Basil of Caesarea
4th-century Christian bishop, theologian, and saint (329–379)
b. 329 · d. 379
Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great, was an early Christian prelate. He served as Bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia from 370 until his death in 379. He was an influential theologian who supported the Nicene Creed and opposed heresies within the early Christian church such as Arianism and Apollinarianism.
Related people
- Basil the Elder child of · traditional
- Emmelia of Caesarea child of · traditional
- Macrina the Elder disciple of · traditional
- Gregory of Nazianzus disciple of · traditional
- Eustathius of Sebaste disciple of · traditional
- Gregory of Nazianzus consecrator of · traditional
- Evagrius Ponticus teacher of · traditional
- Gregory of Nazianzus teacher of · traditional
- Evagrius Ponticus influenced · traditional
- Peter of Sebaste sibling of · traditional
- Gregory of Nyssa sibling of · traditional
- Naucratius sibling of · traditional
- Macrina the Younger sibling of · traditional
Works
Events
Commemorated
Places
- Caesarea in Cappadocia death
- Athens ministry
How we know
Recorded as a historical figure.
- The Seven Ecumenical Councils (NPNF series 2 vol. 14) 1 claim — First Council of Nicaea
- The Path of Christianity: The First Thousand Years 1 claim — Annisa: Macrina's community and the rule Basil wrote for it
Documents
- On the Holy Spirit author
Sayings
- I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that everywhere, wherever you may be, the least plant may bring to you the clear remembrance of the… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Preached to a congregation of working men in Lent, on the third day of creation. The Hexaemeron reads the natural world with the science of the fourth century and asks it for one…
- The operations are various, and the essence simple, but we say that we know our God from His operations, but do not undertake to approach near to His essence… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Answering the Eunomians, who held that a man may know God as God knows Himself. Basil’s distinction — that God is known in what He does and not in what He is — became the…
- Now solitude is of the greatest use for this purpose, inasmuch as it stills our passions, and gives room for principle to cut them out of the soul. Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Written to Gregory of Nazianzus from the retreat in Pontus, and the nearest thing the Greek East has to a rule’s prologue. The whole letter is a programme: separation not of the…
Show all 5
- Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — What the treatise is finally arguing for, put as a list rather than a syllogism: if all of this comes through the Spirit, the Spirit is not a creature. The passage was read at…
- Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly enjoined which are preserved in the Church some we possess derived from written teaching… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The classic statement that a church may hold what no verse commands. Basil is defending a doxology — "with the Spirit" instead of "in the Spirit" — and the defence he reaches for…
What he held
- The Spirit is Lord and giver of life The Holy Spirit is Lord and giver of life, and is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son.
In the disputes
- The Arian crisis Sixty years of argument about whether the Son is God in the same sense the Father is.
- The dispute over the Holy Spirit The Arian question asked again about the Spirit, by men who had granted the Son.