The letters of Saint Basil The Great

[سليمان]

The letters of
SAINT BASIL THE GREAT
Archbishop of Caesaria
Translated with Notes

This thread is a [glint]work in progress [/glint]and a labor of love, please visit this page often for new additions
In Christ I remain His steadfast servant
and your brother
Sulieman

Index
Click on the title below to view the letter of your choice

Introduction to the Letters
To Eustathius the Philosopher
Basil to Gregory

[glint]work in progress [/glint]

[سليمان]

Introduction to the Letters
+++

Of Saint Basil the extant letters, according
to popular ascription, number three hundred and sixty-six. Of these three hundred and twenty-five, or, according to some, only three hundred and nineteen are genuine. They are published in three chronological divisions, the 1st, (Letters 1–46) comprising those written by Basil before his elevation to the episcopate; the second (47–291) the Letters of the Episcopate; the third (292–366) those which have no note of time, together
with some that are of doubtful genuineness, and a few certainly spurious. 1736 They may be classified as (a) historical, (b) dogmatic, (c) moral and ascetic, (d) disciplinary, (e) consolatory, (f) commendatory, and (g) familiar. In the historic we have a vivid picture of his age. The doctrinal are of special value as expressing and defending the Nicene theology. The moral and ascetic indicate the growing importance of the monastic institution which Athanasius at about the same time was instrumental in recommending to the Latin Church. The disciplinary, (notably 188, 199, and 217), to Amphilochius, illustrate the earlier phases of ecclesiastical law. The consolatory, commendatory, and familiar, have an immediate biographical value as indicating the character and faith of the writer, and may not be without use alike as models of Christian feeling and good breeding, and as bringing comfort in trouble to readers remote in time and place. The text in the following translation is that of Migne’s edition, except where it is stated to the contrary. Of the inadequacy of the notes to illustrate the letters as they deserve no one can be more vividly conscious than myself. But the letters tell their own story. End of introduction

Notes
1736 Fessler, Inst. Pat. i. 518. End of note

Jumb to the index page

[سليمان]

To Eustathius the Philosopher
+++

Letter I. 1737
To Eustathius the Philosopher. 1738

Much distressed as I was by the flouts of what is called fortune, who always seems to be hindering my meeting you, I was wonderfully cheered and comforted by your letter, for I had already been turning over in my mind whether what so many people say is really true, that there is a certain Necessity or Fate which rules all the events of our lives both great and small, and that we human beings have control over nothing; or, that at all events, all human life is driven by a kind of luck. 1739
You will be very ready to forgive me for these reflexions, when you learn by what causes I was led to make them.
On hearing of your philosophy, I entertained a feeling of contempt for the teachers of Athens, and left it. The city on the Hellespont I passed by, more unmoved than any Ulysses, passing Sirens’ songs. 1740
Asia 1741 I admired; but I hurried on to the capital of all that is best in it. When I arrived home, and did not find you,—the prize which I had sought so eagerly,—there began many and various unexpected hindrances. First I must miss you because I fell ill; then when you were setting out for the East I could not start with you; then, after endless trouble, I reached Syria, but I missed the philosopher, who had set out for Egypt. Then I must set out for Egypt, a long and weary way, and even there I did not gain my end. But so passionate was my longing that I must either set out for Persia, and proceed with you to the farthest lands of barbarism, (you had got there; what an obstinate devil possessed me!) or settle here at Alexandria. This last I did. I really think that unless, like some tame beast, I had followed a bough held out to me till I was quite worn out, you would have been driven on and on beyond Indian Nyssa, 1742 or any more remote region, and wandered about out there. Why say more?
On returning home, I cannot meet you, hindered by lingering ailments. If these do not get better I shall not be able to meet you even in the winter. Is not all this, as you yourself say, due to Fate? Is not this Necessity? Does not my case nearly outdo poets’ tales of Tantalus? But, as I said, I feel better after getting your letter, and am now no longer of the same mind. When God gives good things I think we must thank Him, and not be angry with Him while He is controlling their distribution. So if He grant me to join you, I shall think it best and most delightful; if He put me off, I will gently endure the loss. For He always rules our lives better than we could choose for ourselves. The End

[glint]Wow! Glory To The Lord. Indeed! Indeed[/glint]

Notes
1737 Placed in 357. End of note

1738 Another ms. reading is “To Eustathius, Presbyter of Antioch.” The Benedictine note is “Eustathius was not a Presbyter, but a heathen, as is indicated by Basil’s words, ‘Are not these things work of fate,—of necessity, as you would say?’” End of note

