This listing is for a most interesting item of Religion Themed Historical Collectable - A Vintage Very Large,(Hence the high postage cost) Framed and Glazed Illuminated Print "St Gregory the Theologian: Purifying the Theologians into the Holy Trinity". The Black Frame measures 80cm high x 63cm wide, and the Print itself which is held within a rigid card inner frame, measures 61cm high x 47cm wide. 

I attach further details about St Gregory / St Gregory of Nazianzus:  On 9 August 378 the Eastern Roman Emperor and earnest supporter of Arianism, Valens, was killed by the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople. Emperor Gratian subsequently appoint­ed one of his ablest generals as co-emperor and Augustus of the East—Theodosius of Hispania. Recognizing the ecclesiastical chaos that then existed in the East, Gratian and Theodosius jointly decided that they would promote the Nicene orthodoxy of the Western Church throughout the Empire. With the enthronement of Theodosius new possibilities opened for the embattled Eastern supporters of Nicaea. In 379 Saint Meletius, bishop of Antioch, convened a synod of 150 bishops. The primary task of the synod was to settle the episcopal dispute between Meletius and Paulinus and thus reunite the Church of Antioch; but its “wider goal,” as John McGuckin notes, “was to bring to an end the greater Arian ‘schism’ in the East.”1 The bishops were also concerned with the increasing popularity of the christological teachings of Apollinarius. The synod thus decided to invite St Gregory of Nazianzus, now living in semi-seclusion in Seleukia, to go to Constantinople and begin a preaching mission on behalf of Nicene orthodoxy, with particular emphasis on refuting Apollinarianism.

St Gregory arrived in Constantinople in the autumn of 379 and mapped out his strategy. He decided to ignore the Apollinarists altogether and to focus his rhetorical energies on refuting the extreme views of the Neo-Arian party of Eunomius. This decision was a stroke of genius. Eunomius was disliked by the then bishop of Constantinople, Demophilus. Eunomius taught that the Father and Son were dissimilar in being (anhomoian); Demoph­ilus that they were nonsubstantially similar (homoian). Both agreed that the Son is created and thus ontolog­ically subordinate to the Father; both rejected the homoousion of the Nicene creed. Gregory would argue the difference between the two was inconsequential. In essence the Anomoians and the Homoians teach the same heterodox position. The Arian­ism of Demophilus is thus damned by association. Gregory’s attack upon Neo-Arianism would culminate in his famous Five Theological Orations, delivered in the house church of the Anastasia in the summer months of 380. McGuckin believes that Oration 20 may be the first homily delivered by St Gregory after his arrival in Constantinople.2 In it Gregory addresses several of the themes that he will address in greater depth and substance. It represents his theological introduc­tion to the small remnant of Nicene believers in Constantinople.

Gregory immediately announces his disgust with “the endless talkativeness that haunts us today” (20.1). It appears that everyone in Constantinople loved to speculate upon and debate theological topics. It’s as if the entire city were one internet forum, with everyone logging on and fiercely advancing their opinions, no matter their intellectual and spiritual qualifica­tions. How easy it is to become “instant sages and designated theologians.” All one need do is opine. “I yearn,” Gregory declares, “for the philosophy that comes from above.”

 As per the condition report, it is really good for its age, and ready to hang.