Nonna of Nazianzus

Nonna of Nazianzus was a Christian woman of the fourth century who lived in Cappadocia in Asia Minor. She is known almost entirely through the writings of her son Gregory of Nazianzus, later called Gregory the Theologian, especially his funeral orations for members of his family. Surviving sources do not record her parentage, the year or place of her birth, or details of her upbringing, beyond the tradition that she came from a Christian household and was herself firmly committed to the Church. She married Gregory, later known as Gregory of Nazianzus the Elder, a man of local standing who belonged to the Hypsistarians, a monotheistic group that was not Christian. Through her example, prayers, and persistence she is credited with his conversion; he was baptized around the mid 320s and in time became bishop of Nazianzus, holding that see for many years.

Nonna and Gregory the Elder had three children who are themselves commemorated as saints: Gregory (born about 329), Caesarius, and Gorgonia. Gregory the Theologian presents his mother as a woman of intense piety, given to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and as the decisive influence on the Christian formation of the household. He relates that she dedicated him to God before his birth and that she continued to shape his vocation. Gorgonia married and lived a devout life in the world; she died around 370 and was the subject of a funeral oration by her brother. Caesarius trained in medicine, served at the imperial court in Constantinople, and died about 368 or 369 after returning to Cappadocia. Nonna thus outlived two of her three children.

Gregory the Elder died in 374 at a very advanced age. Nonna died later the same year at Nazianzus. Her son’s orations remain the principal historical witness to her character and to the circumstances of the family’s life; they portray her as a model of the Christian wife and mother rather than as a public or monastic figure. She did not hold ecclesiastical office and is not associated with a religious order. Precise information about her burial is not preserved in the sources that survive.

Nonna has been venerated as a saint from late antiquity in both the East and the West. Her feast is kept on 5 August in the Eastern Orthodox calendar and she appears under the same date in the Roman Martyrology. No medieval or modern process of formal canonization or beatification is recorded, as her cult belongs to the period before those procedures existed. Specific patronages of places, professions, or causes are not securely attested in early or official sources.