Listed 97 sub titles with search on: Religious figures biography for wider area of: "CENTRAL ASIA MINOR Region TURKEY" .
KESSARIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Arethas, archbishop of Caesareia in Cappadocia at an uncertain time (A. D. 540,
according to Coccius and Cave), appears to have succeeded Andreas. He wrote a
commentary on the Apocalypse (sulloge exegeseon ek diaphoron hagion andron eis
ten Ioannou tou agapemenou kai euangelistou Apokalupsin), which, as its title
implies, was compiled from many preprevious works, and especially from that of
Andreas. It is usually printed with the works of Oecumenius.
ANGYRA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Basilius, (Basileios and Basilios), commonly called Basil. Bishop of Ancyra (A. D. 336-360),
originally a physician, was one of the chief leaders of the Semi-Arian party,
and the founder of a sect of Arians which was named after him. He was held in
high esteem by the emperor Constantius, and is praised for his piety and learning
by Socrates and Sozomen. He was engaged in perpetual controversies both with the
orthodox and with the ultra Arians. His chief opponent was Acacius, through whose
influence Basil was deposed by the synod of Constantinople (A. D. 360), and banished
to Illyricum. He wrote against his predecessor Marcellus, and a work on Virginity.
His works are lost. (Hieron. de Vir. Illust. 89 ; Epiphan. Haeres. lxxiii. 1;
Socrates, H. E. ii. 30, 42; Sozomen, H. E. ii. 43.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
DORYLEON (Ancient city) TURKEY
Eusebius of Dorylaeum, born at the end of the fifth century, began his public
life as a layman, and held an office about the imperial court of Constantinople,
which gave him the title of Agens in Rebus. One day, as Nestorius, then bishop
of Constantinople, was preaching against the propriety of applying the term Theotokos
to the Virgin Mary, and waits maintaining at once the eternal generation of the
divine Logos, and the human birth of the Man Jesus, a voice cried out, "No,
the Eternal Word Himself submitted to the second birth." scene of great confusion
followed, and an active opposition to the Nestorian doctrine began. There is little
doubt that the voice proceeded from Eusebius. On another occasion, he produced
in church an act of accusation against Nestorius, whom he denounced as reviving
the heresies of Paul of Samosata. (Leontius, contra, Nestorian. et Eutych. iii.)
The interest which he took in this controversy probably induced him to alter his
profession, and to enter into holy orders. He afterwards became bishop of Dorylaeum,
a town in Phrygia on the river Thymbrins (a feeder of the Sangarius), not far
from the Bithynian frontier. In this office he was among the first to defend against
Eutyches the doctrine of Christ's twofold nature, as he had already maintained
against Nestorius the unity of His person. He first privately admonished Eutyches
of his error; but, as he failed in convincing him, lie first denounced him at
a synod summoned by Flavius, bishop of Constantinople, and then proceeded to the
council which Theodosius had summoned to meet at Ephesus, to declare the Catholic
belief on the point mooted by Eutyches. The assembly met A. D. 449 under the presidency
of Dioscurus, bishop of Alexandria, a partizan of Eutyches. It was disgraced by
scenes of the greatest violence, which gained for it the title of sunodos leistrike,
and besides sanctioning the monophysite doctrine, it decreed the deposition of
Eusebius. But Leo the Great, bishop of Rome, interfered and prevailed upon Marcian,
the successor of Theodosius, to convene another general council to revise the
decrees of this disorderly assembly. It met at Chalcedon, A. D. 451, and Eusebius
presented a petition at it addressed to Marcian and his colleague Valentinian.
He was restored to his see, and the doctrine of Eutyches finally condemned. A
Contesltaio adverusus Nestorium by Eusebius is extant in a Latin translation amongst
the works of Marius Mercator, part ii. There are also a Libellsus adversns Eutycheten
Synodo Contantinopolitano oblatus (Concil. vol. iv.), Libellus adversus Dioscurum
Synodo Chalcedonensi oblatus, and Epistola ad Marcianum Imperatorem (ib. p. 95),
(Evagrius, Hist. Eccl. ii. 4; Cave, Hist. Lit. vol. i.; Neander, l. c. and vol.
ii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
IRENOUPOLIS (Ancient city) ISAVRIA
Basilius, (Basileios and Basilios), commonly called Basil. Of Cilicia (ho Kilix), was the author of a history of the Church, of which Photius
gives a short account (Cod. 42), a work against John of Scythopolis (Phot. Cod.
107), and one against Archelaus, bishop of Colonia in Armenia. (Suidas, s. v.)
He lived under the emperor Anastasius, was presbyter at Antioch about 497 A. D.,
and afterwards bishop of Irenopolis in Cilicia.
KESSARIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Bishop of that see in Cappadocia, assigned by Krumbacher to the first
half of the sixth century, though he is yet variously placed by others from the
fifth to the ninth century.
His principal work is a commentary on the Apocalypse, important as
the first commentary on the book that has come down to us, also as the source
from which most of its later commentators have drawn. The writer differs from
most of the Byzantine commentators by reason of his extensive acquaintance with
early patristic literature.
A.T. Maas, ed.
Transcribed by: John Orr
This text is cited May 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
Andreas, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, probably about 500 A. D., wrote a Commentary on the Apocalypse, which is printed in the principal editions of Chrysostom's works. He also wrote a work entitled " Therapeutica Spiritualis," fragments of which are extant in the " Eclogae Asceticae" of John, patriarch of Antioch. (Nessel, Cat. Vindob. Pt.i., cod. 276, No. 1.)
Acacius The One-eyed (ho Monophthalmos), the pupil and successor in the See of Caesarea of Eusebius A. D. 340, whose life he wrote. (Socrates, Hist. Eccl. ii. 4.) He was able, learned, and unscrupulous. At first a Semi-Arian like his master, he founded afterwards the Homoean party and was condemned by the Semi-Arians at Seleucia, A. D. 359. (Socrates, Hist. Eccl. ii. 39. 40 ; Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. iv. 22. 23.) He subsequently became the associate of Aetius [AETIUS], the author of the Anomoeon, then deserted him at the command of Constantius, and, under the Catholic Jovian, subscribed the Homoousion or Creed of Nicaea. He died A. D. 366. He wrote seventeen Books on Ecclesiastes and six of Miscellanies. (St. Jerome, Vir. Ill. 98.) St. Epiphanius has preserved a fragment of his work against Marcellus (c. Haer. 72), and nothing else of his is extant, though Sozomen speaks of many valuable works written by him.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Archelaus, bishop of Caesareia in Capadocia, wrote a work against the heresy of the Messalians, which is referred to by Photius (Cod. 52). Cave places him at 440 A. D. Hist. Lit. sub. ann.)
Helladius. Bishop of Caesareia, in Cappadocia, succeeded his master, Basil the
Great, in that see. A. D. 378, and was present at the two councils of Constantinople
in A. D. 381 and 394. His life of St. Basil is quoted by Damascenus (Orat. de
Imag. i. ), but the genuineness of the work is doubtful. (Sozom. H. E. viii. 6;
Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. vol. ix.; Cave, Hist. Lit. s. a. 378; Fabric. Bibl. Graec.
vol. ix.)
SEVASTIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Eustathius. Bishop of Sebastia in Armenia, who, together with Basilius of Ancyra, was the author of the sect of the Macedonians. (Suid. s. v. Eustathios.) He was originally a monk, and is said to have been the first who made the Armenians acquainted with an ascetic life. For this reason some persons ascribed to him the work on Ascetics, which is usually regarded as the production of St. Basilius. He must have been a contemporary of Constantine the Great, for Nicephorous states, that although he had signed the decrees of the council of Nicaea, he yet openly sided with the Arians. (Epiphan. lxxv. 1, &c.; Sozomen. iii. 13; Nicephor. ix. 16.)
NAZIANZOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Gregorius (Gregorios). Surnamed Nazianzenus, and usually called
Gregory Nazianzen. He was born in a village near Nazianzus in Cappadocia about
A.D. 329, and prosecuted his studies at Athens, where he earned a great reputation
for his knowledge of rhetoric, philosophy, and mathematics. Among his fellow students
was Julian, the future emperor, and Basil, with the latter of whom he formed a
most intimate friendship. Gregory remained at Athens about six years (350-356),
and then returned home. Having received ordination, [p. 750] he continued to reside
at Nazianzus, where he discharged his duties as a presbyter, and assisted his
father, who was bishop of the town. In A.D. 372 he was associated with his father
in the bishopric; but after the death of the latter in 374, he refused to continue
Bishop of Nazianzus, as he was averse to public life and fond of solitary meditation.
