93 (289). To the Patrician Caesaria, about Communion
SAINT BASIL
93. To the Patrician Caesaria, about Communion l Now, to receive Communion daily, thus to partake of the holy Body and Blood of Christ, is an excellent and advantageous practice; for Christ Himself says clearly: 'He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life evetlasting.'2 Who doubts that to share continually in the life is nothing else than to have a manifold life? We ourselves, of course, receive
Communion four times a week, on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays;3 also on other days, if there is a commemoration of some saint.
As to the question concerning a person being compelled to receive Communion by his own hand in times of persecution, when there is no priest or minister present, it is superfluous to show that the act is in no way offensive, since long-continued custom has confirmed this practice because of the circumstances themselves. In fact, all the monks in the solitudes, where there is no priest, preserve Communion in their house and receive it from their own hands. In Alexandria and in Egypt, each person, even of those belonging to the laity, has Communion in his own home, and, when he wishes, he receives with his own hand. For, when the priest has once and for all completed the sacrifice and has given Communion, he who has once received it as a whole, when he partakes of it daily, ought reasonably to believe that he is partaking and Tillemont (Basil, note 34) says that Arnaud does not consider that this letter is St. Basil's. but he gives no reason for his opinion. Tillemont himself thinks that it is only a portion of a letter. but sees no reason for rejecting its authenticity. Its manuscript tradition is poor. but does not offer sufficient cause for doubting its authorship. It was probably written in 372.
2 John 6.55.
3 The Greek meanings are literally: Lord's Day. the Fourth. Preparation. and Sabbath.