Icon of Saint Hierarch Basil the Great - embroidered, framed, 21x27cm
Saint Basil the Great (330-379) was a great Holy Father of the Eastern Church, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, theologian, and author of ascetic writings. He is celebrated in the Orthodox Church on January 1st and January 30th alongside Saints Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom.
In this icon, he is depicted according to the instructions of Dionysius of Furna: tall, upright, ascetically thin, with a long face, yellowish complexion, deep-set temples, slightly wrinkled forehead and cheeks, long and hooked nose, graying, with a fairly long beard, and long eyebrows. He is depicted in episcopal vestments, but without a mitre on his head. He was born in the year 330, in Cappadocia, into a large family. He had four sisters and four brothers. Five out of the nine became saints in the Orthodox Church calendar.
His path to wisdom traversed through Caesarea in Cappadocia, Constantinople, and Athens, absorbing the wisdom of the pagan world in a wise and humble manner. In the year 356, upon returning home, he became famous as a rhetoric teacher, but his destiny sought another calling, choosing the path of monasticism.
Traveling through Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, he sought deep understanding of monasticism. The foundations of the Philokalia were laid together with Saint Gregory, and the monastic rules of Saint Basil remained the cornerstone of organizing life in monasteries to this day.
Although Saint Basil the Great is one of the greatest organizers of monasticism, he did not disdain family and marriage, for he says: "God, Who cares for our salvation, has divided human life into two ways of living, namely, married life and celibacy, so that whoever cannot endure the struggle of celibacy should take a lawful wife, knowing that he will be required to promise self-restraint, holiness, and likeness to the saints who had wives and raised children."
His literary legacy consists of the Monastic Rules, interpretations of Genesis and the Psalms, the Treatise on the Holy Spirit, the 366 Epistles, the Divine Liturgy, named today in his honor, and the Prayers of Saint Basil, included in the holy book of prayers, the Euchologion.
In his heart, the flame of charity burned strongly, and his love for his neighbor transformed into acts of kindness and care. Vasiliada, his philanthropic establishment, arose on the outskirts of Caesarea. Here, the hungry and the abandoned found solace, and every suffering found shelter and care.