After living some years in retirement, he was summoned to Constantinople in 379,
in order to defend the orthodox faith against the Arians and other heretics. In
380 he was made Bishop of Constantinople by the emperor Theodosius; but he resigned
the office in the following year (381), and withdrew altogether from public life.
He lived in solitude at his paternal estate at Nazianzus, and died there in 389
or 390. His extant works are about 45 orations or sermons, 243 letters, and 407
poems of a very varied description, comprising hymns, prayers, epitaphs, epigrams,
etc. His discourses, though sometimes really eloquent, are generally little more
than favourable specimens of the rhetoric of the schools, more earnest than Chrysostom,
but less attractive.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Gregorius Nazianzenus, St., surnamed theologos, from his zeal in the defence of
the Nicene doctrine (1), was one of the most eminent fathers of the Greek Church.
He was born at Arianzus, a village in Cappadocia, not far from Nazianzus, the
city of which his father was the bishop, and from which both father and son took
the surname of Nazianzen. There is some doubt about the date of his birth. The
statement of Suidas (s. v.) is directly at variance with several known facts in
his life. In all probability he was born in, or very shortly before, the year
329. His mother Nonna, a zealous and devout Christian, had devoted him even in
the womb to the service of God, and exerted herself to the utmost in training
his infant mind to this destiny. In that age of miracles and visions, we are not
surprised to find that Gregory, while yet a boy, was visited by a dream, which
excited in him the resolution, to which he was ever stedfast, to live a life of
asceticism and celibacy, withdrawn from the world, and in the service of God and
the church. Meanwhile, his father took the greatest care of his education in the
sciences and arts. From the care of able teachers at Caesareia he proceeded to
Palestine, where he studied eloquence; thence he went to Alexandria, and finally
his zeal for knowledge led him to Athens, then the focus of all learning. On his
voyage, the vessel encountered a tremendous storm, which excited in him great
terror, because he had not yet been baptized.
The time of his arrival at Athens seems to have been about, or before
A. D. 350. He applied himself ardently to the study of language, poetry, rhetoric,
philosophy, mathematics, and also of physic and music. At Athens Gregory formed
his friendship with Basil. Here also he met with Julian, whose dangerous character
he is said to have discerned even thus early. On the departure of Basil from Athens,
in 355, Gregory would have accompanied his friend; but, at the urgent request
of the whole body of students, he remained there as a teacher of rhetoric, but
only till the following year, when he returned home, 356. He now made an open
profession of Christianity by receiving baptism; and, declining to exercise his
powers as a rhetorician, either in the courts or in the schools, he set himself
to perform his vows of dedication to the service of God. He made a resolution,
which he is said to have kept all his life, never to swear. His religion assumed
the form of quietism and ascetic virtue. It seems that he would have retired altogether
from the world but for the claims which his aged parents had upon his care. He
so far, however, gratified his taste for the monastic life, as to visit his friend
Basil in his retirement, and to join in his exercises of devotion, A. D. 358 or
359. But he never became a regular monk. His fiery temper and the circumstances
of the age prevailed over the resolves of his youth; and this quietist, who replies
to the remonstrances of Basil on his inactivity, by the strongest aspirations
for a life of fest and religious meditation (Epist. xxxii.), became one of the
most restless of mankind. (Comp. Orat. v.)
In the year 360 or 361, Gregory was called from his retirement to
the help of his father, who, as the best means of securing his support, and probably
also to prevent him from choosing the monastic life, suddenly, and without his
consent, ordained him as a presbyter, probably at Christmas, 361. Gregory showed
his dislike to this proceeding by immediately rejoining Basil, but the entreaties
of his father and of many of the people of Nazianzus backed by the fear that he
might be, like Jonah, fleeing from his duty, induced him to return home, about
Easter, 362. At that feast he preached his first sermon (Orut. xl.), which, as
it seems, he afterwards expanded into a fuller discourse, which was published
but never preached (Orat. i.), in which he defends himself against the charges
that his flight from Nazianzus had occasioned, and sets forth the duties and difficulties
of a Christian minister. It is called his Apologetic Discourse. He was now for
some time engaged in the discharge of his duties as a presbyter, and in assisting
his aged father in his episcopal functions, as well as in composing the differences
between him and the monks of Nazianzus, the happy termination of which he celebrated
in three orations. (Orat. xii.--xiv.)
In the mean time Julian had succeeded to the throne of Constantius
(A. D. 361), and Gregory, like his friend Basil, was soon brought into collision
with the apostate emperor, from whose court he persuaded his brother Caesarius
to retire. Whether the unsupported statement of Gregory, that lie and his friend
Basil were marked out as the first victims of a new general persecution on Julian's
return from Persia, can be relied upon or not, it is certain that the passions
of the emperor would soon have overcome his affectation of philosophy, and that
his pretended indifference, but real disfavor, towards Christianity, would have
broken out into a fierce persecution. The deliverance from this danger by the
fall of Julian (B. C. 363) was celebrated by Gregory in two orations against the
emperor's memory (logoi steliteutikoi, Orat. iii. and iv.), which are distinguished
more for warmth of invective than either for real eloquence or Christian temper.
They were never delivered.
In the year 364, when Basil was deposed by his bishop, Eusebius, Gregory
again accompanied him to his retreat in Pontus, and was of great service in effecting
his reconciliation with Eusebius, which took place in 365. He also assisted Basil
most powerfully against the attacks of Valens and the Arian bishops of Cappadocia.
For the next five years he seems to have been occupied with his duties at Nazianzus,
in the midst of domestic troubles, the illness of his parents, and the death of
his brother Caesarius, A. D. 368 or 369. His panegyric on Caesarius is esteemed
one of his best discourses. (Orat. x.) A few years later, A. D. 374, he lost his
sister Gorgonia, for whom also he composed a panegyric. (Orat. xi.)
The election of Basil to the bishopric of Caesareia, in 370, was promoted
by Gregory and his father with a zeal which passed the bounds of seemliness and
prudence. One of Basil's first acts was to invite his friend to become a presbyter
at Caesareia; but Gregory declined the invitation, on grounds the force of which
Basil could not deny. (Orat. xx.) An event soon afterwards occurred, which threatened
the rupture of their friendship. Basil, as metropolitan of Cappadocia, erected
a new see at the small, poor, unpleasant, and unhealthy town of Sasima, and conferred
the bishopric on Gregory, A. D. 372. The true motive of Basil seems to have been
to strengthen his authority as metropolitan, by placing the person on whom he
could most rely as a sort of outpost against Anthimus, the bishop of Tyana; for
Sasima was very near Tyana, and was actually claimed by Anthimus as belonging
to his see. But for this very reason the appointment was the more unacceptable
to Gregory, whose most cherished wish was to retire into a religious solitude,
as soon as his father's death should set him free. He gave vent to his feelings
in three discourses, in which, however, he shows that his friendship for Basil
prevails over his offended feelings (Orat. v. vi. vii.), and he never assumed
the functions of his episcopate. Finding him resolved not to gd to Sasima, his
father, with much difficulty, prevailed upon him to share with him the bishopric
of Nazianzus; and Gregory only consented upon the condition that he should be
at liberty to lay down the office at his father's death. On this occasion he delivered
the discourse (Orat. viii.) entitled, Ad Patrem, quum Nazianazenae ecclesiae curam
filio commisisset, A. D. 372. To the following year are generally assigned his
discourse De plaga grandinis, on the occasion of a hailstorm which had ravaged
the country round Nazianzus (Orat. xv.), and that Ad Nazianzenos, timore Trepidantes,
et Praefectum iratum (Orat. xvii.), the occasion of which seems to have been some
popular commotion in the city, which the praefect was disposed to punish severely.
