| ASIA MINOR The beginning of monasticism in Asia Minor was the movement initiated by Eustathius (ca. 300-after 377), bishop of Sebaste in Pontus. He was a teacher for St. Macrina and for St. Basil the Great in his early life. The extreme program of this group called for complete rejection of marriage and property and was (probably) condemned at the Council of Gangra in Paphlagonia around 341 for causing dissension among the churches. St. Basil moderated Eustathius’ rigorism, and combining Egyptian and Syrian influences he set up monasteries in Pontus and Caesarea. He strongly encouraged this form of coenobitic monasticism as being more suitable for most people than the eremitical lifestyle. Basil also closely associated his monks with the daily life of the Church. When he was elected as archbishop of Cappadocian Caesarea it was an important symbol of how episcopacy and monasticism were growing closely intimate. Basil feared that the detachment involved in the eremitic life could perhaps lead to a neglect of the evangelical call to charity and philanthropy, and so his monasteries were also concerned directly with issues of social justice. Basil added to the existing mystical and inner concerns of monasticism, a strong stress on external acts of charity and philanthropy. He also insisted on monastic obedience as a check on the excess, the competitiveness, and the ostentation of histrionic individuals who were bringing the monastic movement into disrepute. St. Basil was also careful to insist that monks remain mindful of the normal liturgical life of the church and that they remain connected with, and obedient to, the local bishop. With the organizations and rules that he composed, St. Basil laid the foundations for monasticism throughout the Orthodox Church. Basil preferred to hold up only the coenobitic form, for he believed that true Christian living was possible only in a community. The bedrock of this style of monasticism was perfect obedience to the leader who is the spiritual father or mother, the teacher and physician of the soul of the brothers or sisters. As a therapeutic tool St. Basil developed the practice of the confession of sin (the opening of the thoughts of the heart) to the elder. For monastic life he prescribed a fixed rhythm of prayer, Bible reading, common worship, and work. Pursuing his ideal, Basil established a monastery in his own city of Caesarea and allotted to it social tasks on behalf of both church and society (including a lepers’ hospital, a school, and a center for the relief of the poor). |
| Of particular interest in this matter, is the order of the divine services for Great Thursday contained in the now defunct Typikon of the Great Church.[ 51 ] The services of the Orthros and the Trithekte in this Typikon are assigned to the morning hours, while a series of long services are designated for the evening hours. They are: the Vespers, followed by the Nipter (Washing of the feet), to which the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil is added beginning with the entrance of the Gospel. Before Holy Communion was distributed, the Patriarch also consecrated the Holy Myron. After the Divine Liturgy came the service of the Pannychis. In the Cathedral Office the Pannychis was a type of vigil service. This particular Pannychis on Great Thursday commemorated the passion of the Lord. The twelve Gospel pericopes narrating the events of the passion were read at this service. These pericopes are the same as those now read in the present service of the Orthros of Great Friday, which in current practice is conducted on the evening of Great Thursday by anticipation. From this description we learn at least two things. First, that Great Thursday evening in the late medieval church was supplied heavily with a series of long services. Second, the commemoration of the passion was conducted in the context of a vigil service (the Pannychis) on the night of Great Thursday. Because of the length of these services, I think we can safely assume they lasted well into the night. Can we assume also that Great Thursday evening with its overburdened liturgy became the pivotal day in the process that saw the breakdown of liturgical units and their transposition to earlier hours? The Vesperal Divine Liturgy, for the reasons stated above, may well have been the first to be dislodged from its original moorings, moving steadily forward in the day until it came to be celebrated in the morning hour. Next, the Pannychis or Vigil lost its original meaning and began to gravitate to an earlier hour. As these arrangements gradually evolved, the transposition of the morning services to the preceeding evening became the established practice. |
| Basil the Great’s parents had ten children: five sons (one died in early childhood) and five daughters. Of them, five were subsequently numbered among the choir of saints: Basil himself, Macrina, Gregory, subsequently bishop of Nyssa, Peter, at first a simple ascetic and afterwards bishop of Sebaste, and the righteous Theosobeia, a deaconess. The future hierarch received a primary education in the midst of the pious and ascetically inclined women of his family. His father himself, Basil the Elder – a lawyer and teacher of rhetoric – was engaged in his education. He received a secondary education from the best teachers in Caesarea of Cappadocia, and later transferred to the schools of Constantinople, where he listened to prominent orators and philosophers. For the completion of his education, St. Basil set off for Athens – the center of classical