Basil of Caesarea

Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great, was an early Christian prelate of the fourth century. Born around 330 in Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, he came from a wealthy Cappadocian Greek family marked by religious devotion. His parents were Basil the Elder and Emmelia of Caesarea, and he was one of ten children. Several members of his family are also venerated as saints, including Macrina the Younger, Naucratius, Peter of Sebaste, and Gregory of Nyssa. His maternal grandfather had been executed as a Christian martyr before the conversion of Constantine I, and his paternal grandmother Macrina, a follower of Gregory Thaumaturgus, helped raise him and four of his siblings.

Basil received formal education in Caesarea Mazaca around 350–51, where he met Gregory of Nazianzus. He later studied in Constantinople, including lectures by Libanius, and then in Athens, where he and Gregory became close friends. In Athens they also encountered a fellow student who would become the emperor Julian the Apostate. Basil left Athens in 356, traveled in Egypt and Syria, and returned to Caesarea, where for about a year he practiced law and taught rhetoric. His path changed after he met Eustathius of Sebaste, a charismatic bishop and ascetic. Basil abandoned his legal and teaching career and devoted his life to God.

After his baptism, Basil traveled in 357 to Palestine, Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia to study ascetics and monasticism. He distributed his fortune among the poor and spent a brief time in solitude near Neocaesarea of Pontus, on the Iris River. Yet he came to believe that solitary life was not his calling. By 358 he was gathering disciples, including his brother Peter, and together they founded a monastic settlement on his family’s estate near Annesi, close to the meeting of the Iris and Lycos rivers. His widowed mother Emmelia, his sister Macrina, and other women also joined in lives of prayer and charitable works.

Basil’s writings on communal monastic life helped shape the monastic traditions of the Eastern Church. His guidelines focused on community life, liturgical prayer, and manual labor. For this reason, he is remembered, together with Pachomius, as a father of communal monasticism in Eastern Christianity. He also collaborated with Gregory of Nazianzus on Origen’s Philocalia, a collection of Origen’s works. In 360 he attended the Council of Constantinople. Though he first sided with Eustathius and the Homoiousians, he later emerged as a strong supporter of the Nicene Creed.

In 362 Bishop Meletius of Antioch ordained Basil as a deacon. In 365 Eusebius summoned him to Caesarea and ordained him as presbyter, valuing his intellectual gifts. Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus then worked against Arianism, which threatened to divide Christians in Cappadocia. After Eusebius died, Basil was chosen to succeed him and was consecrated Bishop of Caesarea on 14 June 370, serving until his death on 1 or 2 January 379. As bishop, he also had the powers of exarch of Pontus and metropolitan of five suffragan bishops. He opposed Arianism and Apollinarianism, supported the Nicene Creed, and created the Basileias, believed to be one of the earliest forms of a Christian hospital for the poor.

Basil is honored as a saint in both Eastern and Western Christianity. With his brother Gregory of Nyssa and his friend Gregory of Nazianzus, he is known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches call him, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom the Great Hierarchs. With them and Athanasius of Alexandria, he is also counted among the four Great Greek Church Fathers, and the Roman Catholic Church recognizes him as a Doctor of the Church. His words still draw readers because they join disciplined thought with service, prayer, shared life, and care for the poor.