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Maria Angela Grow

Maria Angela Grow

@MariaAngelaGrow

12h

Time and space would fail us were we to attempt to follow our saint through all the details of this grand family life which he so thoroughly lived with his whole people, and which formed his one consolation in the midst of his otherwise stormy career. It would behoove us to show how he made himself all to all, in gladness and in sorrow, with a simplicity which is so admirably blended in him with lofty greatness; how he would reply to the humblest consultations, just as though he had nothing more urgent on hand than to satisfy the demands of the least among his sons; how he would cry out against every touch of injustice offered to one of his flock, and cease not till full compensation was made; and finally, how, with the aid of his Faithful of Cæsarea rising up as one man to defend their bishop, he would oppose himself as a strong rampart to protect virgins and widows against the brutal oppression of men in power. Though himself poor and stripped of all things, since the day when about to enter the monastic state, he had distributed the whole of his rich paternal inheritance among the poor, he nevertheless found the secret of how to raise, in his episcopal city, an immense establishment, destined as an assured refuge for pilgrims and the poor, an asylum ever open and admirably organized to meet the requirements of every kind of suffering and the needs of all ages; or rather, a new city, built beside the great Cæsarea, and named by the gratitude of the people after its sainted founder. Ever ready for any combat, Basil intrepidly maintained his rights as exarch, which he possessed by reason of his See, over the eleven provinces composing the vast administrative division, known to the Romans by the generic name of the diocese of Pontus. Indefatigable in his zeal for the sacred canons, he both defended his clergy against all attempts aimed at their immunities, and reformed such abuses as had crept in during times less troubled than his own. Even in the very vortex of the storm, he knew how to bring back ecclesiastical discipline to the perfection of its best days. . At last the time came when the main interests of the faith, the perils of which seemed, up to this, to have suspended, in his worn-out body, the law of all flesh, now no longer demanded his presence so absolutely as before. On the Ninth of August 378, the arrow of the Goth exercised justice on Valens; soon afterwards, Gratian’s Edict recalled the exiled confessors, and Theodosius appeared in the East. On the First of January 379, Basil, at last set free, slept in the Lord. . The Greek Church celebrates the memory of this great Bishop on the day of his death, conjointly with the Circumcision of the Word made Flesh; a second time, on the Thirtieth of the same month of January, uniting therewith two other of her doctors, namely, Saints Gregory Nazianzen and John Chrysostom, bringing all the magnificence of her gorgeous Liturgy to give splendour to this grand solemnity of January 30th, illumined as it is by a “triple sun beaming glory concordantly to the Holy Trinity.” The Latin Church has chosen for her celebration of Saint Basil the day of his Ordination, namely, June 14th. . The following is the notice she gives of his holy life: Basilius nobilis Cappadox, Athenis una cum Gregorio Nazianzeno ejus amicissimo, sæcularibus litteris, deinde in monasterio sacris mirabiliter eruditus, eum brevi cursum fecit ad omnem doctrinæ et morum excellentiam, ut inde Magni cognomen invenerit. Is ad prædicandum Jesu Christi Evangelium in Pontum accersitus eam provinciam a christianis institutis aberrantem, ad viam salutis revocavit: mox ab Eusebio Cæsareæ episcopo ad erudiendam eam civitatem adjutor adhibetur: in cujus locum postea successit. Is Filium Patri consubstantialem esse in primis defendit, ac Valentem imperatorem sibi iratum, miraculis adeo flexit, ut incumbentem ad voluntatem ejiciendi ipsum in exsilium, a sententia discedere coegerit. . Basil, a noble Cappadocian, studied profane letters at Athens, in company with Gregory Nazianzen, to whom he was united in a warm and tender friendship. He afterwards studies things sacred in a monastery, where he quickly attained an eminent degree of excellence in doctrine and life, whereby he gained to himself the surname of “the Great.” He was called to Pontus to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and brought back into the way of salvation that country which before had been wandering astray from the rules of Christian discipline. He was shortly united as coadjutor to Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, for the instructing of that city, and afterwards became his successor in the See. One of his greatest labors was to maintain that the Son is Consubstantial to the Father; and when the Emperor Valens, moved to wrath against him, was minded to send him into exile, he was so vanquished by the miracles Basil worked, that he was forced to forego his intention. . Nam et Valentis sella, in qua facturus decretum de ejiciendo e civitate Basilio, sedere volebat, confracta est: et tribus ab eo calamis adhibitis ad scribendam exsilii legem, nullus eorum reddidit atramentum: et cum nihilominus in proposito scribendi impium decretum persisteret, ipsius dextera, dissolutis nervis, tota contremuit. His commotus Valens chartam utraque manu conscidit. Ea autem nocte, quæ ad deliberandum Basilio data est, Valentis uxor intimis est cruciata doloribus, et unicus