Saints: Life & Times
By Marjorie TautkusLesson 4: Monastic Beginnings
. . . . . St. Basil the Great
St. Basil the Great (329-379): Bishop, Confessor, Father and Doctor of the Universal Church. Add to that “Formulator of Eastern Monastic Rule and Scion of Saints.” His remarkable family included: St. Basil the Elder, his father; St. Emelia his mother, herself the daughter of martyrs; his paternal grandparents St. Macrina the Elder and her spouse, who both suffered persecution and hardship for their faith; Basil’s brothers St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Peter of Sebaste; and sister St. Macrina the Younger. Basil’s brilliant mind and seriousness of character were joined with a studious nature and a genius for practical administration. (Companions, pp. 168-169 & “Basil the Great, Saint,” Cath/ Encyc. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02330b.h... His success as a university student and later as a professor left him somewhat smug and worldly. Then he came under the influence of his sister, St. Macrina the Younger, who had taken to heart the pious counsels of her grandmother, St. Macrina the Elder, and ardently embraced the faith. Her holiness attracted others, and she established a religious community on the family estate at Annesi. Tutored by her,
Basil himself tells us how, like a man roused from a deep sleep, he turned his eyes to the marvelous truth of the Gospel, wept many tears over his miserable life, and prayed for guidance from God. “Then I read the Gospel and saw there that a great means of reaching perfection was the selling of one’s goods, the sharing of them with the poor, the giving up of all care for this life, and the refusal to allow the soul to be turned by any sympathy towards the things of earth.” (Ibid.)Hungry for a deeper communion with God, Basil traveled to Syria, Egypt and Palestine, seeking inspiration and direction from the monks and hermits. Deeply impressed by their austerity and piety, Basil returned home and lived a secluded, eremetical life for five years. He drew so many followers that he established a monastic colony on his family estate in Pontus, and wrote his famous Rule to regularize their way of life and practices.
It is tempting to go on about St. Basil and his many gifts and achievements: his call to the active life, first as priest, then as bishop; his well-run diocese which set the standard for priestly behavior and orthodoxy; his generous and practical care for the poor, the infirm and the jobless; his theological treatises which enriched our understanding of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Spirit; his steadfast separation of ecclesial authority from imperial meddling; his position as greatest of “The Three Cappadocians” (with his brother St. Gregory of Nyssa and his close friend St. Gregory of Nazianzus) who kept all of central Turkey free from heresy; “his influence from the Balkans to the Mediterranean and from the Aegean to the Euphrates” (Ibid.); the list goes on and on. We will touch on some of his contributions later. For now, let’s limit our discussion to his influence on monasticism.
Eastern Monasticism has not changed its methods or basic structure from the time of Pachomius and Basil. Unlike Western Monasticism, Eastern focuses its spirituality strictly upon the Scriptures and Holy Tradition (principally the Divine Office and the usages developed by the monks of the desert). A monastery is identified by its location rather than any founder. Each monastery has some unique religious practice, and, in addition to his vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the monk vows perseverance in the religious exercises particular to his monastery. (For example: the monks at Studion monastery in Constantinople, sang the Divine Office in relays day and night.) After his vows, the monk is attached to his monastery for life, leaving it only with the consent of his superior and for the purpose of transacting business for the laura (monastery) or for the Church in general.
According to Eastern Theology, the monk was called to Christian perfection and to penance. “The most perfect life on earth . . . is that of a man who obeys the command to ‘do penance for the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh.’” ("Monasticism, Eastern,” Cath. Ency. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10467a.h... The chief purpose of a monk’s life is to sing the praises of God in Divine Office, which is particularly lengthy in the Eastern rites; the office for the eve of a major feast will take all night to sing and recite.
The monastery developed
a hierarchy of officials among whom the various offices were distributed: the prayers, meals, work, punishments were portioned out according to the ascetic works of St. Basil . . . The hegumenos [abbot] had absolute authority over all his monks, could receive novices and inflict punishments, but he was bound always by the Rule of St. Basil and the canons, and he had to consult a committee of the more experienced monks in all cases of difficulty. (Ibid.)Thus the hegumenos continues the patristic tradition of the desert fathers, but is sagely limited in his exercise of authority.
The Rule of St. Basil itself is written as a dialogue between the disciple and the monk, much the same as in the Verba Seniorum, the Sayings of the Fathers. The disciple asks about the virtues a monk should develop and the vices he should avoid. Basil stressed “poverty, obedience, renunciation and self-abnegation,” seasoning his advice with quotes from Sacred Scripture, which he regarded as “the basis of all legislation, the true Rule.” ("Basil, Rule of Saint,” Cath. Ency. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02322a.h... Unlike the Rule of St. Benedict, which legislates many specific observations, the Basilian Rule limits itself to general principals that should govern the conduct of superiors and monks. For guidance in developing the details of monastic life, the Eastern hegumenos turned to the traditions of the desert, the decisions of councils, the practices of esteemed abbots, and imperial ordinances. Thus a canon of regulations developed to which the individual hegumenos could subscribe in his governance of the monastery.
I have used masculine nouns and pronouns for the sake of simplifying the text. Women were also called, but not as many as their brothers. That seems to be another distinction between Eastern Spirituality and Western Spirituality: in the East, spirituality appeals more to men, while in the West the opposite holds true. Man or woman, the heart responds to the call of Christ, to come away with Him and be at rest – at least as far as the world was concerned. Like their Western confreres, the Eastern monks were deeply involved in the life of the Church. Bishops and patriarchs were often chosen from their ranks; the monks were involved in every type of charity; students, artists and intellectuals found refuge within the monastery and contributed their talents to shape and adorn the liturgy and combat heresy. Some of the first missionaries came from the ranks of Eastern monks, including Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles of the Slavs. The Russian language is still written in St. Cyril’s alphabet.
The number of monasteries continued to increase: there was at least one in every diocese. Before the Bolshevik revolution, Russia had about 429 monasteries; Jerusalem 10, and Greece 169, to mention a few. The monks in Italy were influenced by the Eastern monasteries, but were sorely in need of reformation.
To get more details about St. Basil, Eastern Monasticism, and the Rule of St. Basil: go to hhtp://www.newadvent.org/cathen or use the links in this section.
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