enlightenment. Here he passed four years, studying, in particular, the philosophy of Plato, which exerted a certain influence on his worldview and theological constructs. In Athens began a close friendship between Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian. According to the words of the latter, they became everything for each other: comrades and tablecompanions and kindred. “Having one aim,” said Gregory the Theologian, “we constantly grew in our love for one another…Only two roads were known to us: one – to our sacred churches and to the teachers there; the other – to our instructors in the external sciences.” Already in Athens, the friends gave their word to each other to enter the life of the Christian ascetics together. St. Gregory the Theologian remarks that, upon returning to his homeland, Basil the Great was not distinguished by a height of Christian inclination. However, under the influence of his energetic sister Macrina, he quickly overcame the temptations of youth and resolved to dedicate himself to the contemplative life. In the year 355, Basil the Great was baptized and undertook a journey to the Christian Near East two years later, to the great Orthodox ascetics. |
| The wonderworking Theodore Icon of the Mother of God was constantly with Saint Alexander, and he prayed before it. After Saint Alexander Nevsky died on November 14, 1263 at the monastery founded by his father, the icon was taken by his younger brother Basil. Basil Yaroslavich was the youngest (eighth) son of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich. In 1246 after the death of his father (Prince Yaroslav was poisoned in the capital city of Mongolia, Karakorum when he was only five years old) Basil became prince of the Kostroma appanage-holding, the least important of his father’s domains. In the year 1272, he became Great Prince of Vladimir. His four years as Great Prince (1272-1276) were filled with fratricidal princely quarrels. For several years he waged war against Novgorod with an unruly nephew Demetrius. In becoming Great Prince, however, Basil did not journey to Vladimir, but remained under the protection of the wonderworking icon at Kostroma, regarding this place as safer in case of new outbreaks of strife. He had occasion also to defend Rus against external enemies. In 1272, during a Tatar incursion, a Russian army came forth from Kostroma to engage them. Following the example of his grandfather, Saint Andrew Bogoliubsky (who took the wonderworking Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God with him on military campaigns), Prince Basil went into battle with the wonderworking Theodore Icon. A blinding light came forth from the holy image, and the Tatars dispersed and fled from the Russian land. The Chronicles say that the Great Prince Basil had a special love for the Church and the clergy. After the martyric death of Bishop Metrophanes of Vladimir during the storming of Vladimir by Tatars on February 4, 1238, the Vladimir diocese had remained widowed for many years. This grieved Great Prince Basil. With his help, a large cathedral was constructed in Vladimir in 1274. This was apparently in connection with the consecration of Saint Serapion (July 12) as Bishop of Vladimir. He was an igumen from the Monastery of the Caves. |
| Basil would then be baptized at age 27. It is important to note that although infant baptism was practiced from the earliest days of the Church, delayed adult baptism of Christians was not uncommon during the first four centuries. We find both practices from Apostolic times. The Monastic Tonsure and Preparation for Debate Basil then headed to the Cappodocian region of Asia Minor (Turkey) to live for a time in the caves there. Prior to his Cappodocian departure, Basil would give his material goods to the poor, thus marking his monastic embarking with great Christian philanthropy. Upon his return from Cappodocia, he founded a monastic community on his family’s estate. It was within the monastic context that as part of the cenobetic rule of life in community that Basil would expose that is was with the understanding that it was to be a life of service to both those within the monastic community and to those outside of its walls. For Basil, asceticism in of itself could be self-serving and demonic if it were not tempered by service to others. Thus, his contribution to monastic endeavor was not limited to the ordering of a community, but in that community’s outreach and service to the greater community as a sense of mission and purpose. In his theological works, Moralia and Asketika, he outlines the guidelines for proper Christian living in the secular world 2 and within the monastery walls. 3 During this time, Basil would begin his great engagement of and in the tumultuous theological debates and controversies of the time. Namely, his contributions and renown would be made at the Council of Constantinople in his affirmation of the term” homoousios” (“the same essence”) in reference to Christ against the Arian heresy. It was his defense and articulation of the orthodox Christian teachings on the Holy Trinity, Christology and Incarnation that helped shaped the one holy catholic and apostolic Church’s theological formulations on these crucial matters of faith in the fourth century. Of all of his copious theological works which are too numerous to mention here, his On the Holy Spirit stands out as his appeal to Scripture and Tradition as the illuminators to the facts of the divinity and consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son. 4 Thus, providing the formulation of three distinct “hypothesis” (Persons) in on Divine “ousia” (essence). |
