Resultados25 letters/passages
basil_caesarea · c. 361 · score 0.02
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 have …
basil_caesarea · c. 374 · score 0.02
May many blessings rest on those who encourage Your Excellency to maintain a constant correspondence with me. I say this not as a formality but out of sincere conviction of the value of your letters. Whom could I honor more than Nectarius -- a man I have known from his earliest days as a child of the brightest promise, …
basil_caesarea · c. 375 · score 0.02
I know that Your Excellency receives my letters favorably, and I understand why. You love what is good, and you are always ready to do kindnesses. So whenever I give you the opportunity to demonstrate your generosity, you welcome my letters, knowing they furnish an occasion for good deeds. Here, once again, is an occas …
basil_caesarea · c. 362 · score 0.02
… e same. Now, my actual request. There's a poor old man in our community whom an imperial decree [a formal order from the Emperor] already exempted from all public service — though honestly, old age had already retired him before any decree did. You yourself honored that exemption, both out of respect for his frailty an …
basil_caesarea · c. 362 · score 0.02
I'm shocked that such a serious offense was committed against the presbyter [a senior priest/elder in the early church] while you were in a position to prevent it. He's been stripped of his only source of income. What makes this worse is that the people responsible are blaming you for it. You should have stopped this — …
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. 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. 373 · score 0.01
The common law of human nature makes older men fathers to the young, and the particular law of Christians puts us elders in the place of parents. Do not think me impertinent, then, if I plead with you on behalf of your son. In other matters I think it entirely right that you should expect obedience from him. His body i …
basil_caesarea · c. 362 · score 0.01
To Sophronius [a high-ranking imperial official], No one loves their hometown the way you do. You honor the place that raised you, you pray for the whole city and for each person in it, and — more than that — you back up those prayers with your own resources. God willin …
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. 359 · score 0.01
Basil to Julian. 1. The heroic deeds of your present position I leave to those better able to celebrate them. For my part, I pray that God may direct your government to the welfare of the commonwealth. As for me — what do I now possess that could make me worth a great man's friendship? I have nothing but a thin and was …
basil_caesarea · c. 357 · score 0.01
I do not want to be regarded as the ultimate target for anyone who feels like attacking me. So please, show me now that same practical support you have always shown in my affairs. My peace of mind depends entirely on knowing that your energy is on my side. From my point of view, it would be punishment enough if the man …
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. 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. 368 · score 0.01
… herdsman and raised him up as a prophet, and who now has called forth from the imperial capital -- from a man entrusted with governing a whole nation, exalted in character, in family, in rank, in eloquence, in all that this world admires -- a shepherd for Christ's flock. This same man has thrown away every worldly adv …
basil_caesarea · c. 372 · score 0.01
It would have been proper for me to come in person -- both my affection and my duty required it. I might then have eased my own sorrow and offered some comfort to Your Excellency. But my body will no longer endure long journeys, so I must approach you by letter, lest I seem to regard your loss as a matter of no concern …
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. 370 · score 0.01
The very men now accusing me of unorthodox belief have themselves been seen openly in the heretical camp. The very people who condemn me for the writings of others have themselves subscribed to documents they should be ashamed of. They were unanimously deposed by the bishops assembled at Constantinople. They refused to …
basil_caesarea · c. 372 · score 0.01
My affection for you makes me long to be with you, to embrace you in person, and to glorify the Lord who is magnified in you and has made your honored old age renowned among all who fear Him throughout the world. But severe illness afflicts me, and the weight of caring for the churches presses on me beyond what words c …
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 se …
basil_caesarea · c. 364 · score 0.01
Honestly, the sheer depth of his hypocrisy — all those years of pretending — has left me almost speechless. But even if none of that had happened, his latest outrage would be enough. From what I hear — and I pray the report is slander rather than truth — he has dared to re-ordain certain clergy. Not even the heretics h …
basil_caesarea · c. 371 · score 0.01
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. 360 · score 0.01
To Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. I have read your letter with the gratitude it deserves, and I marvel — as I always do — at the vigor of your spirit and the clarity of your mind. At an age when most men are content to rest, you continue to fight for the faith with the energy of a man in his prime. The Church owes y …
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. 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 …