For All the Saints: Cappadocian Fathers

In the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Cappadocian Fathers are commemorated today; they are also honored in both the Western and Eastern Churches on other days. Basil the Great (330–379), the bishop of Caesarea, his brother Gregory, bishop of Nyssa (c. 332-395), and friend Gregory of Nazianzus (329–389), who became Patriarch of Constantinople, were church leaders influential in Christian theology, especially trinitarian doctrine. The distinction of "one substance" (ousia) in "three persons" (hypostasis) was terminology they used to explain the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit within the essential unity of the godhead. This terminology became part of orthodox Christian teaching about God.