| In each district of his expansive metropolia, the hierarch founded almshouses. In Caesarea he founded an inn and a hospice, which by their scale seemed to be an entire little town. He was especially concerned about a more just allocation of taxes between lands, and about freeing the clergy, monasteries and almshouses from taxes. St. Basil prepared the convocation of the Second Ecumenical Council, but did not live to see it. He died from exhaustion on the January 1, 379, at the age of 49. Not long before his death, he blessed St. Gregory the Theologian to accept the Constantinopolitan cathedra. The Church began to celebrate the memory of St. Basil the Great almost immediately after his death. In a homily on his death, St. Amphilochius, the Bishop of Iconium, said: “Not without reason and not by accident was the Divine Basil released from the body and transported from earth to God on the day of the Circumcision of Jesus, which is celebrated between the days of the Nativity and Baptism of Christ. Therefore, this most blessed one, in preaching and praising the Nativity and Baptism of Christ, extolled the spiritual circumcision, and himself, having put off the body, was deemed worthy of ascending to Christ precisely on the sacred day of the commemoration of Christ’s Circumcision. For this cause it has been enacted to honor the memory of Basil the Great annually on this present day, with celebration and solemnity.” Troparion, Tone 1 : Thy fame has gone forth into all the earth,/which has received thy word./Thereby thou hast taught the Faith; thou hast revealed the nature of created things;/thou hast made a royal priesthood of the ordered life of men./Righteous Father Basil, intercede with Christ our God/that our souls may be saved. Kontakion, Tone 4: Thou wast an unshaken foundation of the Church/and didst give to all mortals an inviolate lordship/which thou didst seal with thy doctrine,/O righteous Basil,/revealer of the mysteries of heaven. Code for blog Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. |
| В.Я. Саврей Summary The Cappadocian school is a circle of like-minded persons with whom the Golden Age of Patristics is linked. The circle " s founders were the greatest Christian thinkers in the second half of the fourth century St Basil the Great, St Gregory the Theologian and St Gregory of Nyssa. In science they have been called " the great Cappadocians» because of the province of Cappadocia in the East Asia Minor where their bishoprics were located. Besides them, there also were St Amphilochius of Iconium, St Peter of Sebaste, St Macrina the Younger, etc; and it was at various times connected with a number of outstanding figures of the epoch, namely: Libanius of Antioch, St Ephraem Syrus, St John Chrysostom, Deaconess Olympias. St Basil the Great (c. 330–379 AD) and St Gregory the Theologian (326–389) got a splendid education in Athens, where they shared their studies with the future Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate; then they studied the Bible and Origen " s works on their own, living in a hermitage. Later on St Basil became Bishop of Caesarea, the then metropolis of Cappadocia, and consecrated St Gregory, who wanted to lead a solitary existence, Bishop of Sasima against his will. St Basil " s younger brother, the second Gregory (c. 335–394 AD) became Bishop of Nyssa. The time after the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) was a period of acute dogmatic contradictions, and St Basil " s main task was to consolidate the Orthodox teaching for which purpose one needed to have worked out a generally accepted set of philosophical and theological terms. The Cappadocians used to be called the Neo-Nicenes for their commitment to the Nicene Creed and, at the same time, an innovative approach to language; as well as the Neo-Alexandrians for their following the main principles of the Alexandrian school after St Athanasius the Great. The Cappadocian school set itself a goal of creating precise doctrinal formulae which should not be reconsidered after their acceptance by the General Council and be the basis for a further development of theological thought. |
| Michael Prokurat, Alexander Golitzin, Michael D. Peterson Скачать epub pdf BASIL THE GREAT BASIL THE GREAT, bishop, theologian, monk, St. (ca. 330–379). Born of an aristocratic family in central Asia Minor, eldest of the Cappadocian Fathers, the older brother of Gregory of Nyssa and childhood friend of Gregory of Nazianzus (qq.v.), Basil and the latter Gregory received the best education available in the ancient world, having been trained both in rhetoric and, at the then “university town” of Athens, in philosophy. Raised as a Christian and from youth enamored with the great Christian thinker of the previous century, Origen (q.v.), Basil’s intellectual and spiritual life represented a continuation of the latter’s great task, the integration of Christian life and experience with the best of ancient Greek thought. He and Gregory of Nazianzus compiled a selection of quotes from Origen, bearing on prayer and the spiritual life, called the Philokalia. He was also significantly influenced by the nascent monasticism (q.v.), visiting Egypt as a young man and even attempting a not-altogether-successful experiment at the monastic life with his friend, Gregory. His life of active contribution to the Church began with his appointment as bishop to the metropolitan see of Cappadocia (q.v.), Caesarea, in 370. The nine years of life remaining to him he exhausted in a ministry of extraordinary effort and remarkable accomplishments. Basil continued his lifelong interest in monasticism as a bishop, and the responses he wrote in reply to questions on the monastic life (the Longer and Shorter Rules), with their emphasis on communal life and social service, have exercised great influence in the history of cenobitic monasticism. His treatises On the Holy Spirit and the three Against Eunomius, written in reply to the attack on the teaching of the Trinity (q.v.)