A Quote from St. Basil on his feast day

Fresco of St. Basil the Great, lower register of sanctuary in Church of the Theotokos Peribleptos in Ohrid, Macedonia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The Lord describes in the Gospel the pattern of life we must be trained to follow after the (baptismal) resurrection: gentleness, endurance, freedom from the defiling love of pleasure, and from covetousness.  We must be determined to acquire in this life all the qualities of the life to come.”

(St. Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, David Anderson, trans.  Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press; 1980.  p. 59.)

Today (in the Lutheran Calendar) is the feast day of St. Basil the Great, the Bishop of Caesarea who died in 379.  He is one of the great fathers of the church who taught, defended and lived the faith.  He is commemorated on this day along with his brother, Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, (d. ca. 385) and close friend Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople (d. ca. 389).  The three are known as the Cappadocian Fathers.   Macrina (d. ca. 379), the eldest sister to Basil and Gregory of  Nyssa and an influential and important teacher and witness to Christ, is also commemorated on this day.

Gregory of Nyssa (fresco in Chora Church) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Gregory the Theologian (Fresco from Kariye Camii, Istanbul). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

English: St. Macrina the Younger (fresco in Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev) Русский: Преподобная Макрина (фреска Софийского собора в Киеве) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)