November 2023 Letter

Dear brethren,

The province of Cappadocia produced three great theologians: Basil of Caesarea, his friend Gregory of Nazianzus, and his brother Gregory of Nyssa whom we call “the three great Cappadocians”.

Though united by common interests of mind and spirit as well as by the bonds of a close and life-long friendship, each one of them represents a different type of personality. Thus Basil is known as the man of action, Gregory of Nazianzus as the master of oratory, and Gregory of Nyssa as the thinker.

There is only one among the three Cappadocian Fathers to whom the cognomen “Great” has been attributed: Basil. His outstanding qualifications as an ecclesiastical statesman and organizer, as a great exponent of Christian doctrine and as a second Athanasius in the defense of orthodoxy, as the Father of oriental monasticism and reformer of the liturgy, warrant the conferring of such a title.

Born at Caesarea in Cappadocia about 330 AD, the talented youth attended for his higher education the schools of rhetoric at his native Caesarea, at Constantinople, and finally, after 351 AD at Athens. In this last city he met Gregory of Nazianzus with whom he entered upon a life-long friendship. He returned to his native city about 356 AD and began his career as a rhetorician, which he renounced soon, to embrace a life entirely devoted to God. He divided his fortune among the poor and went into solitude not far from Neo Caesarea on the Iris. He was soon surrounded by companions who shared the cenobitic life with him.

In 370 he became bishop of Caesarea, metropolitan of Cappadocia and exarch of the civil diocese of Pontus. As such he soon won the love of his people. He established hospitals for the sick and victims of contagious diseases, home for the poor and hospices for travelers and strangers.

In his fight against state-supported Arianism he combined ceaseless activity with wisdom and prudence. He knew no fear or intimidation in his dealings with Emperor Valens and his prefects. He appeared as a real Prince of the Church in his conversation with the Perfect Modestus, who sent by the emperor, threatened him with confiscation to exile, in order to obtain from him a signed statement of his adherence to the Arian cause. Gregory of Nazianzus has recorded his reply: “the confiscation of goods does not harm one who has nothing, unless perchance, for these tortures and sufferings you need a cloak and a few books which are my whole life. Exile I do not know, for I am bound to no place: not only this my own land in which I live, but the whole world into which I may be banished, I hold as my own, for the whole world is of God, whose dweller and sojourner I am. These tortures, what harm could they do me, not having a body, except so to speak, the first blow. Of these things only are you lord. But death would be an act of kindness for it will bring me nearer to God, for Whom I live and for Whom I have been created and to Whom in the greater part I have died and towards Whom I hasten”. Modestus, astonished at such words, responded: “No one until now has spoken to me in such a manner and with such liberty of words”.

Basil passed away on January 1, 379 AD, not more than fifty years of age. Two years later a council met in Constantinople, by which the Emperor Theodosius the Great brought order and unity to the Church, opening the doors to all who adhered to the faith of Nicaea. There is no doubt that Basil had laid the foundations for this great moment in the history of Christianity.

May the blessings of St. Mary, St. Mercurius and St. Basil be with us all. Amen.

Belleville, November 1, 2023

رسالة شهر نوفمبر ٢٠٢٣