LETTER 14 (written before 372)
THE FATHERS SPEAK
Gregory had to take care 0/ a goodly number oj nephews and nieces, children of his sister Gorgonia. He undertook to guide these youngsters in life, and recommended them frequently to the attention of authorities, civil and religious.
Here are a few samples.
The addressee of letter 14 is not to be identified with Kaisarios the physician, but a magistrate in Cappadocia. The "noble cousins" of whom Gregory is speaking are Helladios, who died in 372, and Elilalios, who was consecrated to the see 0/ NazianZlls in 383. By that time Gregory had already retired to the family estate.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO KAISARIOS, A MAGISTRATE,
LETTER 14 (written before 372) Grant yourself a favor; it is not one you will have to grant very often, for it does not happen often that such an occasion presents itself. Let the protection of an eminent act of justice protect my noble cousins, who are in trouble concerning some piece of real estate which they purchased to be a place of retirement and from which they might draw their subsistence. After closing the deed, they fell into various annoyances: dealing with a dishonest selling party, and also the damage and ravage caused by the neighbors. It might be advantageous for them to recover the money they gave in payment, together with the other expenses-not a mean sumand to revoke the deal. Be good enough to have this affair deferred to you, so that the contract be drafted to the best advantage, after you will have examined the affair. This would be the most pleasant solution for them and for us, Otherwise, and this is my second request, stand up against the underhanded maneuvers and practices of that cheat [the seller],
By no means should he prevail over them and cause them a loss, whether they keep the property or revoke the sale,
Biographicals
Personally, I would blush from writing to you about such things. But we find ourselves under obligation to them, either because of our kinship, or because of the way of life they have chosen. Should we not take a special care for these men and blush with shame, and blush stilI more if we show no zeal to grant them these services? Anyway. whether for yourself, or for us, or for the cousins, or aU these reasons together, be kind to them!
Gregory, having reSigned his see of Constantinople by the leave of Emperor Theodosius, returned to his native Anatolia, where his fellow-bishops debated-acrimoniously, so it seems-what should be his canonical status. Gregory's personal decision to go into retirement thwarted their argumentative itch. Having lavished his biting irony on his colleagues,
Gregory came to what was the real object of his letter: the children of his nephew Nikoboulos were being sent by their parents to study tachygraphy in the town of Tyana. Would
Bishop Theodoros keep a discreet eye on them and see to it that they behave as good church-goers and God-fearing
Christians. Tachygraphy, a sort of stenography. was commonLy used for the recording of oral arguments in courts of law and agencies of government.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO THEODOROS,
BISHOP OF TYANA, LETTER 157
(Autumn 381 or Early 382) ... Finished with the spiritual concerns! I will not continue bothering you. Huddle ye together, fence yourselves in, and take counsel on our status! Let our adversaries be
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victorious, let them apply rigorously the canons, to begin with regard to me, who am stupid in those matters. I bear no grudge to rigorism [a:KPL~E(a, in opposition to KaT' otKOVO[ . .llav], but let there be no hindrance to friendship!
The children of our most esteemed "son" Nikoboulos have left for your town in order to learn tachygraphy. In general have an eye on them, kindly and fatherly-canons do not forbid that-and in particular see to it that they frequent the church. I wish that they form their character to virtue by following the example of Your Perfection.
It appears from this letter to Elldoxios, a Cappadocian rhetor to whom young Nikoboulos had been recommended by Gregory, that he was, like many gifted students, too easily satisfied with his own achievements and in need of a stricter discipline to give his full measure. Gregory illustrates his note with a quotation-rather far-fetched-of the legend of Eunomios the Lokrian at the Isthmian Games. A string of his lyre had snapped in the middle of an ode; a cicada, flying unto the yoke of the instrument, completed the interrupted chant with her own heavenly melody (cf. St Clement of Alexandria, Protreptikos 1,1,2).
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO EUDOXIOS, LETTER 175 (383)
My dear Nikoboulos goes to you again, and again I need not urge you, who arc already eager by yourself. But because our young man has an instinctive facility-if my wishes do not deceive mc-yet, this quality being allied to a certain negligence, as it frequently happens, he needs to be spurred on~ do supply him with your own diligence! If I may use
Biographicals
one of your sayings, imitate the cicada of the legend, replace for your Eunomios the broken string of his lyre, and complete the ode. I think this youngster will do you honor and will do us the greatest favor, to us who do not place many things above you and your talent.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO NIKOBOULOS, LETTER 51
(Date Uncertain) This mini-treatise on the art of letter-writing is addressed to Nikohoulos, the elder and nephew-of-sorts of Gregory, who always took much interest in the numerous descendants of his sisters. Nikoboulos is a young man, apparently gifted, who had asked his uncle for advice. The dating of letter 51 fluctuates between 384 and 390 (GaUay). I have made a few cuts, at the risk of missing literary allusions or rhetorical flowers which might have been enjoyed by Hellenes-or Phi/hellenes-but would be lost on today's average readers.
