The Letters, Volume I, Letters 1-58

Greek Fathers #1

by Basil the Great, Roy J. Deferrari (Translator)

Basil the Great was born ca. 330 CE at Caesarea in Cappadocia into a family noted for piety. He was at Constantinople and Athens for several years as a student with Gregory of Nazianzus and was much influenced by Origen. For a short time he held a chair of rhetoric at Caesarea, and was then baptized. He visited monasteries in Egypt and Palestine and sought out the most famous hermits in Syria and elsewhere to learn how to lead a pious and ascetic life; but he decided that communal monastic life and work were best. About 360 he founded in Pontus a convent to which his sister and widowed mother belonged. Ordained a presbyter in 365, in 370 he succeeded Eusebius in the archbishopric of Caesarea, which included authority over all Pontus. He died in 379. Even today his reform of monastic life in the east is the basis of modern Greek and Slavonic monasteries.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Basil's Letters is in four volumes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, Christian

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

After 370, Christian leader Saint Basil, known as "the Great," Greek bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, vigorously opposed Arianism.

Arabic: باسيليوس الكبير
Greek: Μέγας Βασίλειος

People also call him of Mazaca in Asia Minor. He influenced as a 4th century theologian and monastic.

Theologically, Basil supported the Nicene faction of the church, not the followers of Apollinaris of Laodicea on the other side. Ability to balance theological convictions with political connections made Basil a powerful advocate for the Nicene position.

In addition to work as a theologian, Basil cared for the poor and underprivileged. Basil established guidelines, which focus on community, liturgical prayer, and manual labor for monastic life. People remember him, together with Pachomius, as a father of communal monasticism in east. The traditions of east and west consider him.

People refer collectively to Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa as the fathers. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholics gave the title of hierarch to Basil, together with Gregory of Nazianzus and John Chrysostom. The Catholic Church recognizes him as a doctor. The epithet "revealer of heavenly mysteries," sometimes refers to Basil.

Reviews

[Joel Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun

[John Cairns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better written than the ones in the fourth volume. It's odd how hope is false in life, according to Basil, but true after death without any substantiation whatsoever except faith. The Emperor Julian was right: all they offer is faith. The puzzle is why would an elitist like Basil who looked down on ordinary people as boorish and vulgar believe in Christianity. Paganism no longer meeting people's emotional needs, Christianity giving hope to women and slaves albeit after death when it couldn't be proved spurious but he's a well-educated elitist whose life couldn't have been that hard even in those hard times when Romans joined the Goths against an emperor because of the back-breaking taxes (supporting Christian parasites like Basil, his clergy and his economically unproductive monks).

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I read this in 2006 and here I am again, reading it once more, I decided I wanted to read all of them and start again with volume one. There are some very good parts in these letters, but there is a lot of distance between then and now, and some of them are lost to understanding. Anyway an interesting read, see if this time I can get further than volume one!