1739 The word τύχη does not occur in the N.T. End of note

1740 ὡς ουδεὶς ᾽Οδυσσεύς. The Ben. translation is “citius quam quisquam Ulysses.” But the reason of the escape of Ulysses was not his speed, but his stopping the ears of his crew with wax and tying himself to the mast. cf. Hom. Od. xii. 158. The “city on the Hellespont,” is, according to the Ben. note, Constantinople; but Constantinople is more than 100 m. from the Dardanelles, and Basil could hardly . write so loosely. End of note

1741 Apparently not the Roman Province of Asia, but what we call Asia Minor, a name which came into use in Basil’s century. The “metropolis” is supposed to mean Ceasaria. End of note

1742 Νύσιος=᾽Ινδικός. cf. Soph. Aj. 707. Nyssa was in the Punjab. End of note

Jumb to the index page

[سليمان]

Basil to Gregory
+++

Letter II. 1743
Basil to Gregory

First: [I recognised your letter, as one recognises one’s friends’ children from their obvious likeness to their parents. Your saying that to describe the kind of place I live in, before letting you hear anything about how I live, would not go far towards persuading you to share my life, was just like you; it was worthy of a soul like yours, which makes nothing of all that concerns this life here, in comparison with the blessedness which is promised us hereafter. What I do myself, day and night, in this remote spot, I am ashamed to write. I have abandoned my life in town, as one sure to lead to countless ills; but I have not yet been able to get quit of myself. I am like travellers at sea, who have never gone a voyage before, and are distressed and seasick, who quarrel with the ship because it is so big and makes such a tossing, and, when they get out of it into the pinnace or dingey, are everywhere and always seasick and distressed. Wherever they go their nausea and misery go with them. My state is something like this. I carry my own troubles with me, and so everywhere I am in the midst of similar discomforts. So in the end I have not got much good out of my solitude. What I ought to have done; what would have enabled me to keep close to the footprints of Him who has led the way to salvation—for He says, “If any one will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me” 1744 —is this.] End of part one

Second: We must strive after a quiet mind. As well might the eye ascertain an object put before it while it is wandering restless up and down and sideways, without fixing a steady gaze upon it, as a mind, distracted by a thousand worldly cares, be able clearly to apprehend the truth. He who is not yet yoked in the bonds of matrimony is harassed by frenzied cravings, and rebellious impulses, and hopeless attachments; he who has found his mate is encompassed with his own tumult of cares; if he is childless, there is desire for children; has he children? anxiety about their education, attention to his wife, 1745 care of his house, oversight of his servants, 1746 misfortunes in trade, quarrels with his neighbours, lawsuits, the risks of the merchant, the toil of the farmer. Each day, as it comes, darkens the soul in its own way; and night after night takes up the day’s anxieties, and cheats the mind with illusions in accordance. Now one way of escaping all this is separation from the whole world; that is, not bodily separation, but the severance of the soul’s sympathy with the body, and to live so without city, home, goods, society, possessions, means of life, business, engagements, human learning, that the heart may readily receive every impress of divine doctrine. Preparation of heart is the unlearning the prejudices of evil converse. It is the smoothing the waxen tablet before attempting to write on it. 1747
Now solitude is of the greatest use for this purpose, inasmuch as it stills our passions, and gives room for principle to cut them out of the soul. 1748 [For just as animals are more easily controlled when they are stroked, lust and anger, fear and sorrow, the soul’s deadly foes, are better brought under the control of reason, after being calmed by inaction, and where there is no continuous stimulation.] Let there then be such a place as ours, separate from intercourse with men, that the tenour of our exercises be not interrupted from without. Pious exercises nourish the soul with divine thoughts. What state can be more blessed than to imitate on earth the choruses of angels? to begin the day with prayer, and honour our Maker with hymns and songs? As the day brightens, to betake ourselves, with prayer attending on it throughout, to our labours, and to sweeten 1749 our work with hymns, as if with salt? Soothing hymns compose the mind to a cheerful and calm state. Quiet, then, as I have said, is the first step in our sanctification; the tongue purified from the gossip of the world; the eyes unexcited by fair colour or comely shape; the ear not relaxing the tone or mind by voluptuous songs, nor by that especial mischief, the talk of light men and jesters. Thus the mind, saved from dissipation from without, and not through the senses thrown upon the world, falls back upon itself, and thereby ascends to the contemplation of God. [When 1750 that beauty shines about it, it even forgets its very nature; it is dragged down no more by thought of food nor anxiety concerning dress; it keeps holiday from earthly cares, and devotes all its energies to the acquisition of the good things which are eternal, and asks only how may be made to flourish in it self-control and manly courage, righteousness and wisdom, and all the other virtues, which, distributed under these heads, properly enable the good man to discharge all the duties of life.] End of part two

