St. Basil the Great

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

Today we celebrate the memorial of two great saints from the Eastern tradition of the Christian Church. The first of these is St. Basil the Great; the second is St. Gregory of Nazianzen. In the Eastern Church, these two are joined by a third, St. Gregory of Nyssa. All three men are influential Doctors of the Church who were instrumental in formulating the Nicene Creed and in battling the early heresies that plagued the Church.

St. Basil recorded some of his early biography in one of his letters in these words: "I had wasted much time on follies and spent nearly all of my youth in vain labors, and devotion to the teachings of a wisdom that God had made foolish. Suddenly, I awoke as out of a deep sleep. I beheld the wonderful light of the Gospel truth, and I recognized the nothingness of the wisdom of the princes of this world." He had spent much of his youth studying civil law and rhetoric, both of which he taught until he came under the influence of another early church father by the name of Eustathius of Sebaste, a charismatic bishop. St. Basil turned his life toward Christ and his Gospel and never swerved in his path of service to both.

We recite the Nicene Creed almost every Sunday and Solemnity in the Church's calendar. (The new translation of the Roman Missal allows us the option of substituting the shorter and simpler "Apostles Creed.") As is the case with all such things, familiarity has dulled our awareness of the importance of this creedal statement. The early Church had no such luxury. The words of the creed were hammered out by the early fathers of the Church and were the life's work of many others. The early heresies of the church are just one indication of the controversy that surrounded its formulation. St. Basil stands today as one of the men to whom we are indebted for our Creed.

He was, however, so much more than an intellectual and academic. He left behind a rich tradition of monasticism whose contributions still form the basis for the communal life of religious with its emphasis on manual labor, regular prayer and liturgy. For children of the Eastern Church, he is their "Santa Claus." Children from this tradition open their Christmas gifts on January 1, the day of his death in the year 379. Another great doctor and saint, St. Gregory of Nyssa, was his brother. Finally, he was also known for his care and generosity to the sick and the poor.

Though his feast is kept as a memorial, a wonderful way to remember this man with gratitude today would be to prayerfully recite and contemplate the mysteries of the Nicene Creed.