Resultados25 letters/passages
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.02
I will not describe them one by one, lest the weakness of my account make the evidence of our catastrophe less convincing. Here is the sum of it: congregations have been driven from their houses of worship and are gathering in the open wilderness. It is a terrible sight -- women, children, the elderly, and the infirm e …
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.02
No respect is shown to gray hair, to a lifetime of practical godliness, to a life lived according to the Gospel from youth to old age. No criminal is condemned without evidence, but bishops are being convicted on slander alone. Some have been banished without even the pretense of a trial. Others have been carried off t …
basil_caesarea · c. 361 · score 0.02
I remember well, from what our fathers told us and from documents we still have, that the great bishop Dionysius [Bishop of Rome, c. 259–268], distinguished in your see for both sound faith and every other virtue, wrote letters to my church in Caesarea [capital of Cappadocia, in modern central Turkey], encouraged our f …
basil_caesarea · c. 362 · score 0.02
To our fellow bishops in Italy and Gaul, from Meletius, Eusebius, Basil, and the undersigned bishops of the East — greetings in the Lord. **1.** When you're suffering, even a deep sigh brings some relief. Even tears help lighten the weight. But what helps us more than sighs or tears is the chance to tell you what we're …
basil_caesarea · c. 362 · score 0.02
To the bishops of the Western Church: Brothers, Even in the middle of everything we're suffering here, God has given me real comfort. Bishop Athanasius [the great champion of Nicene orthodoxy, then bishop of Alexandria] forwarded your letters to me, and they were exactly what I needed to read. Your faith is solid. You …
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.02
When I read your letter, how could I not groan and grieve? More troubles -- blows and insults inflicted on you, homes destroyed, the city devastated, the whole region ruined, the Church persecuted, priests banished, wolves invading, flocks scattered. But I have lifted my eyes to the Lord in heaven, and I have stopped w …
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.01
To his brothers, truly beloved of God, his dear friends and fellow ministers of one mind -- the bishops of Gaul and Italy -- Basil, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has called the universal Church His body and made us individually members of one another, has granted us all to live in close a …
basil_caesarea · c. 362 · score 0.01
The worse a man blasphemes, the more qualified people think he is to lead. Clerical integrity has vanished. There is a complete shortage of shepherds who actually know how to tend the Lord's flock. Ambitious men waste charitable funds on their own luxuries and on buying influence. Canon law is ignored. Sin goes unpunis …
basil_caesarea · c. 366 · score 0.01
Keep the ship from being swamped by the salt, bitter waters of false doctrine. Wait for the calm the Lord will bring, once a voice is found worthy to rouse him to rebuke the winds and the sea [cf. Mark 4:39]. If you wish to visit me -- now hurried by long illness toward the inevitable end -- do not wait for a formal oc …
basil_caesarea · c. 361 · score 0.01
I'm writing to revive the ancient bonds of love between our churches and restore that heavenly gift of Christ — peace among the faithful — which has withered over time. This work is necessary and worthwhile for me, and I'm sure it will seem so to you as well, given your devotion to Christ. What could be more wonderful …
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.01
God has promised a good outcome from every trial to those who trust in Him. And so, though we have been lost in an ocean of troubles, tossed by great waves raised against us by the forces of evil, we hold fast in Christ who strengthens us. We have not weakened in our zeal for the churches. Even as the storm surges over …
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.01
The Lord has granted me the privilege of greeting you through our beloved brother, the presbyter Antiochus, and of urging you to pray for me as you always have. This letter offers what consolation it can for our long separation. When you pray, I ask you to beg the Lord for this above all: that I may be delivered from v …
basil_caesarea · c. 357 · score 0.01
To Candidianus 1. When I picked up your letter, I had an experience worth telling. I looked at it with the kind of awe you would give an official government dispatch, and as I was breaking the seal, I felt a dread greater than any guilty Spartan ever felt at the sight of a coded military message. Once I opened it and r …
basil_caesarea · c. 372 · score 0.01
You have rightly rebuked me, and in a manner befitting a spiritual brother taught by the Lord to love genuinely. I should be keeping you better informed of everything happening here, since you have every right to be concerned about my affairs, and I have every obligation to share them. But I must tell you, dear brother …
basil_caesarea · c. 367 · score 0.01
I grieve for the devastation your church has suffered [likely under Arian imperial pressure], but I also want to congratulate you — you've been brought quickly to the very edge of this hard fight, and that means you're almost through it. May God give you the patience to endure to the end, so that your faithful service …
basil_caesarea · c. 362 · score 0.01
Faithful bishops have been driven into exile, and wolves have been installed in their places, tearing apart Christ's flock. The churches stand empty; the wilderness is full of weeping congregations [under Emperor Valens, pro-Arian policies led to the exile of Nicene bishops and the suppression of orthodox worship acros …
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.01
There is nothing these people will not dare, and no shortage of accomplices willing to join them. But the news from Syria my brother knows better than I do and can tell you in person. As for the news from the West, you already know it from brother Dorotheus. The question now is: what sort of letters should we give him …
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.01
You did well to send me a letter, and especially to send it by someone who, even without the letter, would have been fully able to give me an accurate and comforting report. Vague rumors had been reaching me constantly, and I wanted reliable information from someone who actually knew the facts. Our beloved and honorabl …
basil_caesarea · c. 369 · score 0.01
You all agree in hating me. To a man you have followed the ringleader of the campaign against me. I was therefore inclined to say nothing at all -- to write no friendly letter, initiate no communication, and keep my grief to myself in silence. Yet it is wrong to stay silent in the face of slander: not so that we may de …
basil_caesarea · c. 361 · score 0.01
To Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria [the most prominent defender of Nicene orthodoxy in the 4th century, exiled five times for his beliefs]: No one, I'm sure, is more troubled by the current state of the Churches than you. You've seen what they were and what they've become. You know that if this rapid decline isn't sto …
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.01
I wrote to you through the vicar of Thrace, and I sent other letters by way of a treasury officer from Philippopolis who was heading into Thrace. But the vicar never received my letter -- he arrived in town in the evening while I was away visiting my diocese and left early the next morning before the church staff even …
basil_caesarea · c. 364 · score 0.01
To Atarbius, I came to Nicopolis [a city in the Armenian province of Cappadocia] with two goals: to settle the disturbances that had broken out and to correct, as best I could, the irregular actions taken in violation of church law. I was deeply disappointed not to find you there. I learned you had left in a hurry — wa …
basil_caesarea · c. 367 · score 0.01
My dear Gregory, You have taken on a generous and charitable task in rounding up the runaway flock of the insufferable Glycerius (I must call him that for now) and, as far as you could, covering up our shared embarrassment. It is only right that you should know the full facts before trying to undo the damage. This grav …
basil_caesarea · c. 361 · score 0.01
Don't turn away from our country as she falls to her knees. Go to the Imperial Court yourself, and with that boldness only you possess, make them understand: they don't own two provinces instead of one [Emperor Valens had recently split Cappadocia into two provinces, reducing Caesarea's importance]. They haven't conjur …
basil_caesarea · c. 361 · score 0.01
Dear Martinianus, How much would I give to see you again — and not just briefly, but to spend real time together enjoying your company? They say you become cultured by visiting many cities and learning many people's ways. But I'd argue that spending time with you accomplishes the same thing, because you've absorbed the …