Gregory Nazianzen, the father, died in the year 374, at the age of
almost a hundred years, and his son pronounced over him a funeral oration, at
which his mother Nonna and his friend Basil were present. (Orat. xix.) He was
now anxious to perform his purpose of laying down the bishopric, but his friends
prevailed on him to retain it for a time, though he never regarded himself as
actually bishop of Nazianzus, but merely as a temporary occupant of the see (Epist.
xlii., lxv., Carm. de Vit. sua, Orat. viii.). It is therefore an error of his
disciple Jerome (Vir. Illust. 117), and other writers, to speak of Gregory as
bishop of Nazianzus. From a discourse delivered about this time (Orat. ix.), we
find that he was still as averse from public life, and as fond of solitary meditation,
as ever. He also began to feel the infirmities of age, which his ascetic life
had brought upon him, though he was not yet fifty. From these causes, and also,
it would seem, in order to compel the bishops of Cappadocia to fill up the see
of Nazianzus, he at last fled to Seleuceia, the capital of Isauria (A. D. 375),
where he appears to have remained till 379, but where he was still disappointed
of the rest he sought; for his own ardent spirit and the claims of others compelled
him still to engage in the ecclesiastical controversies which distracted the Eastern
Church. The defence of orthodoxy against the Arians seemed to rest upon him more
than ever, after the death of Basil, on the 1st of January, A. D. 379, and in
that year he was called from his retirement, much against his will, by the urgent
request of many orthodox bishops, to Constantinople, to aid the cause of Catholicism,
which, after a severe depression for forty years, there seemed hopes of reviving
under the auspices of Gratian and Theodosius. At Constantinople Gregory had to
maintain a conflict, not only with the Arians, but also with large bodies of Novatians,
Appollinarists, and other heretics. His success was great, and not unattended
by miracles. So powerful were the heretics, and so few the orthodox, that the
latter had no church capable of containing the increasing numbers who came to
listen to Gregory. He was therefore obliged to gather his congregation in the
house of a relation; and this originated the celebrated church of Anastasia, which
was afterwards built with great splendour and sanctified by numerous miracles.
Some of his discourses at Constantinople are among his extant works; the most
celebrated of them are the five on the divine nature, and especially on the Godhead
of Christ, in answer to the Eunomians and Macedonians, entitled Aoloi Theologikoi.
(Orat. xxxiii.--xxxvii.) It cannot be said that these discourses deserve the reputation
in which they were held by the ancients. They present a clear, dogmatic, uncritical
statement of the Catholic faith, with ingenious replies to its opponents, in a
form which has far more of the rhetoric of the schools than of real eloquence.
Moreover, his perfect Nicene orthodoxy has been questioned; it is alleged that
in the fifth discourse he somewhat sacrifices the unity to the trinity of the
Godhead. The success of Gregory provoked the Arians to extreme hostility: they
pelted him, they desecrated his little church, and they accused him in a court
of justice as a disturber of the public peace; but he bore their persecutions
with patience, and, finally, many of his opponents became his hearers. The weaker
side of his character was displayed in his relations to Maximus, an ambitious
hypocrite, whose apparent sanctity and zeal for orthodoxy so far imposed upon
Gregory, that he pronounced a panegyrical oration upon him in his presence. (Orat.
xxiii.) Maximus soon after endeavoured, in 380, to seize the episcopal chair of
Constantinople, but the people rose against him, and expelled him from the city.
This and other troubles caused Gregory to think of leaving Constantinople, but,
at the entreaties of his people, he promised to remain with them till other bishops
should come to take charge of them. He retired home, however, for a short time
to refresh his spirit with the solitude he loved.
In November, 380, Theodosius arrived at Constantinople, and received
Gregory with the highest favour, promising him his firm support. He compelled
the Arians to give up all the churches of the city to the Catholics, and, in the
midst of the imperial guards, Gregory entered the great church of Constantinople,
by the side of Theodosius. The excessive cloudiness of the day was interpreted
by the Arians as a token of the Divine displeasure, but when, at the commencement
of the service, the sun burst forth and filled the church with his light, all
the orthodox accepted it as a sign from heaven, and called out to the emperor
to make Gregory bishop of Constantinople. The cry was with difficulty appeased
for the time, and shortly afterwards Gregory was compelled to accept the office.
As the head of the orthodox party, Gregory used their victory with a healing moderation,
at least according to the ideas of his time, for the suppression of the public
worship of the heretics by the edicts of Theodosius was not regarded by him as
an act of persecution. On the other hand, many of the Arians regarded him with
the deepest enmity, and he relates a romantic story of an assassin, who came with
other visitors into his room, but was conscience-stricken, and confessed his guilt:
Gregory dismissed him with his benediction. The affairs of the church were administered
by him with diligence and integrity, and he paid no more court to the emperor
than the etiquette of his rank required. Several of his sermons belong to the
year of his patriarchate.
At the beginning of the year 381, Theodosius convoked the celebrated
council of Constantinople, the second of the oecumenical councils. One of its
earliest acts was to confirm Gregory in the patriarchate of Constantinople, and
soon after, in consequence of the sudden death of Meletius, he became president
of the council. He soon found, however, that he had not the power to rule it.
He was too good and moderate, perhaps also too weak and indolent, to govern a
general council in that age. His health also was very infirm. He gradually withdrew
himself from the sittings of the council, and showed a disposition to lay down
his bishopric. His chief opponents, the Egyptian and Macedonian bishops, seized
the opportunity to attack him, on the ground that he could not hold the bishopric
of Constantinople, as he was already bishop of Nazianzus, and the church did not
permit translations. Upon this he gladly resigned his office. His resignation
was accepted without hesitation by the council and the emperor, and he took leave
of the people of Constantinople in a discourse which is the noblest effort of
his eloquence. He returned to Cappadocia, and, the course of his journey leading
him to Caesareia, he there delivered his admirable funeral oration upon Basil.
Finding the bishopric of Nazianzus still vacant, he discharged its duties until,
in the following year, 383, he found a suitable successor in his cousin Eulalius.
He now finally retired to his long-sought solitude, at his paternal estate at
Arianzus, where the enjoyment of quiet philosophical meditation was mingled with
the review of his past life, which he recorded in an Iambic poem. This work breathes
a spirit of contentment, derived from an approving conscience, but not unmixed
with complaints of the ingratitude and disappointment which he had encountered
in the discharge of duties he had never sought, and lamentations over the evil
times on which he had fallen. He draws a melancholy picture of the character of
the clergy of his time, derived chiefly from his experience of the council of
Constantinople. He also wrote other poems, and several letters, in his retirement.
He died in 389 or 390. After the account given of his life, little remains to
be said of his character. His natural disposition partook of the two qualities,
which are often found united, impetuosity and indolence. The former was tempered
by sincere and humble piety, and by a deep conviction of the benefits of moderation;
the latter was aggravated by his notions of philosophic quietism, and by his con
tinual encounters with difficulties above his strength. He was a perfectly honest
man. His mind, though highly cultivated, was of no great power. His poems are
not above mediocrity, and his discourses, though sometimes really eloquent, are
generally nothing more than favourable specimens of the rhetoric of the schools.
He is more earnest than Chrysostom, but not so ornamental. He is more artificial,
but also, in spirit, more attractive, than Basil. Biblical theology has gained
but little from either of these writers, whose chief aim was to explain and enforce
the dogmas of the Catholic church.
The works of Gregory Nazianzen are, 1. Orations or Sermons; 2. Letters;
3. Poems; 4. His Will.
The following are the most important editions of the works of Gregory
Nazianzen:--An editio princeps, Basil. 1550, folio, containing the Greek text,
and the lives of Gregory by Suidas, Sophronius, and Gregory the presbyter. A Latin
version was published at the same place and time, in a separate volume. 2. Morell's
edition, after the text of Billius, 2 vols. fol. Paris. 1609-1611; a new and improved
edition, 1630; a careless reprint, Colon. (Lips.), 1690. 3. Another edition, after
Billius, by Tollius and Muratorius, Venet. 1753. 4. The Benedictine edition, of
which only the first volume was published: it was commenced by Louvart, continued
by Maron, and finished by Clemencet. It contains only the discourses, preceded
by an excellent life of Gregory, Paris. 1778. The discourses are placed in a new
order by Clemencet. The numbers used in this article are those of Billius. The
edition of Billius only contains a part of Gregory's poems. The principal edition
of the remainder is by Tollius, under the title of Carmina Cygnea, in his Insignia
Itinerarii Italici, Traj. ad Rhen. 1696, 4to., reprinted, 1709. Muratori further
discovered several of Gregory's epigrams, which he published in his Anecdota Graeca,
Patav. 1709, 4to. These epigrams form a part of the Palatine Anthology, and are
published more accurately in Jacobs's edition of the Palatine Anthology, b. viii.
vol. i.; and in Boissonade's Poet. Graec. Sylloge, Paris, 1824, &c. There are
many other editions of parts of his works. (The authorities for Gregory's life,
besides those already quoted, are the lives of him by Nicetas and by Gregory the
presbyter, the Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates and Sozomen, the works of
Baronius, Tillemont, Fleury, Du Pin, Lardner, Le Clerc; Cave, Hist. Lit. vol.
i.; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. viii.; Schrockh, Christliche Kirchengeschichte,
vol. xiii.; Ullmann, Gregorius von Nazianz, der Theologe, ein Beitrag zur Kirchen
und Dogmengeschichte des vierten Jahrhunderts, Darmst. 1825, 8vo.; Hoffmann, Lexicon
Bibliographicum Scriptorum Graecorum.)