filius in gravem morbum incidit. Quibus ille perterritus, iniquitatem suam recognoscens, Basilium accersit: quo præsente, puer cœpit convalescere: verum, vocatis a Valente ad visendum puerum hæreticis, paulo post moritur. . For the chair upon which Valens sat down in order to sign the decree of Basil’s ejectment from the city, broke under him; and of the three pens which he took up, one after the other, to sign the edict of banishment, none would mark the ink; and when, nevertheless, persisting in his intent to write the impious order, the muscles as it were becoming relaxed, his whole right hand trembled violently. Valens was so frightened by these signs, that he tore the fatal document in two. During the night which was allowed to Basil to make up his mind, the wife of Valens was seized with excruciating intestine pains, and his only son was taken seriously ill. These things alarmed Valens so much, that he acknowledged his wickedness, and sent for Basil, during whose visit the child began to get better. However, when Valens sent for some heretics to see it, it presently died. . Abstinentia et continentia fuit admirabilis: una tunica contentus erat, in jejunio servando diligentissimus, in oratione assiduus, in qua sæpe totam noctem consumebat. Virginitatem perpetuo coluit. Monasteriis exstructis, ita monachorum institutum temperavit, ut solitariæ atque actuosæ vitæ utilitates præclare simul conjungeret. Multa erudite scripsit, ac nemo, teste Gregorio Nazianzeno, sacræ Scripturæ libros verius aut uberius explicavit. Obiit Kalendis Januarii, cum, tantum spiritu vivens, præter ossa et pellem, nulla præterea corporis parte constare videretur. . The abstinence and continence of Basil were truly wonderful. He was content to wear nothing but one single garment. In observance of fasting he was most earnest, and so instant in prayer, that he oftentimes passed the whole night therein. His virginity he kept always unsullied. He built monasteries wherein he so adapted the institution of monasticism, that he exquisitely united for the monks the advantages of solitude and of action. He was the author of many learned writings, and according to the testimony of Gregory Nazianzen, no one has ever composed more faithful and unctuous explanations of the Books of Holy Scripture. He died upon the Kalends of January; and as he had lived but by the spirit, there seemed to have remained naught to him of the body, save the skin and the bones. . To give thus a list of thine admirable works is in itself to sing thy praises, O mighty Pontiff! Would that nowadays thou hadst imitators; for history teaches us that Saints of a build like thine are those who cause an epoch to be really great and who save society. No matter how tried, how abandoned even, a people may apparently, be if only blessed with a ruler docile in all things, docile unto heroism, to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost ever abiding in holy Church, this people will assuredly weather the storm, and conquer at last; whereas, if the salt lose its savour, society necessarily falls away, without the need of any Julian or of any Valens to bring about its ruin. O Basil, do thou then obtain for this our waning society, leaders such as thou wert; may the astonishment of Modestus be justly renewed in these days of ours; let prefects, Valens successors, meet at the head of every church, a Bishop in the full sense of the term as used by thee; then will their astonishment be for us a signal of victory; for a Bishop is never vanquished, even should he be exiled or put to death! . While keeping up the pastors of the Church to the high standard of the state of perfection in which the sacred unction supposes them to be, lead the flock, likewise, to higher paths of sanctity, such as Christianity gives scope for. Not to monks alone is that word spoken; the kingdom of God is within you. Thou hast taught us that the kingdom of heaven, that beatitude that can be ours already, is the contemplation, accessible to us here below, of eternal realities, not indeed by clear and direct vision, but in that mirror whereof the Apostle speaks. How foolish is it to cultivate and feed in man naught but the senses that crave for the material alone, and to refuse to the spirit its own proper food and bent. Does not the spirit urge of its own nature towards intellectual regions, for the which it is created? If its flight be slow and heavy, the reason is that the senses, by prevailing, impede its ascent. Teach us, therefore, to furnish it more and more with increased faith and love, whereby it may become light and agile as the hart, to leap unto loftiest heights. Tell in our age, as thou didst formerly in thine, that forgotten truth, namely, how earnestness in maintaining an upright faith is no less necessary for this end than rectitude of life. Alas! how far have thy sons, for the greater part, forgotten that every true monk as well as every true Christian detests heresy, and all that savors thereof. Wherefore, dear Saint, bless all the more particularly those few whom such a continuity of trials has, as yet, failed to shake in their constancy; multiply conversions; hasten the happy day when the East, casting off the yoke of schism and Islamism, may resume her former glorious place in the one fold of the one Shepherd. . O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptized in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,”—such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.

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