CAPPADOCIANS, FATHERS OF. — Cappadocia gave to the Church of the 4th century some of its most eminent figures, bound together by a common homeland, ties of kinship and friendship, and a shared labor: St. Basil and his brother St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, a close friend of Basil, and St. Amphilochius of Iconium, a lesser luminary, cousin of the Nazianzen. The doctrine of the Cappadocian Fathers is considered by some to be a compromise, especially in exegesis, between the Alexandrian and Antiochene schools: in reality, it is difficult to discern in the Cappadocian Fathers a characteristic doctrinal trend that is not simply the common patrimony of 4th-century orthodoxy, supremely respectful of tradition yet not averse to speculative refinements of revealed truth. They chiefly concerned themselves with Trinitarian and Christological doctrine.
Moreover, the three great Cappadocians display clearly marked personal tendencies and qualities. Basil stands out as a man of action and governance, playing a leading role in the defense of Nicene orthodoxy even beyond the bounds of his metropolitan jurisdiction at Caesarea, and giving extraordinary impetus to Christian life, charity, and monasticism. Gregory of Nazianzus is the born orator, who fashions elaborate theological thought into a classical form, master of all the resources of art, a poet of delicate and profound resonance, pervaded by an incurable longing for solitude and peace amid the struggles in which he was called to live. Gregory of Nyssa is the most speculative mind, who in elaborating dogma ventures at times into excessive Origenist daring.