright cross or + across the body with ...

, and blessed by him. Gregory championed Nonna as a model of Christian motherhood. He wrote of her,

References

External links

The Sisterhood of Saint Nonna
an

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

organization for wives of

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

A life of Saint NonnaSantiebeati
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nonna Of Nazianzus 300s births 370s deaths Byzantine saints Saints from Roman Anatolia 4th-century Romans Late Ancient Christian female saints 4th-century Christian saints Year of birth unknown Byzantine female saints 4th-century Byzantine people 4th-century Byzantine women 4th-century Roman women People from Aksaray Province