Cappadocian Fathers
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The Cappadocians are significant figures in the history of Hellenistic Christian philosophies. They were a 4th-century monastic family, led by St Makrina to provide a central place for her brothers to study and meditate, and also to provide a peaceful shelter for their mother. Abbess Makrina fostered the formation and development of three men who collectively became designated the Cappadocian Fathers, Basil the Great who was the older of Makrina's brothers and eventually became a bishop, Gregory Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa who was the younger of Makrina's brothers and also became eventually a bishop of the diocese associated thereafter with his name. These scholars set out to demonstrate that Christians could hold their own in conversations with learned Greek-speaking intellectuals and that Christian faith was not anti-philosophical but was a thoroughly distinctive movement of learning, piety, and life-style - one best represented by monasticism. They made major contributions to the definition of the Trinity finalized at the First Council of Constantinople in 381 and the Nicene Creed.