Basil the Elder

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Saint Basil the Elder, father of St. Basil the Great, was raised in Neocaesarea in Pontus. His feast day is 30 May.

Life[]

The son of Macrina the Elder, Basil is said to have moved with his family to the shores of the Black Sea during the persecution of Christians under Galerius.[1] He is said to have been a well known lawyer and rhetorician,[2] noted for his virtue. He married into the wealthy family of his wife Emmelia, and settled in Caesarea. There, he and his wife, with the help of his mother, raised a family that would greatly influence Christian history. Of their nine children (other sources claim ten children), five of them are remembered by name and are considered to be saints: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of Sebaste, Naucratius, and Saint Macrina the Younger.[3][4] After his death, his family property was converted into a monastic community for female virgins.[5]

Notes[]

  1. ^ McSorley, Joseph. "St. Basil the Great." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 12 Feb. 2014
  2. ^ Keenan 1950, p. 170
  3. ^ Holböck 2002, p. 57
  4. ^ Corrigan 2009, pp. 11–12
  5. ^ Smith 2006, p. 224

References[]

  • Corrigan, Kevin (21 October 2009), Evagrius and Gregory: Mind, Soul and Body in 4th Century, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7546-9287-4, retrieved 2013-02-25
  • Holböck, Ferdinand (1 October 2002), Married Saints and Blesseds, Ignatius Press, ISBN 978-0-89870-843-1, retrieved 2013-02-25
  • Keenan, Mary (1950), "De Professione Christiana and De Perfectione: A Study of the Ascetical Doctrine of Saint Gregory of Nyssa", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Dumbarton Oaks, 5: 167+169–207, doi:10.2307/1291077, ISSN 0070-7546, JSTOR 1291077
  • Smith, J Warren (April 2006), "The Body of Paradise and the Body of the Resurrection: Gender and the Angelic Life in Gregory of Nyssa's "De Hominis Opificio"", The Harvard Theological Review, Cambridge University Press, 99 (2): 207–228, doi:10.1017/s0017816006001210, ISSN 0017-8160, JSTOR 4125294

External links[]

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