The "Persian arpent" mentioned in letter 51 is a measure of length equal to ca. 700 feet. A "child's cubit" is measured from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger .
. . . Among those who write letters-since you question me on that subject-some write more than they should, and some not enough; neither of these keep the right measure, like bowmen shooting their arrows too far or too short, and they miss the target for contrary reasons. The proper measure in letter-writing is what the subject demands: one should not write at length if there is little to say, or niggardly if there is much matter. Then what? Shall we measure our wisdom by Persian arpents, or by a child's cubit? Either lack of measure
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should be avoided, in order to attain the right mean, That is what I think concerning brevity.
· .. About clarity, one should know this: flee oratoricals by all means, but incline rather toward the style of conversation. To say it in short, the best and perfect letter is the one that convinces the common man and the intellectual as well: the common man will know that it is on the level of everyone; the intellectual, that it is above the common. It should also be grasped right away. A letter that is dark like a riddle is as undesirable as one that needs a commentary.
· .. The third quality of a letter is grace. We secure this if our manner of writing is never dry, unpleasant, or awk. ward; never destitute of all charm, untidy. they would say: never devoid of maxims, proverbs, examples; not without those barbs which make a letter challenging; but we never must abuse of such finery. The former manner in the manner of a boor, the latter, that of a never satiated sophisticate.
· .. The conclusion lowe to one who said elegantly speaking of the eagles: When the birds contended for kingship and rivaled among themselves for being held most beautiful of all, the beauty of the eagle was precisely that he did not know he was beautiful. And here is what we much watch above all when we write letters: shun all affectation, and cling as much as we can to what is natural.
From Nazianzus, where he refused repeatedly to become the Sllccessor of his father, Gregory was called to take care oj a little church frequented by the Orthodox minority in Constantinople. After the defeat oj Valens in Thracia, his
Sllccessor Theodosius, favorable to the Nicene party, elevated the church of the capital to patriarchal rank, a decision ratified by the First Couneil of Constantinople (381). Of poor health, however, Gregory resigned his charge and retired to Arianzus where he died in 390.
Most of the data relative to Gregory of Nyssa have
Biographicals
already been presented in the biographical notices on Saint Basil and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. This younger brother of Saint Basil was born around 345 (see the discussion in Maraval, Vie de Sainte Macrina, p. 48, note 2), presumably at Neo--Caesaraea in Pontus. He had planned, or it had been planned for him, that he would become a lawyer, but he joined the rest of the family in the community of Annisi.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 362. The profile of Saint Gregory of Nyssa is quite different from that of his brother Basil and their friend from Nazianzus. He was married, which is the normal thing for an Orthodox priest.
He appears to have been, his life long, an independent spirit, a philosopher, and a mystic. The following leiter of Gregory of Nazianzus reproaches him for his mundane nature which was commented upon without indulgence by parishioners more used to the conventional manners of their clergy, and warns him against the neglect of the Holy Scriptures. This letter seems to have been written after his ordination to the priesthood and before his consecration as bishop of Nyssa.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO GREGORY, THE FUTURE
BISHOP OF NYSSA, LETTER 11 (Date Uncertain) ... Why should you not hear from us, openly, that whjch they all whisper? They do not praise your glory ingloriously. if I may use one of your maxims, nor your giving way little by little, nor your love of honors-the worst of daemons, says
Euripides [Phen 531-532]. What has befallen you, 0 most wise, and how can you endure reproaching yourself with having pushed aside the sacred books rich in sap, which you used to read publicly to the people [as a tonsured reader, avayvc.::,o1:T]C;]? Are you not ashamed to hear this? Or did you put them away on the mantlepiece of your smoke-blackened fireplace, like paddles or mattocks during the winter
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months? Instead, you have taken in hand dried·up, insipid writings, and the name of rhetor is more pleasant to your ear than the name of Christian. But we prefer the latter, and all thanks be to God! No my dear, do not suffer this any longer; sober up at last, come back into yourself, defend us before the faithful, defend yourself before God and before the mysteries from which you have estranged yourself! And do not serve me captious arguments in the manner of rhetors, saying: "What then? Was I not a Christian, while I was a rhetof?" No, my dear, you were not! Forgive jf I make you sad, it is out of friendship; or if I flare up for your own good, the good of the entire priestly order and, I should add, of all Christians. And since we ought to pray with you or for you, let God assist your weakness, He who brings the dead back to life.
