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The saints

St. Basil the Great

A brilliant, proud young scholar who became a monk, a bishop, and the builder of a city of mercy.

Feast: 2 January · 329 to 379 · The early Church · Caesarea in Cappadocia (modern Turkey)

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Mosaic of St. Basil the Great in bishop’s vestments on a gold background, holding a book.

Unknown author. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Basil the Great

Caesarea, Cappadocia, the 4th century

Basil came home from the best schools of Athens full of himself, ready for a fine career.1

His sister Macrina, by his own later admission, helped shake him out of it.1

He gave his share of the family wealth away and went to live as a monk.

Patron of Russia1

01St. Basil the Great

Rules for monks, bread for the poor

The guidance he wrote for monks still shapes monastic life in the Christian East.1

As bishop of Caesarea he built a great complex for the poor, the sick and travelers, so large people called it a new city.1

02St. Basil the Great

Holding the line

He stood firm against the Arian heresy and an emperor who backed it, and he died at about fifty, worn out.1

Live it this week

Give from what you’d keep

Basil told the rich that the coat in their closet belonged to the man with none. Go through your closet this week, take out the good coat or shoes you don’t really need, and give them to a shelter today.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Basil the Great”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.