Today is the (old) feast of St. Basil the Great, and so we are going to honor this doctor of the Church (329-379 AD). He was bishop of Caesarea, but when he was still just a priest there he aroused the jealousy of the archbishop, St. Eusebius. Imagine that: two good people -- nay, saints -- who couldn't get along! Basil decided to retreat rather than fight and he went to live on his own in Pontus in Asia Minor for awhile. His friend, St. Gregory Nazianzen, went to his retreat and brought him back. Basil was uncompromising toward the heretics, but was all in all a charitable man. During the drought and subsequent famine, Basil distributed the fortune he'd inherited and even put on an apron and doled out food in the soup kitchens. Not long after that he was tapped to be archbishop. He, a monk at heart, advocated penance for all, rejected materialism in all its forms, and was profoundly realistic. He said if a man does not keep the commandments, he does not love God, no matter what he says. He realistically stated that a true Christian sometimes does cause pain, even to one he loves, because he cannot tolerate sin. Amen, brother!
He also stressed that we can't rely on our own understanding but we must trust in God and His Word. It is more reliable than the words of any man.
Emperor Valens, an Arian, sent the prefect Modestus to induce Basil to relent or at least to compromise. He would not. "Nothing short of violence can avail against such a man," said Modestus. Three times the pen the emperor was going to use to sign the edict of exile against Basil broke, and Valens, at heart a weak and superstitious man, decided to leave him in peace.
Well, that problem solved, he now lost his best friend when his diocese was split in two and he assigned the "miserable town" of Sasima to St. Gregory of Nazianzen, a small diocese on the border of the two Cappadocias (Caesarea's see). I get the impression that Basil did that in order to keep order and an eye out on both halves of his former see (which he was distraught at losing), and Gregory understandably didn't take too kindly to it.
I can sympathize with him because he fell into a deep depression, no doubt because after the death of St. Athanasius, he was the last orthodox bishop left in the East. Even the orthodox Catholic Church was rent by schisms. "He was . . . misunderstood, misrepresented, and accused of ambition and of heresy." In a fit of despair he cried out "For my sins I seem to be unsuccessful in everything!"
But he was actually able to hold it all together and just before he died he got the great good news of the fall of Arianism with the death of the Emperor Valens and the ascent of his (Catholic) nephew Gratian. His funeral was attended by the entirety of his diocese, including pagans, Jews and strangers, all paying respect to "the great Basil, the minister of grace who has expounded the truth to the whole earth."
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