Gregory lVas consecrated to the Chllrch of Nyssa (Cappadocia Secunda) in 372, by his brother the metropolitan, who aimed at increasing the number of his suffragans, in order to boost the authority of his own see-a normal practice in fourth-century Anatolia. He was arrested and sent into exile on a trumped up charge by order of the Arianizing
Emperor Valens. He ministered for some time at [bora (lveronil), a small bishopric in the vicinity of Neo-Caesaraea, and was elected to the then vacant see of Sebastaea (Sivas) in Lesser Armenia. After the death of Valens (378), he caused his brother Peter, the youngest of the family, to be elected to the see of Sebastaea, and returned to Nyssa, at the latest in 380. The years following the death of Saint Basil
(the 1st of January 379) saw Gregory successfully engaged in the negotiations preparatory to the Council of Constantinople (May-June 381). We know little about his later years.
In 394, he was again present at a synod held in Constantinople. He died shortly thereafter, ca. 395.
The Quest for Wisdom If the date of 375 assigned by the early editors 0/ Basil's letter 223 to Eustathios of Sebastaea is correct, we have there a sample of Basil's reminiscing over his own "conversion,"
Returning from Athens, he had visited hermits and Christian communities throughout the Middle East, settled in the solitude of the Iris, and dedicated his whole life to the edification of the Church, whatever the cost to his personal inclinations.
Now he wrote to Eustathios, whose ascetic way of life had at {irst impressed him so much, but whose instability and stubbornness cruelly disappointed our Saint. More on the quarrel that opposed them to each other will be found below in chapter 7, "Priests and Hierarchs: Upholders of Orthodoxy."
BASIL TO EUSTATHIQS OF SEBASTAEA, LETTER 223 (375)
I have spent many a year in the pursuit of nothingness [Tn !-HT'(CXLOT'1TL] and I have consumed almost all my youth in the vain attempt to acquire the teachings of a wisdom which is folly in God's eyes. And then, one day, as waking up from a deep slumber, I looked toward the wonderful light of the truth of the Gospel, and I saw the uselessness of the wisdom of the "rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass
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away" [1 Co 2:6], I wept abundantly on my miserable life and prayed that a hand be extended to introduce me into the principles of piety. Among other things I was eager to straighten myself uP. so spoiled I had been by my frequentation of frivolous people. Having read the Gospel and having seen that the best starting point toward perfection was to get rid of one's possessions and to share them with poor brethren, to take no care for this life and to let OUT soul have no feeling whatever for the things here below, I wished to find one of the brethren choosing this way of life, so that I could cross with him over the stanny seas of life. I found many such men at Alexandria, in other parts of Egypt, and in Palestine, in Coelesyria and Mesopotamia. I wondered at their discipline of life, I wondered at their steadfastness in hardships, I was amazed at their constance in prayers, how they prevailed over sleep, yielding to no bodily exigency, keeping the affects of their soul always lofty and free from bondage, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, never giving attention to the body, never willing to worry abollt it. As if they were living out of the flesh. they did show me by their acts what it means to be a foreigner passing through this world and to have our citizenship in heaven. I admired all this, and I regarded the life of these men as blessed, for they showed by their actions that they were "carrying in the body the death of Jesus" [2 CO 4:10J, and I wished that, as much as was in me, I could emulate them. Since the secrets of everyone of us remain hidden. I imagined that a humble apparel was a sufficient mark of humility and that a coarse mantle, a belt, and sandals of raw leather were convincing enough for me, Many tried to tear me loose from the society of those ascetics, but I did not yield, seeing that they preferred a life of renouncement to a life of laxity. and I envied them for their unusual way of living. , . ' The notion of God which I had received since childhood from my blessed mother [Emmelia] and from grandmother Macrina [the elder] I have kept in me that it might grow; I did not exchange it for others, but I have completed the rudiment that had been transmitted to me, A growing [plantJ, tiny at first, becomes bigger but remains what it is without changing its
The QlIest for Wisdom
nature, developing itself as it grows; likewise, it seems to me that the doctrine itself did grow by degrees as life progresses.
Let people, then, search their own conscience, consider the court of justice of Christ, and testify whether they have ever heard from us anything different of what we profess today.
B ASIL TO EUSTATHIOS, PHILOSOPHER, LETTER 1 (357)
First, the addressee is not to be confused with Eustathios of Sebastaea in Lesser Armenia, whom we know from the preceding selection. He is a philosopher whom Basil tried vainly to trace throughout the Middle East in the course of his own peregrinations. That Eustathios is probably, like
Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, an "ex-Athenian."
... I have left Athens because of the renown of your philosophy, through disdain for the things from over there.
