Caesarius of Nazianzus

Caesarius of Nazianzus was a Christian physician and imperial official of the fourth century, remembered chiefly as the younger brother of Gregory of Nazianzus, later called Gregory the Theologian. He was a son of Gregory the Elder, who became bishop of Nazianzus, and of Nonna, a woman of well-attested piety. The family belonged to the landowning provincial aristocracy of Cappadocia and also included a sister, Gorgonia, later venerated as a saint. Caesarius was born at or near Nazianzus, on or close to the family estate of Arianzus, in the Roman province of Cappadocia, in the first half of the fourth century. No contemporary source records an exact year of birth.

He received an extensive education. After early studies in Cappadocia, including at Caesarea, he went to Alexandria, then one of the principal intellectual centres of the eastern Mediterranean. There he studied geometry, astronomy, and especially medicine, in which he gained a high reputation. From Egypt he proceeded to Constantinople, where his learning and medical skill brought him into the imperial court. Under Constantius II he served as a court physician and acquired both honour and considerable property.

The accession of Julian, who sought to restore traditional pagan cults, placed Caesarius in a difficult position. Julian attempted to win him away from Christianity; Caesarius refused and left the court, returning for a time to his family in Cappadocia. After Julian’s death in 363 he resumed public service under Jovian and then Valens. He was entrusted with important financial responsibilities in Bithynia, an office often described as that of quaestor. On 11 October 368 a major earthquake destroyed much of Nicaea; Caesarius survived. According to his brother’s later account, the disaster strengthened his intention to withdraw from secular office and to lead a more strictly Christian life. He fell ill not long afterward and died, still in his prime, in late 368 or possibly at the beginning of 369. Gregory composed a funeral oration (Oration 7) that is the principal narrative source for Caesarius’s life. The body was brought to Nazianzus for burial. After his death there was a dispute over his estate, which Gregory had to address in correspondence.

Caesarius remained a layman; he did not enter the clergy or a monastic community, and he died unmarried and without children. A collection of theological questions and answers long circulated under his name is now attributed to a later writer, conventionally called Pseudo-Caesarius, and does not represent the historical physician’s own work. He has sometimes been confused with Caesarius of Arles, a later Gallic bishop. The historical Caesarius of Nazianzus has been venerated as a saint in East and West. The Roman Martyrology assigns his feast to 25 February; in the Eastern Orthodox tradition he is commemorated on 9 March.