(1) In the Arian controversy, the terms theologhia and theologos were used by
the orthodox with reference to the Nicene doctrine, which they believed to be
contained in the passage of Seripture, theos en ho logos. It was in this cense
that they called the apostle John ho theologos.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ANASTASIOUPOLIS (Ancient city) GALATIA
5/5
For more information, see Sykeon ancient town.
d. 362, feastday: March 22
d. unknown, feastday: December 28
d. 360, feastday: November 7 (Catholic). Martyr with Carina, his wife, and Anthony, their son. They suffered at Ancyra. Melasippus and Carina died under torture. Anthony was beheaded.
d.c. 430, feastday: November 12
d.c. 306, feastday: July 22 (Catholic). Martyr and brother of St. Antiochus. A much revered saint in the Eastern Church, he was put to death at Ancyra during the persecution of the early fourth century.
d. 304, feastday: May 18
d. 901, feastday: February 12
d.c. 750, feastday: December 5
d. 362, Feastday: September 12, (Catholic). Martyr with Tatian and Theodolus in Phrygia. They were burned to death for destroying pagan idols
Alexander (Alexandros), a saint and martyr, whose memory is celebrated by the Romish church, together with the other martyus of Lyons and Vienne, on the second of June. He was a native of Phrygia, and a physician by profession, and was put to death, A. D. 177, during the persecution that raged against the churches of Lyons and Vienne under the emperor Marcus Aurclius. (Epist. Eccles. Lugdun. et Vienn. apud Euseb. Hist. Eccl. v. 1. p. 163.) He was condemned, together with another Christian, to be devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre, and died (as the historian expresses it) "neither uttering a groan nor a syllable, but conversing in his heart with God." (Bzovius, Nomenclator Sanctorum Professione Medicorum ; Martyrol. Roman. ed. Baron.; Acta Sanctorum, June 2.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
d.c. 2nd century, feastday: June 27
d.c. 886, feastday: October 15
d.c. 258, feastday: September 12
d. 243, feastday: July 11 (Catholic). Martyred youth of Iconium, Lycaonia. He was cited for his courage in suffering.
Amphilochius of Iconium. A Christian bishop of the fourth century, son of a Cappadocian
family of distinction, b. perhaps at Caesarea, c. 339 or 340; d. probably some
time between 394 and 403. His father was an eminent lawyer, and his mother Livia
remarkable for gentleness and wisdom. He was probably first cousin to Gregory
of Nazianzus, and was brought up in the peculiarly religious atmosphere of the
Christian aristocracy of his native province. He studied for the bar, practised
at Constantinople, but soon retired to lead a religious life in the vicinity of
his friend and relative, the "theologian" of Nazianzus. He was soon drawn within
the circle of St. Basil's influence, and seems to have been for a while a member
of the Christian "City of the Poor" that Basil had built at Caesarea. Early in
374 he was bishop of the important see of Iconium, probably placed there by Basil,
whom he continued to aid in Cappadocian ecclesiastical affairs until Basil's death
(379). Thenceforth he remained in close relations with Gregory of Nazianzus, and
accompanied him to the Synod of Constantinople (381), where St. Jerome met and
conversed with him (De Vir. Ill., c. 133). In the history of theology he occupies
a place of prominence for his defence of the divinity of the Holy Spirit against
the Macedonians. It was to him that St. Basil dedicated his work "On the Holy
Spirit". He wrote a similar work, now lost. We know, however, that he read it
to St. Jerome on the occasion of their meeting at Constantinople. His attitude
towards Arianism is illustrated by the well-known anecdote concerning his audience
with Theodosius and his son Arcadius. When the Emperor rebuked him for ignoring
the presence of his son, he reminded him that the Lord of the universe abhorreth
those who are ungrateful towards His Son, their Saviour and Benefactor. He was
very energetic against the Messalians, and contributed to the extirpation of that
heresy. His contemporaries rated him very high as a theologian and a scholarly
writer. Not to speak of his admirers and friends already mentioned, St. Jerome
says (Ep. 70) of the Cappadocian triad (Basil, Gregory, and Amphilochius) that
"they cram their books with the lessons and sentences of the philosophers to such
an extent that you cannot tell which you ought to admire most in them, their secular
erudition or their scriptural knowledge". In the next generation Theodoret described
him in very flattering terms (Hist. Eccl., IV, x; V, xvi), and he is quoted by
councils as late as 787. His only genuine extant work is, according to Bardenhewer
(Patrologie), the "Epistola Synodica", a letter against the Macedonian heresy
in the name of the bishops of Lycaonia, and probably addressed to the bishops
of Lycia. The spurious "Iambics to Seleucus" offer an early and important catalogue
of the canonical writings; other spurious fragments, current under his name, are
taken from scriptural discourses, dogmatic letters and controversial writings.
St. Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, the friend of St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzus, was born
at Caesareia, and began life as a pleader. He lived in retirement with his father
at Ozizalis in Cappadocia, till he was summoned to preside over the see of Iconium
in Lycaonia, or Pisidia 2da, A. D. 373-4. St. Basil's Congratulatory Epistle on
the occasion is extant. He soon after paid St. Basil a visit, and persuaded him
to undertake his work "On the Holy Ghost", which he finished A. D. 375-6. St.
Basil's Canonical Epistles are addressed to St. Amphilochius (written A. D. 374,
375). The latter had received St. Basil's promised book on the Divinity of the
Holy Ghost, when in A. D. 377 he sent a synodical letter to certain bishops, probably
of Lycia, infected with, or in danger of, Macedonianism. The Arian persecution
of the church ceased on the death of Valens (A. D. 378), and in 381, Amphilochius
was present at the Oecumenical Council of Constantinople. While there, he signed,
as a witness, St. Gregory Nazianzen's will and he was nominated with Optimus of
Antioch in Pisidia as the centre of catholic communion in the diocese of Asia.
In A. D. 383, he obtained from Theodosius a prohibition of Arian assemblies, practically
exhibiting the slight otherwise put on the Son of God by a contemptuous treatment
of the young Arcadius. This same year he called a council at Side in Pamphylia,
and condemned the Massalian heretics, who made the whole of religion consist in
prayer. In A. D. 394 he was at the Councii of Constantinople, which confirmed
Bagadius in the see of Bostra. This is the last we hear of him. He died before
the persecution of St. Chrysostom, probably A. D. 395, and he is commemorated
on Nov. 23rd. His remains (in Greek) have been edited by Combefis, with those
of Methodius of Patara and Andreas of Crete, fol. Par. 1644. Of Eight Homilies
ascribed to him, some at least are supposititious, as is the Life of St. Basil.
There is attributed to him an iambic poem of 333 verses (in reference to the Trinity)
addressed to Seleucus, nephew of St. Olympias (who had herself been brought up
by Theodosia, sister to St. Amphilochius) and grandson of the general Trajan,
who perished with his master, Valens, at Hadrianople, A. D. 378. Gallandi adds
the testimony of Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th cent.) to that of John Damascene,
Zonaras, and Balsamon, in favour of the authenticity of this poem. Combefis has
collected his fragments, and Gallandi has added to them. His work on the Holy
Ghost is lost. St. Gregory Nazianzen states, that " by prayers, adoration of the
Trinity, and sacrifices, he subdued the pain of diseases". The 9th, 25-28th, 62nd,
171st, and 184th Epistles of St. Gregory are addressed to him.
KESSARIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Bishop of Caesarea, and one of the most distinguished Doctors of the
Church. Born probably 329; died 1 January, 379. He ranks after Athanasius as a
defender of the Oriental Church against the heresies of the fourth century. With
his friend Gregory of Nazianzus
and his brother Gregory of Nyssa,
he makes up the trio known as “The Three Cappadocians”
LIFE
St. Basil the Elder, father of St. Basil the Great, married Emmelia,
the daughter of a martyr and became the father of ten children. Three of these,
Macrina, Basil, an Gregory are honoured as saints; and of the sons, Peter, Gregory,
and Basil attained the dignity of the episcopate. Under the care of his father
and his grandmother, the elder Macrina, Basil was formed in habits of piety and
study. He was still young when his father died and the family moved to Annesi
in Pontus.