I passed in a hurry throUgh the city of the Hellespont [Constantinople], which I fled like no Ulysses ever fled the song of the Sirens. I admired Asia, but I was in a hurry to reach the metropolis [Caesaraea] for its beauty. After my arrival in the home country, I was looking forward to meeting you as a great advantage, but I did not find you. Thereupon I was hampered by reason of many unforeseen impediments, Either I managed to be sick and could not catch up with you, or I was incapable of joining you after you left. And finally, when I arrived in Syria, suffering a thousand miseries, I was prevented from joining my philosopher, who had gone to Egypt. So I had to leave once more and go myself to Egypt-a long and arduous journey, and still with-
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Qut rcaching my goal. I felt so frustrated that I would have set out for Persia and run after you far away into the parts of the barbarians, for you went as far as thaI, so great was the malice of the devil. Or else I would have stayed here in the land of Alexander [Alexandria], and that is just what happened! I think that, had I not given up running after you like a fawn after a green twig, I might have gone to Nysa in India; if there had been a place at the extremity of the earth, you also would have been wandering there. But finally, now that you live in our region, if it was not given to me that we might come together for even a short while, that is because I was hindered by a long illness.
The quest for wisdom is not a matter of running afler it from East to West, from Pontus to the Nubian sketes.
Letter 2 of Saint Gregory 0/ Nyssa discusses the arguments for and against the value 0/ pilgrimages to the "Holy Land," very popular at the time. The leiter is addressed to a certain
"Kensitor"; either a persona/name, according to G. PasquaJi, or is it the title of an officer holder: census taker, keeper of the taxpayers roll? Now the title may very well have become a local designation for the official in charge, the family name being virtually forgotten. Gregory, consulted by Kensitor, expresses himself very bluntly. There is in those pilgrimages no inherent virtue of sanctification, unless the pilgrims are inspired by a vivid faith in the living Christ revealed in the Gospel. Saint Jerome, who incidentally was in friendly rela. tionship to Gregory and to Gregory of Nazianzus, esteemed that pilgrimages to Jerusalem were at best unnecessary, and that most of the time they distracted the souls from the essentials of the faith.
The Quest for Wisdom
GREGORY OF NYSSA, LETTER 2, TO KENSIOR,
ON THOSE WHO GO TO JERUSALEM
You ask me, dear friend, to send you by letter an orderly acconnt of what I think should he answered to all your questions. I feel that those who once applied themselves to a higher way of life shall profit by paying attention in alI things to the words of the Gospel and, like those who rectify their purpose according to the rule, shall make straight what in their hands is crooked. Thus I believe that such a rule, straight and immutable-I mean, the discipline of the Gospel
-will direct toward God those who apply themselves to it.
Therefore, since there are among those who have chosen for themselves a solitary and secluded life, some who make it a point of devotion to have seen the holy places in Jerusalem, where the marks of the sojourn of the Lord in the flesh are visible, it is advisable that we consider the ruling principle, whether these things guide us as by the hand to the observance of the commandments. If they are alien to the precepts of the Master, I fail to see what good can be accomplished, for lack of a prescriptive authority.
When the Lord called the blessed ones unto the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, did he number among their obligations that they should set out toward Jerusalem? When he proclaimed the beatitudes [~aK6:pla~a], he included no such duty, which makes one neither blessed nor ready for the kingdom; let anyone who has some brain figure that out!
For if it had any usefulness, should it not be deemed worthy to be sought for by the perfect? ... Is it not the same discipline that is proposed both to men and women? Propriety is fitting for a life dedicated to the cultivation of wisdom
[qHAoaocp(a). . .. But since, in the regions of the East, the hostelries, the wayside inns, and many cities, show licentiousness and indifference with regard to vice, how can it be that one passes through the smoke without his eyes being inflamed? When the ears are defiled, and the eyes defiled, the heart also receives unclean impressions through the ears and
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the eyes. How is it possible to pass unaffected through those infected places? Is it that people born in those parts, because they are bodily living near the holy places of the Lord, forsake our regions and become richer? Or is it that the Holy
Spirit supcrabounds unto the people of Jerusalem, but passes us over and is powerless with us? If the presence of the Lord can be sunnised from visible marks, shall we not think that God would rather dwell in Cappadocia than in far-away regions? For how numerous in our parts are the altars on which the name of God is glorified! And there are countless altars throughout the world! If grace were more abundant in Jerusalem's holy places than elsewhere, then sin would not haunt the inhabitants of the region as it does, for there is no kind of vice to 'Yhich they are not addicted: fornication, adultery, theft, idolatry, witchcraft, jealousy, and murder; such crimes are so common that nowhere else is there such a readiness to kill in cold blood, moved by their greediness and avidity, not unlike wild beasts wallowing in the blood of some of their kind! And what happened in Jerusalemo irony!-should be regarded as proof that there is in those places a more abundant grace?