-the great ecclesiastical and imperial crisis of the era-laid down the main lines of Greek triadology. This work and his efforts to reconcile “Semiarians” to Orthodoxy would be confirmed at the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (qq.v.) in 381, and expanded on by his brother and his friend, the two Gregories. |
| Archive Пн 6th International Patristic Conference on Saint Basil the Great in the Theological Tradition of the East and the West opens in Moscow 12 April 2019 year 15:38 On the 11 th of April 2019, an opening ceremony of the 6 th International Patristic Conference on Saint Basil the Great in the Theological Tradition of the East and the West took place at the Assembly Hall of Ss. Cyril and Methodius Theological Institute of Postgraduate Studies. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk greeted all those present, telling about the previous patristic conferences organized by the Theological Institute of Postgraduate Studies. Among those who spoke at the opening ceremony were also Bishop Irenei of Richmond and Western Europe (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) and Msgr. Francesco Braschi, director of the Slavic Studies Department of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Delivering addresses at the first plenary session of the conference were Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, rector of Ss. Cyril and Methodius Theological Institute of Postgraduate Studies; Bishop Irenei of Richmond and Western Europe; and Msgr. Francesco Braschi. Metropolitan Hilarion spoke on The Liturgy of St. Basil the Great in the Context of His Theological Ideas. A number of sessions will take place within the framework of the conference, dedicated to the theological, exegetic, liturgical and ascetic heritage of St. Basil the Great. The conference will conclude its work on the 13 th of April. Press Service of Ss. Cyril and Methodius Theological Institute of Postgraduate Studies /Patriarchia.ru Календарь ← 21 апреля 2024 г. (8 апреля ст.ст.) воскресенье Неделя 5-я Великого поста. Глас 5-й. Прп. Марии Египетской (переходящее празднование в 5-ю Неделю Великого поста). Апп. Иродиона, Агава, Асинкрита, Руфа, Флегонта, Ерма и иже с ними (I). Свт. Нифонта, еп. Новгородского (1156). Прп. Руфа, затворника Печерского, в Дальних пещерах (XIV). Мч. Павсилипа (117–138). Свт. Келестина, папы Римского (432). Сщмч. Сергия Родаковского пресвитера (1933). Литургия св. Василия Великого. Утр. – Ев. 2-е, Мк., 70 зач., XVI, 1–8 . Лит. – Евр., 321 зач. (от полу), IX, 11–14 . Мк., 47 зач., X, 32–45 . Прп.: Гал., 208 зач., III, 23–29 . Лк., 33 зач., VII, 36–50 . 7 April 2024 year Share with friends |
| The altar or sanctuary became its place, and access to the sanctuary was closed to the uninitiated» (p. 101); the division was furthered by the gradual raising of the iconostasis. «The mystery presupposes theurgii, consecrated celebrants; the sacralization of the clergy led in its turn to the »secularization» of the laity.» There fell aside «the understanding of all Christians as a " royal priesthood»,» expressed in the symbol of royal anointing, after which there is no «step by step elevation through the degrees of a sacred mystery» (p. 100). The author quotes Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, who warned against revealing the holy mysteries «to profane impurity,» and likewise similar warnings of Saints Cyril of Jerusalem and Basil the Great. In this description of the Constantinian era and thereafter, the Protestant treatment is evident. The golden age of Christian freedom and the age of the great hierarchs, the age of the flowering of Christian literature, is presented here as something negative, a supposed intrusion of pagan elements into the Church, rather than as something positive. But at any time in the Church have simple believers actually received the condemnatory appellation of «profane»? From the Catechetical Lectures of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem it is absolutely clear that he warns against communicating the mysteries of faith to pagans. Saint Basil the Great writes of the same thing: «What would be the propriety of writing to proclaim the teaching concerning that which the unbaptized are not permitted even to view?» (On the Holy Spirit, ch. 27) Do we really have to quote the numerous testimonies in the words of the Lord Himself and in the writings of the Apostles concerning the division into pastors and «flock,» the warnings to pastors of their duty, their responsibility, their obligation to give an accounting for the souls entrusted to them, the strict admonitions of the angels to the Churches which are engraved in the Apocalypse? Do not the Acts of the Apostles and the pastoral Epistles of the Apostle Paul speak of a special consecration through laying on of hands into the hierarchical degrees? The author of this book acknowledges that a closed altar separated the clergy from the faithful. |
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