As a boy, he was sent to school at Caesarea, then “a metropolis
of letters”. Later, he went to Constantinople,
at that time “distinguished for its teachers of philosophy and rhetoric”,
and thence to Athens. Here
he became the inseparable companion of Gregory of Nazianzus.
According to him, Basil was already distinguished for brilliancy of mind and seriousness
of character and associated only with the most earnest students. He was able,
grave, industrious, and well advanced in rhetoric, grammar, philosophy, astronomy,
geometry, and medicine. At the end of his sojourn at Athens,
Basil being laden, says St. Gregory of Nazianzus
“with all the learning attainable by the nature of man”, was well
equipped to be a teacher. Caesarea took possession of him gladly “as a founder
and second patron”, and as he tells us, he refused the splendid offers of
the citizens of Neo-Caesarea, who wished him to undertake the education of the
youth of their city.
To the successful student and distinguished professor, “there
now remained”, says Gregory, “no other need than that of spiritual
perfection”. Gregory of Nyssa,
in his life of Macrina, gives us to understand that Basil's brilliant success
both as a university student and a professor had left traces of worldliness and
self-sufficiency on the soul of the young man. Fortunately, Basil came again in
contact with Dianius, Bishop of Caesarea, the object of his boyish affection,
and Dianius seems to have baptized him, and ordained him Reader soon after his
return to Caesarea. It was at the same time also that he fell under the influence
of that very remarkable woman, his sister Macrina, who had meanwhile founded a
religious community on the family estate at Annesi. Basil himself tells us how,
like a man roused from deep sleep, he turned his eyes to the marvellous truth
of the Gospel, wept many tears over his miserable life, and prayed for guidance
from God: “Then I read the Gospel, and saw there that a great means of reaching
perfection was the selling of one's goods, the sharing of them with the poor,
the giving up of all care for this life, and the refusal to allow the soul to
be turned by any sympathy towards things of earth”.
To learn the ways of perfection, Basil now visited the monasteries
of Egypt, Palestine,
Coele-Syria, and Mesopotamia.
He returned, filled with admiration for the austerity and piety of the monks,
and founded a monastery in his native Pontus, on the banks of the Iris. Eustathius
of Sebaste had already introduced
the eremitical life into Asia
Minor; Basil added the cenobitic or community form, and the new feature was
imitated by many companies of men and women.Basil became known as the father of
Oriental monasticism. Basil was drawn from his retreat into the area of theological
controversy in 360 when he accompanied two delegates from Seleucia
to the emperor at Constantinople,
and supported his namesake of Ancyra.
To this time (c. 361) may be referred the “Moralia”; and a little
later came two books against Eunomius (363) and some correspondence with Athanasius.
It is possible, also, that Basil wrote his monastic rules in the briefer forms
while in Pontus, and enlarged them later at Caesarea.
Basil still retained considerable influence in Caesarea. Eusebius
having persuaded the reluctant Basil to be ordained priest, gave him a prominent
place in the administration of the diocese (363). In ability for the management
of affairs Basil so far eclipsed the bishop that ill-feeling rose between the
two, and to avoid trouble Basil again withdrew into the solitude of Pontus. A
little later (365) when the attempt of Valens to impose Arianism on the clergy
and the people necessitated the presence of a strong personality, Basil was restored
to his former position, being reconciled to the bishop by St. Gregory of Nazianzus.
There seems to have been no further disagreement between Eusebius and Basil and
the latter soon became the real head of the diocese. “The one”, says
Gregory of Nazianzus, “led
the people the other led their leader”.
During the five years spent in this most important office, Basil gave
evidence of being a man of very unusual powers. He laid down the law to the leading
citizens and the imperial governors, settled disputes with wisdom and finality,
assisted the spiritually needy, looked after “the support of the poor, the
entertainment of strangers, the care of maidens, legislation written and unwritten
for the monastic life, arrangements of prayers, (liturgy?), adornment of the sanctuary”.
In time of famine, he was the saviour of the poor.
In 370 Basil succeeded to the See of Caesarea, being consecrated according
to tradition on 14 June. Caesarea was then a powerful and wealthy city. Its bishop
was Metropolitan of Cappadocia
and Exarch of Pontus which embraced more than half of Asia
Minor and comprised eleven provinces. Basil's actual influence, covered the
whole stretch of country “from the Balkans to the Mediterranean and from
the Aegean to the Euphrates”. He became Bishop of Caesarea largely by the
influence of the elder Gregory of Nazianzus.
During his previous administration of the diocese Basil had so clearly defined
his ideas of discipline and orthodoxy, that no one could doubt the direction and
the vigour of his policy. St. Athanasius was greatly pleased at Basil's election;
but the Arianizing Emperor Valens, displayed considerably annoyance and the defeated
minority of bishops became consistently hostile to the new metropolitan. By years
of tactful conduct, however, “blending his correction with consideration
and his gentleness with firmness”, he finally overcame most of his opponents.
Basil's letters tell the story of his tremendous and varied activity.
If on the one hand he strenuously defended clerical rights and immunities, on
the other he trained his clergy so strictly that they grew famous as the type
of all that a priest should be. Basil did not confine his activity to diocesan
affairs, but threw himself vigorously into the troublesome theological disputes
then rending the unity of Christendom. He drew up a summary of the orthodox faith;
he attacked by word of mouth the heretics near at hand and wrote tellingly against
those afar. His correspondence shows that he paid visits, sent messages, gave
interviews, instructed, reproved, rebuked, threatened, reproached, undertook the
protection of nations, cities, individuals great and small. There was very little
chance of opposing him successfully, for he was a cool, persistent, fearless fighter
in defence both of doctrine and of principles.
While assisting Eusebius in the care of his diocese, Basil had shown
a marked interest in the poor and afflicted; that interest now displayed itself
in the erection of a magnificent institution, the Ptochokomeion, or Basileiad,
a house for the care of friendless strangers, the medical treatment of the sick
poor, and the industrial training of the unskilled. Built in the suburbs, it attained
such importance as to become practically the centre of a new city with the name
of he kaine polis or “Newtown”. St. Basil was a practical lover of
Christian poverty, and even in his exalted position preserved that simplicity
in food and clothing and that austerity of life for which he had been remarked
at his first renunciation of the world.
Basil died 1 January, 379. His death was regarded as a public bereavement;
Jews, pagans, and foreigners vied with his own flock in doing him honour. In the
Greek “Menaea” he is commemorated on 1 January, the day of his death.
In 1081, John, Patriarch of Constantinople,
in consequence of a vision, established a feast in common honour of St. Basil,
Gregory of Nazianzus, and
John Chrysostom, to be celebrated on 30 January.
By common consent, Basil ranks among the greatest figures in church
history. Physically delicate and occupying his exalted position but a few years,
Basil did magnificent and enduring work in an age of more violent world convulsions
than Christianity has since experienced. By personal virtue he attained distinction
in an age of saints; and his purity, his monastic fervour, his stern simplicity,
his friendship for the poor became traditional in the history of Christian asceticism.
In fact, the impress of his genius was stamped indelibly on the Oriental conception
of religious life. In his hands the great metropolitan see of Caesarea took shape
as the sort of model of the Christian diocese; there was hardly any detail of
episcopal activity in which he failed to mark out guiding lines and to give splendid
example.
Joseph McSorley, ed.
Transcribed by: Janet Grayson
This extract is cited May 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
(Basileios). A Christian writer, surnamed the Great, of Caesarea in Cappadocia. He was born of a noble family in A.D. 329, was educated in rhetoric at Constantinople and Athens by Libanius and Himerius, and subsequently took up the profession of advocate. But it was not long before he dedicated himself to the service of the Church. He distinguished himself especially by his resistance to Arianism and the measures he adopted for regulating the monastic system. He died, the bishop of his native city, in A.D. 379. He composed a revised liturgy still in use in the East, and known as the "Liturgy of the Holy Basil." Besides his writings on points of doctrine, we have an address by him to young men on the uses of Greek literature, the study of which he earnestly recommended, in opposition to the prejudices of many Christians. He has also left a collection of four hundred letters, which are models in their way. Among them are those addressed to Libanius, his pagan instructor. A standard edition of his works is that of the Abbe Migne in 4 vols. (29-32) of his Patrologia Graeco-Latina (Paris, 1866). The Greek Church celebrates the day of his death (January 1st), the Roman Church that of his ordination (June 14th).
