The Life of St. Basil the Great

(January 1) 

St. Basil is one of the three preeminent Fathers of the Eastern Church, known collectively as the Cappadocian Fathers. For some, he is the uniquely dominant figure of the Christian philosopher of the dogma of the Trinity, the incomparable monastic, the ultimate benefactor, the great protector of the true faith, the uncompromising cleric and the true theologian. His outstanding qualifications as an ecclesiastical statesman and organizer, as a great exponent of Christian doctrine and as a second Athanasius in the defense of orthodoxy, as the Father of oriental monasticism and reformer of the liturgy, warrant the conferring such a title as ‘the Great’, which very few bear.

 Born at Caesarea in Cappadocia about 330 in a family no less renowned for its Christian spirit than for its nobility and wealth, he received his elementary training from his father, St. Basil the Elder, a famous rhetorician at Neocaesarea on Pontus who had been a pupil of St. Gregory the Wonderworker. His grandmother was St. Macrina the Elder. His mother St. Emmelia, daughter to a martyr, herself gave birth to ten children, three of whom became bishops: St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Peter of Sebaste, while her oldest daughter is well known as St. Macrina the Younger, a model of the ascetic life, founder of monasticism for women.

 St Basil attended for his higher education the schools of rhetoric at his native Caesarea, at Constantinople, and finally, after 351, at Athens, which in the fourth century A.D., was a university town, an ancient and distinguished center of classical learning. There he met St. Gregory of Nazianzus—with whom he entered upon a life-long friendship—and the nephew of Emperor Constantine, Julian, who later ascended the throne at Constantinople.

 The three Cappadocians—St. Basil the Great, his brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and his friend, St. Gregory of Nazianzus (the Theologian)—were steeped in the heritage of classical Greek literature and philosophy and would later bring its riches into their work as Christian pastors and teachers, thinkers and writers. At Athens, they learned the art of rhetoric, one of the primary forms of cultural expression at the time. Its practice included the composition of finely wrought artistic prose and also skill in the public speaking that was used in law courts and public administration but was a popular performing art as well. They each became master rhetoricians, though St. Gregory of Nazianzus’ writings exhibit more exuberance and poetic brilliance. St. Basil’s prose is characterized by balance and sobriety, by clarity and relative simplicity.

 St. Basil returned to his native city about 356 and began his career as a rhetorician, which he renounced soon, to embrace a life entirely devoted to God. He describes this spiritual awakening in his Epistle 223, 2:

 ‘I had wasted much time on follies and spent nearly all my youth in vain labors, and devotion to the teachings of a wisdom that God had made foolish (1 Cor. 1:20). Suddenly I awoke as out of a deep sleep. I beheld the wonderful light of the Gospel truth, and I recognized the nothingness of the wisdom of the princes of this world that was come to naught (1 Cor. 2:6). I shed a flood of tears over my wretched life, and I prayed for a guide who might form in me the principles of piety.’ 

 His first step was to receive the sacrament of Baptism, the next to journey through Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia, in order to meet the most famous ascetics. Their lives inspired him:

 ‘I admired their continence in living, and their endurance in toil. I was amazed at their persistency in prayer, and at their triumphing over sleep. Subdued by no natural necessity, ever keeping their soul’s purpose high and free in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, they never yielded to the body; they were never willing to waste attention on it. Always, as though living in a flesh that was not theirs, they showed in very deed what it is to sojourn for a while in this life, and what to have one’s citizenship and home in heaven. All this moved my admiration. I called these men’s lives blessed, in that they did indeed show that “they bear about in their body the dying of Jesus”. And I prayed that I too, as far as in me lay, might imitate them.’

 On his return he divided his fortune among the poor and founded a men’s ascetic community on lands owned by his family at Annesi, across the river Iris from where his sister St. Macrina the Younger, had already turned their home into a women’s community. It was to this community that his friend from his school days, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, soon came to also devote his life to a monastic existence.

 St. Basil went on to found or organize ascetic communities for men and women across Cappadocia, for which he wrote extensive instructions, promoting the cenobitic way of life and focusing on prayer and manual labor to support themselves and each other. Significantly, however, he integrated ascetic groups into the life of the Christian community as a whole, and he harnessed their energies to the tasks of caring for the sick and poor and educating the young. His gifts of insight and leadership in community life made him one of the leading founders of Eastern Christian monasticism, and his ascetical writings, soon translated into Latin, subsequently became influential in the West as well. 

After a few years in Annesi, St. Basil was persuaded by Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, to come to Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia, and be ordained priest. He assisted the bishop in political negotiations and theological controversy and built charitable institutions to care for the hungry and ill during a severe famine. He ‘was all in all to him [Eusebius], a good counselor, a skillful helper, an expounder of the Scriptures, an interpreter of his duties, the staff of his old age, the prop of his faith, more trustworthy than all his clerics, more experienced than any layman’, as St. Gregory of Nazianzus reports (Oration 43, 33).

 He became bishop of Caesarea himself in 370, a post he held until his death, probably on January 1, 379. He soon won the love of his people. He established hospitals for the sick, homes for the poor, hospices for travelers and strangers, so that St. Gregory of Nazianzus spoke of an entire ‘new city’. There grew up, literally, a village of buildings outside Caesarea, named Basilias in his honor—a hospital, several houses for widows, an orphanage, a leprosarium, several inns where poor travelers could sleep free of charge, and restaurants where anyone could eat without paying.

