Feast of St. Basil the Great

St. Basil the Great was born at Caesarea of Cappadocia in 330. He was one of ten children of St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia. His brother, Gregory of Nyssa, and his sister, Macrina, are also saints—as was his learned grandmother, St. Macrina The Elder. His best friend in his youth was St. Gregory of Nazianzen. These form a couple of other groupings of “Holy-Among-Holies”: the four great Eastern Fathers: St. Athanasius, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory of Nazianzen, and, of course, Basil.

Basil was on his way to becoming a famous teacher when he decided to begin a religious life of gospel poverty. After studying various modes of religious life, he founded what was probably the first monastery in Asia Minor. He wrote a famous monastic rule which has proved the most lasting of those in the East. He is to monks of the East what Saint Benedict is to the West, and Basil’s principles influence Eastern monasticism today. 

He was ordained a priest, assisted the archbishop of Caesarea—now southeastern Turkey—and ultimately became archbishop himself, in spite of opposition from some of the bishops under him, probably because they foresaw coming reforms.

Arianism, one of the most damaging heresies in the history of the Church which denied the divinity of Christ, was at its height. Emperor Valens persecuted orthodox believers, and put great pressure on Basil to remain silent and admit the heretics to communion. Basil remained firm, and Valens backed down. But trouble remained. When the great Saint Athanasius died, the mantle of defender of the faith against Arianism fell upon Basil. He strove mightily to unite and rally his fellow Catholics who were crushed by tyranny and torn by internal dissension. He was misunderstood, misrepresented, accused of heresy and ambition. Even appeals to the pope brought no response. “For my sins I seem to be unsuccessful in everything.”

Basil was tireless in pastoral care. He preached twice a day to huge crowds, built a hospital that was called a wonder of the world—as a youth he had organized famine relief and worked in a soup kitchen himself—and fought the prostitution business.

Basil fought simony, aided the victims of drought and famine, strove for a better clergy, insisted on a rigid clerical discipline, fearlessly denounced evil wherever he detected it, and excommunicated those involved in the widespread prostitution traffic in Cappadocia. He was learned, accomplished in statesmanship, a man of great personal holiness, and one of the great orators of Christianity.

When Basil died on Jan. 1 or 2 of 379 (he was not even 60 years old), funeral orations poured in from both Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzen, extolling him to be “The Great.” He certainly was, and is, a saint who bridged East and West, contemplation and action, social good works and unshakable faith, sound education and doctrine, and the ability to get things done.

Though not recognized greatly in his lifetime, his writings rightly place him among the great teachers of the Church. Seventy-two years after his death, the Council of Chalcedon described him as “the great Basil, minister of grace who has expounded the truth to the whole earth.”

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Catholic Encyclopedia