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Basilius, (Basileios and Basilios), commonly called Basil. Bishop of Caesareia
in Cappadocia, commonly called Basil the Great, was born A. D. 329, of a noble
Christian family which had long been settled at Caesareia, and some members of
which had suffered in the Maximinian persecution. His father, also named Basil,
was an eminent advocate and teacher of rhetoric at Caesareia: his mother's name
was Emmelia. He was brought up in the principles of the Christian faith partly
by his parents, but chiefly by his grandmother, Macrina, who resided at Neocaesareia
in Pontus, and had been a hearer of Gregory Thaumaturgus, bishop of that city.
His education was continued at Caesareia in Cappadocia, and then at Constantinople.
Here, according to some accounts, or, according to others, at Antioch, he studied
under Libanius. The statements of ancient writers on this matter are confused;
but we learn from a correspondence between Libanius and Basil, that they were
acquainted when Basil was a young man. The genuineness of these letters has been
doubted by Gamier, but on insufficient grounds. From Constantinople he proceeded
to Athens, where he studied for four years (351-355 A. D.), chiefly under the
sophists Himerius and Proaeresius. Among his fellow-students were the emperor
Julian and Gregory Nazianzen. The latter, who was also a native of Cappadocia,
and had been Basil's schoolfellow, now became, and remained throughout life, his
most intimate friend. It is said, that he persuaded Basil to remain at Athens
when the latter was about to leave the place in disgust, and that the attachment
and piety of the two friends became the talk of all the city. Basil's success
in study was so great, that even before he reached Athens his fame had preceded
him; and in the schools of that city he was surpassed by no one, if we may believe
his friend Gregory, in rhetoric, philosophy, and science. At the end of 355, he
returned to Caesareia in Cappadocia, where he began to plead causes with great
success. He soon, however, abandoned his profession, in order to devote himself
to a religious life, having been urged to this course by the persuasions and example
of his sister Macrina. The more he studied the Bible the more did he become convinced
of the excellence of a life of poverty and seclusion from the world. About the
year 357, he made a journey through Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, in order to become
acquainted with the monastic life as practised in those countries. On his return
from this journey (358), he retired to a mountain on the banks of the river Iris,
near Neocaesareia, and there lived as a recluse for thirteen years. On the opposite
bank of the river was a small estate belonging to his family, where his mother
and sister, with some chosen companions, lived in religious seclusion from the
world. Basil assembled round him a company of monks, and was soon joined by his
friend Gregory. Their time was spent in manual labour, in the religious exercises
of singing, prayer, and watching, and more especially in the study of the Scriptures,
with the comments of Christian writers. Their favourite writer appears to have
been Origen, from whose works they collected a body of extracts under the title
of Philocalia (philokalia). Basil also composed a code of regulations for the
monastic life. He wrote many letters of advice and consolation, and made journeys
through Pontus for the purpose of extending monasticism, which owed its establishment
in central Asia mainly to his exertions.
In the year 359, Basil was associated with his namesake of Ancyra
and Eustathius of Sebaste in an embassy to Constantinople, in order to gain the
emperor's confirmation of the decrees of the synod of Seleuceia, by which the
Homoiousians had condemned the Anomoians; but he took only a silent part in the
embassy. He had before this time, but how long we do not know, been appointed
reader in the church at Caesareia by the bishop Dianius, and he had also received
deacon's orders from Meletius, bishop of Antioch. In the following year (360)
Basil withdrew from Caesareia and returned to his monastery, because Dianius had
subscribed the Arian confession of the synod of Ariminum. Here (361) he received
a letter from the emperor Julian, containing an invitation to court, which Basil
refused on account of the emperor's apostacy. Other letters followed; and it is
probable that Basil would have suffered martyrdom had it not been for Julian's
sudden death. In the following year (362), Dianius, on his death bed, recalled
Basil to Caesareia, and his successor Eusebius ordained him as a presbyter; but
shortly afterwards (364), Eusebius deposed him, for some unknown reason. Basil
retired once more to the wilderness, accompanied by Gregory Nazianzen. Encouraged
by this division, the Arians, who had acquired new strength from the accession
of Valens, commenced an attack on the church at Caesareia. Basil had been their
chief opponent there, having written a work against Eunomius; and now his loss
was so severely felt, that Eusebius, availing himself of the mediation of Gregory
Nazianzen, recalled Basil to Caesareia, and, being himself but little of a theologian,
entrusted to him almost the entire management of ecclesiastical affairs. (365.)
Basil's learning and eloquence, his zeal for the Catholic faith, and, above all,
his conduct in a famine which happened in Cappadocia (367, 368), when he devoted
his whole fortune to relieve the sufferers, gained him such general popularity,
that upon the death of Eusebius, in the year 370, he was chosen in his place bishop
of Caesareia. In virtue of this office, he became also metropolitan of Caesareia
and exarch of Pontus. He still retained his monastic habit and his ascetic mode
of life. The chief features of his administration were his care for the poor,
for whom he built houses at Caesareia and the other cities in his province; his
restoration of church discipline; his strictness in examining candidates for orders;
his efforts for church union both in the East and West; his defence of his authority
against Anthimus of Tyana, whose see was raised to a second metropolis of Cappadocia
by Valens; and his defence of orthodoxy against the powerful Arian and Semi-Arian
bishops in his neighbourhood, and against Modestus, the prefect of Cappadocia,
and the emperor Valens himself. He died on the 1st of January, 379 A. D., worn
out by his ascetic life, and was buried at Caesareia. His epitaph by Gregory Nazianzen
is still extant. The following are his chief works: 1. Eis ten hexaemeron, Nine
Homilies on the Six Days' Work. 2. XVII. Honilies on the Psalms. 3. XXXI. Homilies
on various subjects. 4. Two Books on Baptism. 5. On true Virginity. 6. Commentary
(hermeneia or exegesis) on the first XVI. chapters of Isaiah. 7. Antirretikos
tou apologetikou tou dussebous Eunomiou, An Answer to the Apology of the Arian
Eunomius. 8. Peri tou hagiou pneumatos, a Treatise on the Holy Spirit, addressed
to Eunomius: its genuineness is doubted by Garnier. 9. Asketika, ascetic writings.
Under this title are included his work on Christian Morals (ethika), his monastic
rules, and several other treatises and sermons. 10. Letters. 11. A Liturgy. His
minor works and those falsely ascribed to him are enumerated by Fabricius and
Cave. The first complete edition of Basil's works was published at Basel in 1551;
the most complete is that by Gamier, 3 vols. fol. Paris, 1721-1730. (Gregor. Nazian.
Orat. in Laud. Basilii M.; Gregor. Nyss. Vit. S. Macrinae; Garnier, Vita S. Basilii;
Socrates, H. E. iv. 26; Sozomen, H. E. vi. 17; Rufinus, H. E. xi. 9; Suidas, s.
v. Basileios.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Rule of St. Basil. Under the name of Basilians are included all the religious who follow
the Rule of St. Basil. St. Basil drew up his Rule for the members of the monastery
he founded about 356 on the banks of the Iris in Cappadocia.
Before forming this community St. Basil visited Egypt,
Palestine, Coelesyria,
and Mesopotamia in order
to see for himself the manner of life led by the monks in these countries. St.
Gregory of Nazianzus, who shared the retreat, aided Basil by his advice and experience.
In his Rule St. Basil follows a catechetical method; the disciple
asks a question to which the master replies. He limits himself to laying down
indisputable principles which will guide the superiors and monks in their conduct.
He sends his monks to the Sacred Scriptures; in his eyes the Bible is the basis
of all monastic legislation, the true Rule. The questions refer generally to the
virtues which the monks should practice and the vices they should avoid. The greater
number of the replies contain a verse or several verses of the Bible accompanied
by a comment which defines the meaning.
The most striking qualities of the Basilian Rule are its prudence
and its wisdom. It leaves to the superiors the care of settling the many details
of local, individual, and daily life; it does not determine the material exercise
of the observance or the administrative regulations of the monastery. Poverty,
obedience, renunciation, and self-abnegation are the virtues which St. Basil makes
the foundation of the monastic life. The existence of the Rule of St. Basil formed
a principle of unity.
J.M. Besse, ed.
Transcribed by: the Cloistered Dominican Nuns, Monastery of the Infant Jesus, Lufkin, Texas
This extract is cited May 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
Several Oriental liturgies, or at least several anaphoras, have been
attributed to the great St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia
from 370 to 379.