 As an ecclesiastical statesman he corresponded with many civic, cultural and church leaders throughout the empire. He wrote theological treatises advocating the doctrine of the Trinity and led the Homoiousian party in its reconciliation with Athanasius’ strict Nicene contingent, as they made a common front against Arians and neo-Arians.

 Besides encouraging social justice on behalf of the poor, St. Basil took a great interest in personal morality and spirituality. His homilies on virtues and vices show considerable philosophical learning and psychological insight. His writings reveal him to be a contemplative, not merely a man of action. It is easy to understand why this is so, for both his action and his contemplation receive their power from his deep commitment to, his close proximity to, his personal relationship with his Lord and God. He seeks always to live a serious Christian lifestyle in practice and to teach others to do likewise.

 St. Basil was a tireless worker, often remaining sleepless for many nights, trying to do his work. No matter how trivial, he personally wrote and answered letters to all those who wrote to him. Most of these letters have been translated into English in four volumes and can be found in the Loeb Classics of Harvard University. Reading such letters to widows, orphans and those who weakened in their faith only brings us closer to the greatness of the man.

 He was the incomparable and tireless minister of Christ, giving sermons at night for those who could not hear him during the day. He paid particular attention to the youth of his day, delivering orations, sermons and talks about matters of concern to them. One of his celebrated sermons involves the Exegesis of Genesis. Given over a period of nine days, St. Basil attempted to dissolve the conflict of time in real terms. He pointed out to the skeptics that God’s concept of time and that of humans is not necessarily the same. He proposes that the seven days in which the creation occurred, in all probability, are not limited to days of twenty-four hours each. Given in the fourth century, the sermons would almost satisfy the skeptics of the twenty-first.

 St. Basil left his own Divine Liturgy which, because of its length, is performed in the Orthodox Church about ten times annually. Surprisingly enough, this liturgy was his attempt to shorten earlier, longer versions of lengthy liturgies which he felt only kept people away from church services, and defeated the purpose and intent of the liturgy.

 St. Basil lived during the great heresy of Arius when passions were still hot over issues of the Divinity of Christ and the nature of the Holy Spirit. His answer to the issue of the day, and one of his greatest contributions to the Church, are his dogmatic treatises on the Trinity and the Holy Spirit and its consubstantiality, upon which the Church bases her teachings. His unswerving support of orthodoxy put him in direct conflict with Emperor Valens, a devout follower of Arianism. Wishing to put St. Basil in line, the Emperor sent the Magister Modestus to coerce St. Basil to accept the Emperor’s point of view. A man who did not suffer fools too well, but who, in obvious monastic humility, had to mind his temper, St. Basil remained undaunted. When Modestus threatened him with confiscation and exile, his reply, as recorded by St. Gregory of Nazianzus, was this:

 ‘The confiscation of goods does not harm one who has nothing, unless perchance, for these tortures and sufferings you need a cloak and a few books which are my whole life. Exile I do not know, for I am bound to no one place: not only this my own land in which live, but the whole world into which I may be banished, I hold as my own, for the whole world is of God, whose dweller and sojourner I am. These tortures, what harm could they do me, not having a body, except so to speak, the first blow. Of these things only are you lord. But death would be an act of kindness for it will bring me nearer to God, for Whom I live and for Whom I have been created and to Whom in the greater part I have died and towards Whom I hasten.’

 Modestus, astonished at such words, responded: ‘No one until now has spoken to me in such a manner and with such liberty of words’. To this St. Basil replied:

 ‘Perhaps you have never met a bishop before.... Where God is endangered and exposed, there all other things are considered as nothing. Him alone do we look to. Fire, swords, beasts and the instruments for tearing the flesh are wished for by us as delights more than horrors. Afflict us with such tortures, threaten, do all that you can now devise, enjoy your power. Also, let the Emperor hear this, that at all events you will not persuade us nor win us over to the impious doctrine [Arianism], though you threaten with cruel deeds’. 

 This intrepidity and resoluteness made such an impression on the Emperor, that he abandoned the attempt to subdue the saint and rescinded the decree for his banishment.

These were years of intense activity, even as, through it all, he struggled repeatedly with poor health. The long hours he kept, the sleepless nights, hard work and great fasts he followed, the stresses of his office and the controversies he faced, finally wore him down. St. Basil the Great died of kidney complications on January 1, 379. During the funeral, the crowds were so overwhelming in numbers that hundreds died of asphyxiation. Those were considered as fortunate in having accompanied the great Father to heaven. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his repose (January 1).

 St. Basil’s main concern was the unity of the Church. The almost total lack of such unity among the Christians of the East, due to Arianism and neo-Arianism, and between the bishops of the East and West, caused him to make great efforts, in deed and in word, to bring about the unity he understood the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church was meant to manifest. He lived to see at least the dawning of better days, when the Emperor Valens died on August 9, 378, and external conditions permitted the restoration of peace in the empire. St. Basil soon reposed, too, but two years later the Second Ecumenical Council met at Constantinople, by which the Emperor Theodosius the Great brought order and unity to the Church, opening the doors to all who adhered to the faith of Nicaea. There is no doubt that St. Basil had laid the foundation for this great moment in the history of Christianity, and it is yet one more reason we refer to him, with great reverence and devotion as to a teacher and a father, as ‘the Great’.