But I know the objection of many against my arguments.
They say: "Why do you not make of all this a law for yourself? If it is useless in God's eyes to go to Jerusalem, why did you leave on this vain journey?" So let them hear my defense: my motive was the obligation of the life in which I have been placed by Him who orders our lives, as I was commanded by the Holy Synod [viz. the Council of Constantinople, 381J to set out for the regions of Arabia in order to straighten up the affairs of the Church in those parts. Since Arabia borders on the region of Jerusalem, it was suggested that I join the bishops of Palestinian Churches in view of the troubled situation, for the sake of mediation. The most pious emperor [Theodosius] granted us the use of the official means of transportation, and we needed not undergo the inconveniences that plague other travelers. The chariot served for us as a church and a monasterj, for the psalmody in common and the fasting unto the Lord during the entire journey. Let no one be startled on our account, but accept our advice:
The Quest for Wisdom
whatever met our eyes was for us a lesson. Even before we arrived, we had always confessed that Christ, when He appeared among men, is the true God, and our faith was neither diminished nor increased; we believed that He became man through the Virgin, even before we went to Bethlehem; that He arose from the dead, even before we went to the Sepulcher; as for His ascension to the heavens, we confessed it as true even before seeing the Mount of Olives. What we retained from our journey is that our faith gained by comparison something much more sacred than its external props. Therefore, you who fear the Lord, praise
Him! A local change will not bring you closer to God, but no matter where you are, God will come to you, if only your soul is found a proper resting place where God can dwell and converse. . . . Therefore, dear friend, do exhort the brethren to move away from the things of the flesh unto the Lord; not from Cappadocia to Jerusalem.
The central theme of the Life of Moses of Saint Gregory of Nyssa (texte critique, translated into French and commented by the late Cardinal Danielou, Sources Chretiennes, vol. 1 bis, Paris 1955), shall bring our third chapter to its conclusion: the quest for divine wisdom shall 'lever end.
The very transcendence of the object makes it that it will remain forever beyond our reach, since the "Perfection of Virtue," Gregory's subtitle of his book, consists essentially in the never-ending progress of the soul, for we are creatures of desire, and desire, as desire, vanishes as soon as it has reached its goal. Thus, perfection is itself an uninterrupted progression, and never attains to the fixity of a "state."
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GREGORY OF NYSSA, LIFE OF MOSES, II 225·226
Because there is nothing above to break the impetus of the soul, and because the very nature of the good is that it attracts those who look up toward it, the soul rises always, extending itself forward [auvETrEK"rElvOIlEvTjJ through the desire of heavenly things, as the Apostle says [Ph 3: 13], and its flight will lead it always higher. Desirous as it is never to renounce to the summits which are above itself, and in view of what it has reached already, the soul is given a movement of never-ending ascension, and it finds always in its past achievements a new. energy for soaring higher; for spiritual activity alone has the propriety of nuturing its strength while expending it, and not to lose, but rather to increase it through • exercise.
We have here Platonism at its best. The number of places in which Gregory follows Plato almost word for word, especially in the Symposium, is overwhelming. Will the movement of continuous progression toward the Fair, the Good, and Love-in se-not be interrupted brutally by death, or will the redeemed soul continue soaring from brightness to brightness? Judging from the theme of the Life of Moses, we do not see why death might put an end to the ascension of the soul, no longer weighted down by its earthly load of flesh and the burden of its sins. But rational speculations here are hopeless. Altiora te ne quaesieris! (Sirach 3:22).
Here I would refer my readers to an essay I published in Diotima, Revue de recherche philosophique, Athens 1983, pp. 30-39, under the title "Vertu, epectase. perfection."
Monastic Ideal Basil, writing to Gregory of Nazianzus from the solitude in Pontus (letters 2 and 22), sets forth the principles oj spiritualli/e in a religious community, We have here a first sketch of what is known as "the Rules," which were to shape the life 0/ his followers, and which left an indelible imprint on Benedictine life in the Latin West. The Christian living must aim at realizing the ideal of ~ouX[cx (quietude) and at overcoming the dispersion oj secular life; Basil's ~oux(a corresponds in Western monasticism to the Benedictine
"Pax," peace.
Christian charity should inspire the entire life of the brethren, a heavenly life, yet earthly as well; hence, Basil's insistence on the necessity of elementary kindness and of unaffected good manners, for which the brethren may have had some use, since a number of them seem to have been rather boorish, if we judge from Basil's remarks.