That St. Basil composed a liturgy, or rather reformed an existing
liturgy, is beyond doubt, since besides the constant tradition of the Byzantine
Church there are many testimonies in ancient writings to establish the fact. More
certain testimony to the existence of a liturgical text which went under the name
of St. Basil is given in a letter of Peter the Deacon, one of the Scythian monks
sent to Rome to settle certain
dogmatic questions. The Quinisext, or Trullan Council (692), in its thirty-second
canon draws an argument from the written liturgy of the archbishop of the church
of the Caesareans, St. Basil, whose glory has spread through the whole world.
Finally, in the Barberini library there is a manuscript of the latter part of
the eighth, or the early part of the ninth, century which contains a Greek liturgy
entitled the “Liturgy of St. Basil”.
It is not known precisely just what the nature of the Basilian reform
was, nor what liturgy served as the basis of the saint's work. Very probably he
shortened and changed somewhat the liturgy of his own diocese, which was akin
to the Liturgy of St. James. In later times it underwent some development, so
that with our present knowledge of its history it would be almost impossible to
reconstruct it as it came from the pen of the Bishop of Caesarea. According to
the tradition of the Greek Orthodox Church, their liturgy is practically the work
of St. Basil, due allowance being made for changes and amelioration in the course
of time. This is older than either of the other two Byzantine liturgies, and is
mentioned under the name of St. Basil in ancient times as if it were then the
normal liturgy.
Of the anaphoras attributed to St. Basil the Syriac and Armenian are
probably derived from the Byzantine Greek with some modifications. The Abyssinian
is a translation of the Coptic, while the Coptic, Arabic, and Greek Egyptian liturgies
are substantially the same. These Egyptian anaphoras of St. Basil are different
from the Caesarean or Byzantine liturgy, and do not possess all the characteristics
of the Alexandrian Rite, but appear rather to be modelled on the Syrian type,
so they are probably an importation into Egypt.
The Greek Egyptian contains several prayers (identical with those in the Byzantine
liturgy) expressly ascribed to St. Basil, and from these it may derive its title.
The Caesarean or Byzantine Liturgy is used in the countries which were evangelized
from Constantinople, or which
came under its influence for any considerable period. It is used, for example,
by the Orthodox and Uniat Greek churches in the Orient, as well as by the Greek
communities in Italy and
Sicily. Translated into the
Old Slavonic it is used by Orthodox and Uniat Catholics in Russia
and in some parts of the Austrian Empire; translated into Georgian and Rumanian
it is used respectively in Georgia
and Rumania. It has also
been translated into several other languages and dialects for use in the Russian
dependencies and where the Russian Church has missions, as well as into Arabic
for use in Syria.
Since the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom has become the normal liturgy
of the Greek Church, that of St. Basil is now used only on the Sundays of Lent
with the exception of Palm Sunday, on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday, on the
vigils of Christmas and of the Epiphany, and on the feast of St. Basil, which
in the Greek calendar occurs on the first day of January.
The liturgy may be divided into the Mass of the catechumens and the
Mass of the faithful. The first contains the prayers of the prothesis, of the
antiphons, of the little entrance, and of the trisagion, the lessons, and the
prayers of the ectenes and of the catechumens. The Mass of the faithful begins
with the two prayers of the faithful, and contains the prayer of the great entrance,
the prayers of the Offertory, which is expressly ascribed to St. Basil, the kiss
of peace, the Creed, and the Anaphora. The Anaphora proper, starting with the
Eucharistic Preface followed by the Sanctus, embraces the preparatory prayers
for the Consecration, the Consecration itself, the Epiclesis or invocation of
the Holy Ghost, the Great Intercession for the living and the dead, the Lord's
Prayer, the inclination, Elevation, Communion, thanksgiving, and dismissal.
J.F. Goggin, ed.
Transcribed by: W.G. Kofron
This extract is cited May 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
Born about 330; died 379. She was the eldest child of Basil and Elder
Emmelia, the granddaugher of St. Macrina the Elder, and the sister of the Cappadocian
Fathers, Sts. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa.
The last-mentioned has left us a biography of his sister in the form of a panegyric.
She received an excellent intellectual training, though one based
more on the study of the Holy Bible than on that of profane literature. When she
was but twelve years old, her father had already arranged a marriage for her with
a young advocate of excellent family. Soon afterwards, however, her affianced
husband died suddenly, and Macrina resolved to devote herself to a life of perpetual
virginity and the pursuit of Christian perfection.
She exercised great influence over the religious training of her younger
brothers, especially St. Peter, afterwards Bishop of Sebaste,
and through her St. Gregory received the greatest intellectual stimulation. On
the death of their father, Basil took her, with their mother, to a family estate
on the River Iris, in Pontus.
Here, with their servants and other companions, they led a life of retirement,
consecrating themselves to God. Strict asceticism, zealous meditation on the truths
of Christianity, and prayer were the chief concerns of this community. Not only
the brothers of St. Macrina but also St. Gregory of Nazianzus
and Eustathius of Sebaste
were associated with this pious circle and were there stimulated to make still
further advances towards Christian perfection. After the death of her mother Emmelia,
Macrina became the head of this community, in which the fruit of the earnest christian
life matured so gloriously.
On his return from a synod of Antioch,
towards the end of 379, Gregory of Nyssa
visited his deeply venerated sister, and found her grievously ill. In pious discourse
the brother and sister spoke of the life beyond and of the meeting in heaven.
Soon afterwards Macrina passed blissfully to her reward. Gregory composed a “Dialogue
on the Soul and Resurrection” (peri psyches kai anastaseos), treating of
his pious discourse with his dying sister. In this, Macrina appears as teacher,
and treats of the soul, death, the resurrection, and the restoration of all things.
Hence the title of the work, ta Makrinia.
Her feast is celebrated on 19 July.
J.P. Kirsch, ed.
Transcribed by: Joseph P. Thomas
This text is cited May 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
d. 250, feastday: December 16
Virgin and martyr, suffered during the persecution of Diocletian,
6 February, 311, at Caesarea in Cappadocia. She was brought before the prefect
Sapricius, tried, tortured, and sentenced to death. On her way to the place of
execution the pagan lawyer Theophilus said to her in mockery: "Bride of Christ,
send me some fruits from your bridegroom's garden." Before she was executed, she
sent him, by a six-year-old boy, her headdress which was found to be filled with
a heavenly fragrance of roses and fruits. Theophilus at once confessed himself
a Christian, was put on the rack, and suffered death. This is the oldest version
of the legend, which was later variously enlarged.
Dorothea is represented with an angel and a wreath of flowers. She
is regarded as the patroness of gardeners. On her feast trees are blessed in some
places. In the West she has been venerated since the seventh century.
Gabriel Meier, ed.
Transcribed by: Marcia L. Bellafiore
This text is cited May 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
d.c. 130, feastday: September 7
d. 362, feastday: April 9
d.c. 303, feastday: July 30
d.c. 275, feastday: September 2
d.c. 250, feastday: November 25
d. 824, feastday: April 3
d. 300, feastday: February 6
Hermit, born at Mutalaska near Caesarea in Cappadocia, 439; died in
his laura 5 December, 532.
He entered a Basilian monastery at the age of eight, came to Jerusalem
in 456, lived five years in a cavern as a disciple of St. Euthymius, and, after
spending some time in various monasteries, founded (483) the Laura Mar Sabe (restored
in 1840) in the gorges of the Cedron, southeast of Jerusalem. Because some of
his monks opposed his rule and demanded a priest as their abbot, Patriarch Salustius
of Jerusalem ordained him in 491 and appointed archimandrite of all the monasteries
in Palestine in 494. The
opposition continued and he withdrew to the new laura which he had built near
Thekoa.
A strenuous opponent of the Monophysites and the Origenists he tried
to influence the emperors against them by calling personally on Emperor Anastasius
at Constantinople in 511
and on Justinian in 531. His authorship of a regulation for Divine worship throughout
the year as well as his authorship of a monastic rule bearing the same title is
doubtful.
After him was named the Basilica of St. Sabas with its former monastery
on the Aventine at Rome. His feast is on 5 December.
Michael Ott, ed.
Transcribed by: Paul Soffing
This extract is cited May 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
Memorial 1 January. Born c.276 at Nazianzos, Cappadocia, Asia Minor. Death 374
Spent the first 50 years of his life as a pagan. Government official most of his adult life. Married to Saint Nonna, who converted him to Christianity in 325. Father of Gregory Nazianzen, Saint Caesar Nazianzen, and Saint Gorgonius. Bishop of Nazianos c.328. As bishop he became attached to an heretical Christian offshoot, but in 361 was brought back to the orthodox faith by his son Gregory. At age 94, he made younger Gregory his co-adjutor in Nazianos.