Third: The study of inspired Scripture is the chief way of finding our duty, for in it we find both instruction about conduct and the lives of blessed men, delivered in writing, as some breathing images of godly living, for the imitation of their good works. Hence, in whatever respect each one feels himself deficient, devoting himself to this imitation, he finds, as from some dispensary, the due medicine for his ailment. He who is enamoured of chastity dwells upon the history of Joseph, and from him learns chaste actions, finding him not only possessed of self-command over pleasure, but virtuously-minded in habit. He is taught endurance by Job [who, 1751 not only when the circumstances of life began to turn against him, and in one moment he was plunged from wealth into penury, and from being the father of fair children into childlessness, remained the same, keeping the disposition of his soul all through uncrushed, but was not even stirred to anger against the friends who came to comfort him, and trampled on him, and aggravated his troubles.] Or should he be enquiring how to be at once meek and great-hearted, hearty against sin, meek towards men, he will find David noble in warlike exploits, meek and unruffled as regards revenge on enemies. Such, too, was Moses rising up with great heart upon sinners against God, but with meek soul bearing their evil-speaking against himself. [Thus, 1752 generally, as painters, when they are painting from other pictures, constantly look at the model, and do their best to transfer its lineaments to their own work, so too must he who is desirous of rendering himself perfect in all branches of excellency, keep his eyes turned to the lives of the saints as though to living and moving statues, and make their virtue his own by imitation. End of part three

Fourth: Prayers, too, after reading, find the soul fresher, and more vigorously stirred by love towards God. And that prayer is good which imprints a clear idea of God in the soul; and the having God established in self by means of memory is God’s indwelling. Thus we become God’s temple, when the continuity of our recollection is not severed by earthly cares; when the mind is harassed by no sudden sensations; when the worshipper flees from all things and retreats to God, drawing away all the feelings that invite him to self-indulgence, and passes his time in the pursuits that lead to virtue.] End of part four

Fifth: This, too, is a very important point to attend to,—knowledge how to converse; to interrogate without over-earnestness; to answer without desire of display; not to interrupt a profitable speaker, or to desire ambitiously to put in a word of one’s own; to be measured in speaking and hearing; not to be ashamed of receiving, or to be grudging in giving information, nor to pass another’s knowledge for one’s own, as depraved women their supposititious children, but to refer it candidly to the true parent. The middle tone of voice is best, neither so low as to be inaudible, nor to be ill-bred from its high pitch. One should reflect first what one is going to say, and then give it utterance: be courteous when addressed; amiable in social intercourse; not aiming to be pleasant by facetiousness, but cultivating gentleness in kind admonitions. Harshness is ever to be put aside, even in censuring. 1753 [The more you shew modesty and humility yourself, the more likely are you to be acceptable to the patient who needs your treatment. There are however many occasions when we shall do well to employ the kind of rebuke used by the prophet who did not in his own person utter the sentence of condemnation on David after his sin, but by suggesting an imaginary character made the sinner judge of his own sin, so that, after passing his own sentence, he could not find fault with the seer who had convicted him. 1754 End of part five

