Basil the Elder
Saint Basil the Elder (Greek: Βασιλείος ό Γέρος), father of St. Basil the Great, was raised in Neocaesarea (modern day Turkey) in the Pontus. His feast day is 30 May.
Life[edit]
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[edit]
References[edit]
- 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, 5, Dumbarton Oaks: 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, 99 (2), Cambridge University Press: 207–228, doi:10.1017/s0017816006001210, ISSN 0017-8160, JSTOR 4125294