Amongst the very many Saints of the Church are a small number of spiritual giants that get given the title of The Great. I am very excited today to introduce to you Saint Basil the Great. St. Basil the Great comes from a time and even a geographical area known for its theological writers and saints. Amongst his many friends were some of the greatest theologians of history and even amongst his family was quite a number of Saints. He isn't even the first of his family to have an episode on this channel.
We have already created one about his older sister Macrina. According to Basil's younger brother Gregory, it was their older sister Macrina that encouraged Basil to not just look at the texts and the the teachings of Christianity but to really live them and to love with them. This led Basil to a deeper love of Christ and a love for the poor and to deeply care for the poor. He wrote many profound books on theology that have been preserved and re-read for the history of Christianity.
There are still many students of St. Basil. Basil lived in the 4th century, Christianity was free to operate and was a constantly growing religion. He was however still familiar with the pre-Christian texts.
Basil saw the value of this pre-Christian literature because he understood that the that Christianity was not there to supplant something or to throw away the past but to build upon the truths of it and so he made sure to pull out the truths of Christianity that could be found in non-christian texts. He encouraged his students to read pagan literature to get the best parts of it before advancing to the more profound Christian literature especially the Gospels. In this way Basil and his students had a well-rounded view of all of the philosophy that found completion in the person of Jesus Christ.
Like several of the famous saints of the era, Basil contested severely with the heresy of Arianism. It was a very popular heresy, especially with the rich and powerful, and this included the emperor. The emperor tried multiple times to banish Basil, and it never seemed to work. Eventually, the emperor sent to Basil the prefect Modestus to try and convince Basil to align with the Arian view of things.
What followed was a discussion between Modestus and Basil that became very famous at the time and was recounted with a lot of love. after Basil passed away. To paraphrase it slightly, Modestus came to Basil and started making some veiled threats about what might happen if Basil didn't change.
And Basil was not impressed and said he wasn't changing for anyone. Then Modestus made it more clear and said, you are defying your ruler. And Basil says, you mean the emperor? Well, he's not my actual ruler. My rule is much more powerful.
And Modestus says, aren't you afraid of what we can do to you? And Basil says, what are you talking about? What can you do to me? and Modestus comes out with the threats a bit more.
Banishment, confiscation, torture, death. Expecting Basil to be frightened. And Basil looks at him and says, Is that it?
Modestus says, what do you mean, is that it? Isn't that enough? And then Basil goes, well, in terms of banishment, the whole world is God's. I don't belong to any one place, so that's not really going to bother me. In terms of confiscation, all I have is these clothes and I have a few books.
You're welcome to take them. In terms of torture, I'm very old, I'm very weak. and if you start, I'm just going to die in the first few minutes and it's going to be a total waste of your time. As for death, well, I've lived my entire life in the service of God in the pursuit of the heavenly kingdom. You'll be doing me a favor.
Modestus is enraged by the attitude that he's encountering from this bishop and he says to him, no one has ever talked to me like this. And Basil looks at him and says, well, maybe you've never talked to a real bishop before. Because when it comes to loving others, we are gentle and we are kind.
When it comes to serving the truth. truth of Christ we are unyielding and nothing you can do is ever going to stop me. He finished his discussion with the prefect by saying, do your worst.
But the worst was never done because the discussion got around and the emperor got really intimidated by this dangerous bishop. And so he was never tortured, never arrested, never sent away. They tried every now and again and it didn't quite work. While the emperor never repented or recounted the heresy of Arianism, he did come in.
to an uncomfortable respect for the bishop Basil and actually gave Basil a parcel of land near Caesarea for Basil to construct one of his original and very creative ideas. The buildings and the complex that Basil constructed became known eventually as the Basiliad and it was a massive undertaking. Basil channeled huge funds from the wealthiest people of his area to build this facility.
The facilities included in the Basiliad kitchens that fed the homeless, there was a trade school that helped the poor learn skills for employment, there was a hospice for the dying, and importantly a fully staffed and highly skilled center of healing for anyone regardless of their status in society. Here, People of any social standing could come and receive highly skilled medical aid for absolutely no cost at all. All of this is happening in the 4th century. St. Gregory the Theologian, one of St. Basil's friends from his student days, visited the Basiliad and wrote about it saying, that it was the eighth wonder of the world.
And St. Gregory was absolutely right, because Basil had constructed history's first ever hospital. While there had been centers of healing before, they had normally been associated with only particular illnesses and associated with places of worship, like old pagan temples, and involved sacrifice and service from specific types of doctors. Here, for the first time in recorded history, was a place that treated anyone for any illness. Here, for the first time, was a place that treated anyone for any illness.
was a hospice for the dying, for anyone to be able to depart in peace and with care and love. Nothing like this had ever existed in history. Within a century, hospitals existed across the entire empire and of course today they exist all around the world. The legacy of St Basil lives on in many different ways.
Like St John Chrysostom, Basil wrote a liturgy. It is still used in the Orthodox Church to this day, normally during Lent, the lead up to Easter. It is a slightly longer service than the one by St John Chrysostom.
For many Greek people, Saint Basil, not Saint Nicholas, is the sort of Santa Claus figure. His feast day is on the 1st of January every single year, and it is on this day that Saint Basil delivers gifts to children. On Saint Basil's day, on the 1st of January, there is a traditional food known as Vasilopita, which literally translates to Basil bread. And this will be baked in honour of Saint Basil and eaten by the family on the 1st of January.
The origin of this tradition comes from a story that during the famine that struck Greece, struck Caesarea, the emperor, instead of being helpful, actually added an extra tax to the city. And Basil realized that this was not fair. The people needed this money, especially now, and went and complained to the emperor and got all the money back. All of this tax was returned to the angry bishop. And Basil then was looking at a couple of chests full of gold and heirlooms and jewelry that had been given from the people of his city.
And it was now his task to try and give this back to the right people. And he did not know what he was supposed to do. He prayed well into the night asking God for guidance on how to know whose was whose so that no one would fight over it.
In the morning he made a massive loaf of bread and as the dough was settling he poured all of the golden jewels into the mixture, covered it all up, baked a huge loaf of bread and called the people of Caesarea in for the divine liturgy. After the liturgy he said a prayer over the bread, cut it into slices and gave a slice to every single family. every single family found their gold and their heirlooms within their bread.
And so to this day, Vasilopita, which has several different recipes, we'll put some in the description, is baked with a coin inside for someone to find. While putting a coin or a piece of treasure into food is a tradition that exists in many different countries around the world, it is quite likely that this story is the origin for traditions like this in the Christian world. Because St Basil's Day falls on the 1st of January, it is right between Christmas and Epiphany, and it seems to be the day of the first of December. that Vassilopita may very well be the origin of the Christmas pudding in England or cakes like the Epiphany cake in France, all of which have a little treasure inside. After he died, another saintly friend of Saint Basil said of him, he belongs not to the church of Caesarea alone, nor merely to his own time, nor was he of benefit only to his own kinsmen, but rather to all lands and cities worldwide, and to all people he brought and still brings benefit, and for Christians he always was and will be.
a saving teacher. Saint Basil is a great teacher, not just through his writings and his theology and his liturgy, but through his life. He loved the poor, he cared for others, and through his life and his works, he encourages all of us to do the same. Today we are drinking a tea made of an Indian herb known as Tulsi, often called the Queen of Herbs. It is also known as Holy Basil, and it's a very nice tea.
It has a sort of spicy touch to it, and apparently it's very good for dealing with things like... like stress and anxiety, and I've really enjoyed drinking it alongside an episode about Basil, who I have to say is one of the funnest saints.