ST BASIL TO GREGORY OF NAZlANZUS, LETTER 2
(358-359?) ... One should aspire at keeping the mind in quietude [~aux(a]. The eye that wanders continually around, now sideways, now up and down, is unable to see distinctly what
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lies under it; it ought rather to apply itself firmly to the visible object if it aims at a clear vision. Likewise, the spirit of man, if it is dragged about by the world's thousand cares, has no way to attain a clear vision of the truth. . . . Each day arrives, each in its own way obscuring the mind; and the nights, taking over the cares of the day, deceive the soul with obnoxious phantasms. There is only one escape: with· draw from the world altogether. Now this withdrawal
[dvcxx'wPTlmc;] does not mean that we should leave the world bodily, but rather break loose from the ties of "sympathy" of the soul with the body. This means to be without a city. without a house, without anything of OUf own, without property, without possessions, without resources, without affairs, without contr:acts, without being taught by men, but making ready to receive in our heart the imprint of divine teaching.
This litany of privative expressions, "without a city,"
"without a house," etc., is a favorite device of Basil, the rhetor turned hegumen. Renouncillg the amenities of secular life is an ideal for monastics to live by, but will they ever realize it? The goal is elusive; it seems to remove itself farther and farther, even as one thinks one is going to attain it.
May I be permitted to borrow the following lines from Nikos Kazantzakis who most likely did not quote from Basil?
"Reach what you can; or rather, reach what you cannot!
It is our duty to set ourselves an end higher than ourselves .. . to toil night and day to attain it . . . . No, not to attain it, but never to hall in the ascent" (Report to Greco).
Basil's frame of reference is a religious house in which everything is held in common at lhe discretion of the hegumen-shelter, possession, resources. The clause "without a partner of our choice," my rendering for Basil's d:qlli\£Talpov, has become in Courlonne's French translation "sans amities particulieres," the nightmare of spiritual directors and masters of novices in western religious houses! As a
Monastic Ideal
matter of fact, Basil never denies his attachment for Gregory and occasionally declares his affection in hyperbolic terms:
"[ breathe you more than [ breathe air, and [live only when I am with you" (Letter 6 to Gregory).
The solitude [tpT]!l(cX] offers a very great advantage for our task. ... Let therefore the site of the monastery be most like our place here [Annisi], free from the commerce of men, so that nothing may come from without and break the continuity of the "askesis," for a pious "askesis" nurtures the soul with divine thoughts. Is there a greater happiness than to imitate on earth the choir of angels? At daybreak, to get up at once for prayer and honor the Creator with hymns and canticles? Then, when the sun shines with its pure light, to rush to work, to be accompanied everywhere with prayer and, so to speak, to season our labor with the salt of hymns; to establish the soul in joy and drive out sadness is the gift and the comfort of the hymns. Quietude [~aux(a} is therefore the principle of purification of the soul, when the tongue does not speak the words of men, when the eyes do not turn all around to behold the complexion and the proportion of bodies, when the hearing does not loosen the spirit with sweet tunes composed for pleasure, or with jokes or buffoon cries most apt to unnerve the strength of the soul.
... The high road leading to the discovery of duty is the study of the inspired Scriptures. In them are found rules of action, and the lives of the blessed which the Scriptures have transmitted to us are like living images of the godly life set before us that we may imitate their good works .
. . . Prayers succeeding to lecture rejuvenate and invigorate the soul, which is moved toward God by desire, for beautiful is the prayer that impresses into the mind a clear notion of God. This is properly the "inhabitation" [tVOlKrlOlC;] of God, to have God seated in oneself through memory. Thus we become a temple of God, when earthly cares
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do not interrupt the continuity of memory, when the mind is Dot disturbed by unforeseen passions and when, fleeing from all things, the friend of God [6 qHA.68EOC;;] withdraws unto God, drives out all incitements to evil, and holds fast to those practices that lead to virtue.
First of all, we must not be ignorant of the proper usage of speech, hut rather ask questions peaceably and answer without seeking to be admired, not interrupting our inter· locutor when he says something useful, nor desiring to throw in our own words with ostentation. We must trace a border line between talking and listening, learning without being ashamed, and teaching irreproachably. Only after having examined in ourselves that which we want to say shall we express it. We must be courteous in conversation, gentle in communicating with' others; it is not through jokes that we must seek pleasantness, but through benevolent exhortations that we may gain sympathy.
After describing how olle should converse with others, Basil passes without transition to what is proper for the brethren with regard to garment, food, and sleeping hours, as befits persons living in a religiolls community. The table of the monks shall be frugal. No mention is made of meat, an expensive lUxury which anyway monks and common people could ill afford-not that meat as sitch was frowned upon as sinful. In his letter i4 to Gregory of NazianZlls, Basil mentioned the abundance of game and fish in the solitude of PonfilS. Nallkratios, his brother, who had retired in a nearby hermitage, lIsed to go hunting and fishing, to add to the meager fare of the old people for whom he cared, and he met an accidental death, drowning in a whirlpool of the iris.
