Saint Basil of Caesarea (330-379)

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Saint Basil of Caesarea (330-379)
            According to Johannes Quasten, St Basil is the only one among the cappadocian Fathers to bear the title ‘Great’.[1] Basil was born in Cappadocia in 330, and had his earliest education from his father, Basil; his mother was called Emmelia who gave birth to ten children. He studied and practised rhetorics, but detesting all the pleasures of this world, he devoted his life entirely to God.[2] He shared his property with the poor and went into solitude, having around him companions who shared the monastic life with him. He was ordained a priest, and in 370 was made Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, succeeding Bishop Eusebius. Johannes Quasten wrote that Basil’s main concern was the unity of the church; the unity among the Bishops in the East, and the unity between the Bishops in the West and those in the East.[3] Jean Comby maintained that Basil was a lover of charity, an organiser of the monastic life, and an advocate for orthodoxy and unity.[4] He is regarded as the father of Eastern monasticism.[5] Basil is said to have died in 379. Some of his works include Adversus Eunomius and De Spiritus Sancto.

[1]  Cf. Johannes Quaster, Patrology,Vol. III, (Marylamd: Christian Classics Inc., 1986), p. 227.
[2]  Cf. Johannes Quaster, Patrology, p. 227
[3]  Cf. Johannes Quaster, Patrology, p. 229
[4]  Cf. Jean Comby, How to read Church History: Volume I (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1985), p. 108
[5]  Cf. Hubertus Drobner, The Fathers of the Church, Trans. By Segfried Schatzmann, (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 2008), p. 268:

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