There are a number of Russian folk sayings extoling the specialness of the number three: “God loves a trinity.” “Three fingers make a cross.” It is really no surprise, therefore, that the holy and great hierarchs, the foremost bishops and greatest luminaries of Orthodox Christian teaching, are three in number: Basil, Gregory, and John the Golden Mouth. Saint Basil was the great monastic preceptor; Saint Gregory, the exalted theologian and standard of doctrinal Orthodoxy; and Saint John, the exquisite moral interpreter of the scriptures. In this way, the Three Hierarchs underscore the necessity, for each of us, of asceticism, Orthodox doctrine, and charity, that is, proper moral conduct toward our neighbor. Moreover, just as each of these saints’ works are multilayered, containing elements in common with those of the others, so it is with the life in Christ: we cannot make progress toward the kingdom while ignoring either moral conduct or self-denial or sound doctrine. Orthodoxy Christianity is a seamless whole, and though we might conceptually distinguish different aspects of the Christian life, they are in fact all directed toward one goal: drawing us closer to the perfect adoration of God, revealed to us in Christ. This perfect adoration is the state of unceasing prayer of which Saint Paul speaks, in which every action becomes an act of worship, a participation in the eternal worship of the heavenly ranks of angels and saints.
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