Cappadocian Fathers
As we know from the Acts of the Apostles, the current territory of Turkey was the homeland and place of the first evangelization. Starting from Antioch on the Orontes (today Antakya), s. Barnabas, s. Paul and many others - sent by the Christian community by virtue of an attentive listening to the Holy Spirit (Acts 13: 1-3) - began to travel to bring elsewhere, starting with the Jewish synagogues, the newness of Jesus and his Gospel. Among the various evangelized regions, Cappadocia must be counted, both for its enchanting naturalistic beauty and for the stature of its theologians. Among these some of the greatest Fathers of the Church: Basilio of Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzo, who played a crucial role in the theological elaboration on the Person of the Holy Spirit. Next to them, an impressive number of hermits, monks and missionaries, such as the young Sisinius, Martirio and Alessandro, who were then slaughtered in the Val di Non (see….).
Thus a swarm of churches, chapels, hermitages, small monasteries were formed, perfectly inserted in a set of gardens, diverted streams, terraces, dovecotes to collect fertilizer, small cultivated fields, fruit trees, vineyards for the production of an excellent wine always, millstones for grains and olives, etc. People brought food to the monks to support them in prayer and prayer helped the community to keep evil away and to live a peaceful human and Christian life. But the same monks and nuns lived the life of the peasants, of the common people, only they dedicated much more time to the Word of God, to study, to the liturgy, to healings and to fresco the chapels in order to tell the population the story of salvation (Old and New Testament) through images. A widespread and perfectly integrated monasticism in the social context, which constitutes a very interesting example, to be rediscovered even today.