Commontide
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
Proper 5 (June 5-11)
Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Bishop of Caesarea and Doctor of the Church
Ecumenical Commemoration
Basil the Great was bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia and the eldest of the three Cappadocian Fathers whose work secured the Nicene faith. He wrote the church's classic treatise on the divinity of the Holy Spirit, gave Eastern monasticism its enduring rule, built one of the first Christian hospitals for the poor, and stood almost alone against an emperor who tried to bend the church to heresy. He died on the first day of 379.
Basil was born around 329 into a remarkable Cappadocian family: his grandmother Macrina the Elder, his sister Macrina the Younger, and his brothers Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebaste are all venerated as saints. Educated at Constantinople and Athens, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil was drawn toward rhetoric until his sister Macrina convinced him to embrace the monastic and theological vocation.
After touring the monastic communities of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, Basil returned to Cappadocia and established a monastic community on the family estate at Annesi. His monastic rule — emphasizing communal life, manual labor, and care for the poor rather than extreme asceticism — became foundational for Eastern Christian monasticism and influenced Benedict in the West.
Ordained priest in 362 and elected Bishop of Caesarea in 370, Basil found himself at the center of the Arian crisis. Emperor Valens aggressively promoted Arianism, and Basil stood virtually alone among the bishops of Asia Minor in resisting. When threatened with confiscation, exile, torture, and death, Basil replied that a man who owns nothing cannot be threatened with confiscation, who has no home cannot be exiled, and whose death would be a kindness.
Meanwhile Basil built. The Basiliad, outside Caesarea, was so vast that Gregory of Nazianzus called it a 'new city' — it included a hospital, hostel for travelers, workshops for the poor to learn trades, and a leper colony, all staffed by monks. His theological masterwork, On the Holy Spirit, provided the decisive argument for the Spirit's full divinity within the Trinity.
Basil died on January 1, 379, worn out by asceticism and chronic illness, just two years before the Council of Constantinople vindicated everything he had fought for. Gregory of Nazianzus preached his funeral oration.
Traditionally, Basil's confrontation with Emperor Valens was attended by supernatural confirmation. When Valens entered Basil's cathedral on Epiphany and witnessed the splendor of worship and Basil's majestic bearing, he was overwhelmed and nearly fainted. His attempts to move against Basil reportedly failed — his pen would not write the order of exile, and his son fell gravely ill until Basil prayed for him.