Monastic Ideal
[Letter 2, continued] Let the tunic [Xl'fWV] be maintained around the body by a belt, and this belt not high above the haunches-it would look effeminate; nor so loose that the tunic would fiowthat is softness. Let not the gait be sluggish-the soul would be charged with laxity; nor impetuous and swaggering, which betrays rashness and aggressivity. The sole purpose of clothing is to provide a sufficient covering for the body, winter and summer .... To consider in a garment its nice color is no better than the prettifying which women seek by painting their cheeks and hair with borrowed cosmetics .... The footwear should be inexpensive, but appropriate to give good service.
In eating, one should not display the gluttony of a mad guzzler, but observe always restraint, moderation, and selfdiscipline regarding pleasures, without letting the mind idle away from the thought of God. . . . Prayers are offered before the meal, that we might be worthy of God's gifts, those which He grants us now and those He shall dispense later. Prayers after the meal are to give thanks for the present gifts and to ask for those which have been promised. Let an hour be assigned for the meal, recurring at the same time, so that out of the twenty-four hours of the day and night, only one be spent for the body; during the others, the ascete should be occupied with spiritual work. Sleep should be light, easy to shed, being measured to the needs of ascetic life ....
Here follows mention 0/ what would become regular monastery services, aKoAou9lCXl, in the early morning the 5p9poC;, and toward the middle 0/ the night the llEoovUKnov.
THE FATHERS SPEAK
[Letter 2, continued] What the op8pot; is to other people must he the llEOOVUK1:l0V to ascetics. Indeed, the quiet of the night is most beneficial to the soul when the ears and the eyes do not convey to the heart noxious discourses or spectacles, when the mind, recollected in itself alone, unites itself with God, and when man corrects himself from sin by remembering
[GodJ, sets unto himself limits to avoid evil, and seeks God's help aChieving that end toward which he exerts himself.
BASIL TO GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, "ON THE PERFECTION
OF MONASTIC LIFE," LETTER 22
111 364, Basi!, 011 the point 0/ being ordained to the priesthood by Eusebills, metropolitan of Caesaraea, had not yet left the solitude of POlltuS, where he would always return with eagerness whenever the exigencies of the ministry as a priest and a bishop made it possible. Letter 22 develops the theme of letter 2. The familiar advice for community living have now grown into a list of formal precepts, forty-eight in number, following a short introduction in which Basil points out that each one rests on the authority of Scripture. Each paragraph begins with the formula "OlL 6SL or, in the negative, "On OU 6£L. This catalogue of do's and don'ts may have been prepared in collaboration with Gregory of Nazianzus, who wrote to Basil in letter 6 (361): "We have made these principles secure by means of written precepts
[opme; ypmttOLC;] and canons [Kav601v].''
1. The Christian ought to have thoughts worthy of his heavenly calling and order his life to be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.
Monastic Ideal
2. The Christian must not let anything blow or drag him away from the remembrance of God, His will, and His judgments.
3. The Christian must not swear or lie, under pretence that in all things he is above the justice of the Law.
4. He must not blaspheme, curse, fight, avenge himself, render evil for evil, or act in anger.
5. One should be patient, whatever one has to suffer.
Even though we have the right to rebuke the one who has wronged us, we must do this not in passion for having been wronged, but in the hope of correcting a brother, according to the precept of the Lord.
6. One must not say anything against an absent brother and slander him, even if what is said is true.
7. One should turn away from one who decries a brother.
8. One should not indulge in jesting.
9. One should not play the buffoon or suffer buffoons.
10. One should not speak idle talk, for it is neither useful to those who listen, nor necessary or permissible with regard to God. Those who work should apply themselves quietly to their task [[1I::r6: ~aux[a:v] and leave speeches of exhortation to those entrusted with the judicious dispensation of the Word unto the edification of the faith, lest the Holy Spirit of God come to grief.
11. One is not permitted to accost brethren entering [the monastery] or to speak to them before those in charge of taking care of the general order would have examined whether this is agreeable to God for the common advantage.
12. One must not be a slave to wine or crave for meat, or generally delight in any food or drink, for the athlete ought to observe temperance in all things.
13. One must not hold as personal property something that is distributed to the brethren for their usage, nor store up anything; furthermore, if something is abandoned or thrown away, one must pick it up and regard it as the Master's property.
14. No one may be his own master, but mind and do all things as if one had been delivered by God in bondage to
THE FATHERS SPEAK
the brethren, who are one's kin by the soul [0[lOlVUXOlC;]; each person at his own rank.