Sixth: From the humble and submissive spirit comes an eye sorrowful and downcast, appearance neglected, hair rough, dress dirty; 1755 so that the appearance which mourners take pains to present may appear our natural condition. The tunic should be fastened to the body by a girdle, the belt not going above the flank, like a woman’s, nor left slack, so that the tunic flows loose, like an idler’s. The gait ought not to be sluggish, which shews a character without energy, nor on the other hand pushing and pompous, as though our impulses were rash and wild. The one end of dress is that it should be a sufficient covering alike in winter and summer. As to colour, avoid brightness; in material, the soft and delicate. To aim at bright colours in dress is like women’s beautifying when they colour cheeks and hair with hues other than their own. The tunic ought to be thick enough not to want other help to keep the wearer warm. The shoes should be cheap but serviceable. In a word, what one has to regard in dress is the necessary. So too as to food; for a man in good health bread will suffice, and water will quench thirst; such dishes of vegetables may be added as conduce to strengthening the body for the discharge of its functions. One ought not to eat with any exhibition of savage gluttony, but in everything that concerns our pleasures to maintain moderation, quiet, and self-control; and, all through, not to let the mind forget to think of God, but to make even the nature of our food, and the constitution of the body that takes it, a ground and means for offering Him the glory, bethinking us how the various kinds of food, suitable to the needs of our bodies, are due to the provision of the great Steward of the Universe. Before meat let grace be said, in recognition alike of the gifts which God gives now, and which He keeps in store for time to come. Say grace after meat in gratitude for gifts given and petition for gifts promised. Let there be one fixed hour for taking food, always the same in regular course, that of all the four and twenty of the day and night barely this one may be spent upon the body. The rest the ascetic 1756 ought to spend in mental exercise. Let sleep be light and easily interrupted, as naturally happens after a light diet; it should be purposely broken by thoughts about great themes. To be overcome by heavy torpor, with limbs unstrung, so that a way is readily opened to wild fancies, is to be plunged in daily death. What dawn is to some this midnight is to athletes of piety; then the silence of night gives leisure to their soul; no noxious sounds or sights obtrude upon their hearts; the mind is alone with itself and God, correcting itself by the recollection of its sins, giving itself precepts to help it to shun evil, and imploring aid from God for the perfecting of what it longs for.] End of part Six and the Letter

[glint]
This One Is A Must Read! Glory To Thee O Lord.. Glory to thee..Amen

[/glint]

Notes
1743 Placed circa 358, on Basil’s retiring to Pontus
Translated in part by Newman, The Church of the Fathers, p. 131, ed. 1840. With the exception of the passages in brackets [ ], the version in the text is that of Newman. End of note

1744 Matt. xvi. 24. End of note

1745 γυναικὸς φυλακή, rather “guardianship of his wife.” End
of note

1746 οἰκετῶν προστασιαι, rather “protection of his servants.” End of note

1747 Rather “for just as it is impossible to write on the wax
without previously erasing the marks on it, so is it impossible to
communicate divine doctrines to the soul without removing
from it its preconceived and habitual notions.” End of note

1748 The following paragraph is altogether omitted by Newman. End of note

1749 Rather “season.” End of note

1750 Omitted by Newman. End of note

1751 Clause omitted by Newman. End of note

1752 Omitted by Newman. End of note

1753 Here Newman notes that Basil seems sometimes to have fallen short of his own ideal. His translation ends at this point.End of note

1754 Basil’s admirable little summary of the main principles of conversation may have been suggested by the recollection of many well known writers. On such a subject no wide reader could be original. cf. inter alios, the ἄκουε πολλὰ λάλει δ᾽ ὀλίνα of Bias; the γλῶττα μὴ προτρεχέτω τοῦ νοῦ of Pittacus. Aulus Gellius (Noct. Att. i. 15), referring to the
Γλώσσης τοι θησαυρὸς ἐν ἀνθρώποισιν ἄριστος
Φειδωλῆς πλείστη δὲ χάρις κατὰ μέτρον ἰούσῆς
of Hesiod, says: “Hesiodus poetarum prudentissimus linguam non vulgandam sed recondendam esse dicit, perinde ut thesaurum. Ejusque esse in promendo gratiam plurimam, si modesta et parca et modulata sit.”
On the desirability of gentleness in blame, cf. Ambrose, In Lucam.: “Plus proficit amica correctio quam accusatio turbulenta: illa pudorem incutit, haec indignationem movet.” End of note

1755 This was the mark of the old heathen philosophers. cf. Aristoph., Birds 1282, ἐρρύπων ἐσωκράτων. End of note

1756 ἀσκητὴς, firstly an artisan, came to=ἀθλητὴς, and by ecclesiastical writers is used for hermit or monk. The ἐρημιτης, or desert dweller, lives either in retreat as an anchoret, or solitary, μοναχός, whence “monk;” or in common with others, in a κοινόβιον, as a “cœnobite.” All would be ἀσκηταί. End o note

Jumb to the index page

[John of the Ladder]

[glint]

This One Is A Must Read! Glory To Thee O Lord.. Glory to thee..Amen

[/glint]

[align=left]
Beloved In-Christ, brother Sulieman

Thank you for these valuable letters, and we hope to read more of them here in this thread

[/align]