[This 11th century fresco showing Basil is in a cathedral in Macedonia.] Sometimes known as Basil the Great, this saint was one of the Cappadocians, brother to the mystic Gregory of Nyssa and Macrina the Elder. [Cappadocia is in southern Asia Minor, now part of Turkey.] Born in 329, he intended to become a lawyer, as his father was. He studied in Athens; when he returned home, his sister’s influence changed his direction. He went to Egypt in 357 to learn of monastic life in the desert. He founded a monastic settlement that became the pattern for monasticism in the East. Unlike Western monasticism, which offers many kinds of orders, such as Benedictine or Franciscan, all Eastern monastics are Basilian. The Longer Rules and Shorter Rules (a rule being a way of life) he wrote remain the standard. In 362 he was ordained a priest; he became bishop in 370. I think we’d like him. When a famine came to Cappadocia in 367-8, he sold the family’s land to purchase food for those who were starving. He went to work in a soup kitchen. He didn’t separate Jew and Christians in providing food, saying that the digestive systems of both are alike. His building projects included housing for the poor, a hospital, and a travelers’ hospice, or rest area. He also denounced and excommunicated owners of houses of prostitution, worked for justice for the poor, and disciplined clergy who used their office to accumulate money or to live too well at the expense of the faithful. Like most people of that time, he was caught up in the Arian controversy, remaining faithful to the Nicene Creed. When he died on June 14, 379, Christians, Jews, and pagans attended his funeral. The Church has given us a prayer in his honor: Almighty God, who has revealed to your Church your eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like your bishop Basil of Caesarea, we may continue steadfastly in the confession of this faith, and remain constant in our worship of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; ever one God, for ever and ever. Amen. .
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Saints Alive!
I have been privileged to offer Noonday Prayer at my church, usually on Thursdays, which doesn’t matter because it’s on Youtube forever. [It’s amazing what can be done with a smartphone and a smart, helpful parish administrator!] The service is brief, with a place for a meditation. We usually look at the Episcopal calendar of saints, who are nearly always honored on their death dates, not their birth dates. Here is a hymn by medieval saint Hildegard of Bingen to set the mood.
Archives
April 2024
Categories |