15. One must not grumble if necessary things are scarce, nor if toil is excessive, for it belongs to those in authority to decide these matters in each case.
16. One must not shout, or assume postures or a gait manifesting passion or wandering of the spirit away from the fullness of God's presence.
17. One ought to moderate one's voice as needed.
18. One must not reply to another, or treat him rashly or scornfully, but in all circumstances one ought to show fairness and respect unto all.
19. One mllst not wink cunningly with the eye and assume attitudes or gestures that may grieve a brother or manifest some contempt.
20. One must not take pride in garments or footwear; that is vanity.
21. One ought to use inexpensive things for the needs of the body.
22. One must not spend anything beyond what is necessary and to excess; that is abuse.
23. One must not aspire to honors, or claim the first places.
24. Everyone should esteem others more than himself.
25. One must not be rebellious.
26. He who does nothing while being able to work should not eat either. But he who is busy with a task to be performed exactly ought to apply himself with all the zeal of which he is able, unto the glory of Christ.
27. Everyone ought to do all things reasonably and with conviction. as approved by the leaders, even eating and drinking, to the glory of God.
28. One must not shift from one task to another without the agreement of those in charge of these sorts of things, unless being called suddenly, by evident necessity, to the help of one who lacks strength.
29. Everyone should stay at his own post and not overstep the limits of his assignment for reaching unto what had
Monastic Ideal
not been commanded to him, unless those in charge judge that another needs help.
30. Nobody must be found wandering from workshop to workshop.
31. One should not do anything out of contentiousness.
32. One should not envy the reputation of another, or rejoice in his shortcomings.
33. One ought to deplore the faults of his brother for the love of Christ and feel sorry, but rejoice for what he did well.
34. One must not be indifferent toward sinners, nor unconcerned [about their sin].
35. If one has to reprove sinners, let it be with mercifulness, in the fear of God and in order to correct the sinner.
36. He who is reproved or blamed ought to take it with good will, realizing that it is for his own good.
37. One must not, if someone else is accused, contradict the accuser to his face or before others. If the accusation seems unreasonable, one should say a word in private to the accuser, and persuade him, or be persuaded by him.
38. Everyone as he is able should try to heal [with kindness] anyone who has something against him.
39. One must not bear a grudge against a man who has sinned and repents, but forgive him heartily.
40. He who says that he repents from sin should not only he contrite for the sin he has committed, but also make worthy fruits of repentance.
41. He who has been rebuked for first sins and was deemed worthy of pardon prepares for himself a judgment of anger worse than the previous [rebukeJ, if he sins again.
42. He who after a first and second warning persists in his fault ought to be reported to the hegumen, if this seems better than having him rebuked in public. If he does not amend himself, let him be removed from among the others like an object of scandal and "regarded as a heathen and a publican" [Mt 18: 17J for the safety of those who cultivate obedience with zeal, according to the saying: "When the impious falls, the just are struck with fear"; but one should also mourn for him as for a limb severed from the body.
THE FATHERS SPEAK
43. One should not let the sun set on an angry fit of a brother, lest night separate both from each other and leave an inexorable verdict in the day of judgment.
44. One should not wait for an occasion to amend oneself, because he cannot be certain of the morrow; many who have made many projects have not reached the morrow.
45. One should not let himself be fooled by a full belly, because it is a cause of nightmares.
46. One ought not be dragged into working immoderately beyond the limits of the sufficient; according to the words of the Apostle, "if we have food and covering, we should be satisfied" [1 Tm 6:8], for an abundance which exceeds the necessary displays greediness, and "greediness denotes idolatry" [Col 3:5].
47. One must not be avaricious [cplAapyupov] or hoard unnecessary things.
48. He who comes to God should embrace poverty in all things and be transfixed [lit. nailed, Ka811A.cu!lEvov] by the fear of God, according to him who said: "Nail thy flesh to the fear of me, for I have feared thy judgments"
[Ps 118: 120, LXX].
May the Lord give you to receive our instructions with full assurance and bring forth worthy fruits of the Spirit to the glory of God, through God's grace and with the cooperation of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen!
Observance of the rule is not enough if it is not animated by the charity that mllst inspire the whole life of a Christian.
The precepts of Basil the monastic leader (~y06!lEVO<;; Russian "starets," pl. "startsy"). According to Dam Leon
Lebe, OSB, they were expanded, formally rewritten, and eventually clarified by Basil during the later years of his life, for the benefit of the monastic order as a whole. Thus edited, the monastic rules of Saint Basil were 10 inspire the spirituality and Ihe regimen of the foundations of Saint Benedict,