Saint Basil the Great

Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Feast Day

January 2

Life

330–379

Doctor of the Church

1568

Order

Eastern monasticism (Basilian tradition)

Born

Caesarea in Cappadocia (modern Kayseri, Turkey)

Basil was born about 330 into a family of saints in Cappadocia: his grandmother Macrina the Elder, his parents Basil the Elder and Emmelia, his sister Macrina the Younger, and his brothers Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebaste are all venerated as saints. He studied rhetoric at Caesarea, Constantinople, and Athens, where he formed his lifelong friendship with Gregory of Nazianzus.

After visiting the monks of Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia, Basil withdrew to Pontus to live an ascetic life. There he composed the Longer and Shorter Rules, which became the charter of Eastern monastic life and influenced Benedict in the West. In 370 he was ordained Bishop of Caesarea, the metropolitan see of Cappadocia.

As bishop he organized a vast hospital and almshouse outside Caesarea, the Basileias, where lepers, the sick, and travelers were cared for; it is among the earliest large-scale Christian charitable institutions. He defended Nicene faith against the Arianizing emperor Valens and against pneumatomachian denial of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, treating the latter directly in De Spiritu Sancto.

Basil died on January 1, 379. The Anaphora of Saint Basil, used in the Byzantine and Coptic liturgies, preserves his liturgical legacy. He was named Doctor of the Universal Church by Pope Saint Pius V in 1568, together with the other three Greek Doctors. The Roman calendar joined his memorial with that of Gregory Nazianzen on January 2.