Early Life and Family
The future Saint Basil the Great was born in the year approximately between the years 329 and 330. There are many different sources that dispute the year of Basil’s birth. Some say 329, and others say 330. His family was reasonably prosperous high-class family, his parents were Basil the Elder and Saint Emmelia.[1]His father Basil was a teacher of rhetoric and his mother was from Cappadocia. Besides being a teacher of rhetoric, Basil the Elder was a lawyer and his mother Emmelia was what we would call today a “stay at home mom” who raised her children along with the help of her mother (Basil’s grandmother Macrina).[2] Basil’s grandmother was also known as “Macrina the Elder” which would make it easier to differentiate between the grandmother and the granddaughter[3]. Basil was one of ten siblings, where four of Basil’s siblings are highly renowned and are commemorated throughout the Church calendar.
The siblings that became in the midst of the saints were Macrina, “who was an exemplar of ascetic life and character of St. Basil the Great; Gregory, afterwards Bishop of Nyssa; Peter, Bishop of Sebaste; and Theosebia, a deaconess”.[4]Basil’s sister, Macrina was known to be “Basil’s strong-minded sister”, another brother of Basil’s was Naucratius.[5]Basil’s family was highly decorated in a sense of having future Saints in the family. The children all became highly educated and involved in the Church.
Basil’s Education
Basil lived his first years of life on his parents estate.[6]Basil’s education was initially started under his father, Basil the Elder. Then as the years went on, Basil was under the tutelage of Socrates and Gregory of Nyssa, this took place in Antioch.[7]During Basil’s time of being with his father for education, Basil was acquainted with the great Hierarch and Ecumenical Teacher, Gregory the Theologian.[8]
After Antioch we find Basil at Athens at about the age of 21, studying avidly with his friend from Cappadocia, Gregory of Nazianzus. Here he spent probably five years till 356 or 357 and was taught by two of the leading masters of the day, one a Christian, Prohaeresius, who later lost his post as a result of Julian’s School of Law of 362, the other a pagan, Himerius”.[9]
Road to Orthodoxy
In the year 357, Basil was baptized, this is relatively late for a person to baptized, but it shows, “the growth of the catechumenate on the one hand and on the other the difficulty involved in the forgiveness of post-baptismal sin”.[10]This was not uncommon for someone to be baptized late in life, for example Saints Constantine and Constantinius were baptized on their deathbed, respectively.
After being baptized, Basil embarked on a trip to Egypt to tour the monasteries, with touring the monasteries; Basil found a life of solitude by going to the monasteries on a personal pilgrimage. But this life of solitude was something that could not be kept by Basil as difficulty arose in trying to keep the solitude.
[1]Anthony Meredith, The Cappadocians(Crestwood: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997), 20
[2]“St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia – Orthodox Church in America,” 1996-2015, http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/01/01/100003-st-basil-the-great-archbishop-of-caeligsarea-in-cappadocia.
[3]Meredith, The Cappadocians, 20.
[4]“St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia – Orthodox Church in America,” 1996-2015, http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/01/01/100003-st-basil-the-great-archbishop-of-caeligsarea-in-cappadocia.
[5]Anthony Meredith, The Cappadocians(Crestwood: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997), 20
[6]“St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia – Orthodox Church in America,” 1996-2015, http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/01/01/100003-st-basil-the-great-archbishop-of-caeligsarea-in-cappadocia.
[7]Anthony Meredith, The Cappadocians(Crestwood: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997), 21
[8]“St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia – Orthodox Church in America,” 1996-2015, http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/01/01/100003-st-basil-the-great-archbishop-of-caeligsarea-in-cappadocia.
[9]Anthony Meredith, The Cappadocians(Crestwood: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997), 21
[10]Anthony Meredith, The Cappadocians(Crestwood: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997), 21