Gregorius Nazianzenus, the elder, was bishop of Nazianzus in Cappadocia for about forty-five years, A. D. 329--374, and father of the celebrated Gregory Nazianzen. He was a person of rank, and he held the highest magistracies in Nazianzus without increasing his fortune. In religion, he was originally a hypsistarian, a sect who derived their name from their acknowledgment of one supreme God (hupsistos), and whose religion seems, from what little is known of it, to have been a sort of compound of Judaism and Magianism with other elements. He was converted to Christianity by the efforts and prayers of his wife Nonna, aided by a miraculous dream, and by the teaching of certain bishops, who passed through Nazianzus, on their way to the council of Nicaea, A. D. 325. His baptism was marked by omens, which were soon fulfilled in his elevation to the see of Nazianzus, about A. D. 329. He governed well, and resisted Arianism. His eldest son, Gregory, was born after he became bishop. In 360 he was entrapped by the Arians, through his desire for peace, into the signature of the confession of Ariminum, an act which caused the orthodox monks of Nazianzus to form a violent party against him. The schism was healed by the aid of his son Gregory, and the old bishop made a renewed public confession of his orthodoxy, which satisfied his opponents, 363. In the year 370 he, with his son, used every effort to secure the elevation of Basil to the bishopric of Caesareia; indeed, the intemperate zeal of the two Gregories seems to have embittered the Arians against Basil. All the other events of his life, of any importance, are related in the next article. (Greg. Nazianz. Orat. xix.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
d.c. 375, feastday: December 9
SEVASTIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
The Catholic Encyclopedia
Feastday: November 27
d.c. 654, feastday: October 23
d.c. 315, feastday: November 2
Atticus, Patriarch of Constantinople (406-425), born at Sebaste in Armenia; died 425. He was educated in the vicinity of his native town by Macedonian monks, whose mode of life and errors he embraced. When still young he went to Constantinople, abjured his heretical tenets, and was raised to the priesthood. He and another ambitious priest, Arsacius, were the chief accusers of St. Chrysostom in the notorious Council of the Oak, which deposed (405) the holy patriarch. On the death (406) of the intruder Arsacius, he succeeded him in the See of Constantinople, and at first strove hard, with the help of the civil power, to detach the faithful from the communion of their lawful pastor. But finding that, even after the death of St. Chrysostom, they continued to avoid his own spiritual ministrations, he re-inserted the name of his holy predecessor in the diptychs of the churches. This change of attitude and his charity to the poor gradually made him less unpopular, and he at length managed to have himself recognized as patriarch by Innocent I. Intent upon enlarging the prerogatives of his see, he obtained from Theodosius the Younger two rescripts which placed Bithynia and Illyria under his jurisdiction. Rome resisted these encroachrments, and the rescripts, thanks to the intervention of Honorius, were recalled. Atticus in some measure atoned for his ambition and the irregularity of his promotion by his zeal in the cause of orthodoxy. He drove the Messalians from Pamphylia and his opposition to the Pelagians caused him to be praised by Celestine I as "a true successor of St. Chrysostom".
A.J.B. Vuibert, ed.
Transcribed by: Joseph P. Thomas
This text is cited Jan 2006 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
ANGYRA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Macarius of Ancyra, of which city he was metropolitan. Macarius lived in the earlier part of the fifteenth century, and was author of a work against the Latin church and its advocates, entitled Kata tes ton Latinon kakodoxias kai kata Barlaam kai Akindunon, Adxersus Maligna Latinorium Dogmata et contra Barlaam et Acindynum. The work is extant only in MS., but has been cited in several places by Allatius in his De Eccles. Occident. et Orient. perpet. Consensione. Allatits characterizes the work as trifling and full of absurdities; but Cave considers that the citations given by Allatius himself by no means justify his censure. (Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 1430; Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. vol. viii. p. 367.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KESSARIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Arethas, presbyter of Caesareia in Cappadocia, wrote a work "on the translation of St. Euthymius, patriarch of Constantinople". who died A. D. 911. The date of Arethas is therefore fixed at 920. (Oudinus, Comment. de Script. Eccles. ii., who, without sufficient reason, identifies the former Arethas with this writer.)
Arethas, the author of an epigram "On his own Sister" (epi tei idiai adelphei),
which is found in the Vatican MS. under the title of Aretha tou diakonou. If the
words added in the margin, gegonotos de kai archepiskopou Kaisaoeias Kappadokias,
may be taken as an authority, he was the same person as the Archbishop of Caesareia.
Gregorius, of Caesareia. Gregory lived about A. D. 940, at the Cappadocian Caesareia: he was a presbyter, apparently of the church there. He wrote, 1. Vita Sancti Gregorii Nazianzeni. A Latin version of this life (which is chiefly derived from notices in the works of Nazianzen himself) was made by Billius, and prefixed to his edition of the works of Nazianzen. Billius cites an ancient MS. in the library of St. Denis as an authority for the statement that a Latin version, which he characterises as barbarous, was made by a certain Anastasius, about A. D. 960; and considers that if this statement is correct, the authorship of the work must be ascribed to an earlier Gregory; but this inference seems hardly necessary. The version of Billius is given in the De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis, of Surius, Maii. Some of our authorities state that the Greek original is given in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, Maii, vol. ii. ; but this is a mistake, the piece given there is not the Life by Gregory, but an anonymous panegyric. The author of the Life wrote also, 2. Scholia in Orationes XVI. Nazianzeni, which are quoted by Elias of Crete; but the age of Elias himself, which is variously fixed from the sixth to the twelfth century, is too uncertain to aid in determining that of Gregory. 3. In Patres Nicaenos. This panegyric is given with a Latin version in the Novum Auctarium of Combefis, vol. ii., &c.; the Latin version is given by Lipomannus in his De Vitis Sanctorum; and by Surius in the De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis, 10 Julii. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. viii., vol. x.; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eunomius (Eunomios), was a native of Dacora, a village in Cappadocia, and a disciple
of the Arian Aetius, whose heretical opinions he adopted. He was, however, a man
of far greater talent and acquirements thin Aetius, and extended his views so
far, that he himself became the founder of a sect called the Eunomians or Anomoei,
because they not only denied the equality between the Father and the Son, but
even the similarity (homoiotes). Eunomius was at first a deacon at Antioch, and
in A. D. 360 he succeeded Eleusius as bishop of Cyzicus. But lie did not remain
long in the enjoyment of that post, for he was deposed in the same year by the
command of tile emperor Constantius, and expelled by tile inhabitants of Cyzicus
(Philostorg. ix. 5; Theodoret, ii. 27, 29; Socrat. iv. 7; Sozom. vi. 8). In the
reign of Julian and Jovian, Eunomius lived at Constantinople, and in the reign
of Valens, he resided in tle neighbourhood of Chalcedon, until lie was denounced
to the emperor for harbouring in his house the tyrant Procopius, in consequence
of which he was sent to Mauritania into exile. When, on his way thither, he had
reached Mursa in Illyricum, the emperor called him back. Theodosius the Great
afterwards exiled him to a place called Halmyris, in Moesia, on the Danube (Sozom.
vii. 17; Niceph. xii. 29). But being driven away from that place by the barbarians,
he was sent to Caesareia. Here, too, he met with no better reception; for, having
written against their bishop, Basilius, he was hated by the citizens of Caesareia.
At length, he was permitted to return to his native village of Dacora, where he
spent the remainder of his life, and died at an advanced age, about A. D. 394.
Eroptius Patricius ordered his body to be carried to Tyana, and there to be entrusted
to the care of the monks, in order that his disciples might not carry it to Constantinople,
and bury it in the same tomb with that of his teacher Aetius. His works were ordered
by imperial edicts to be destroyed. His contemporary, Philostorgius, who himself
was a Eunomian, praises Eunomius so much, that his whole ecclesiastical history
has not unjustly been called an encomium upon him. Philostorgius wrote, besides,
a separate encomium upon Eunomius, which, however, is lost. Photius (Bibl. Cod.
138), poet who gives an abridgment of Philostorgius, and Socrates (iv. 7) judge
less favourably of him; for they state that Eunomius spoke and wrote in a verbose
and inflated style, and that he constantly repeated the same things over again.
They further charge him with sophistry in his mode of arguing, and with ignorance
of the Scriptures. It should, however, be remembered that these charges are made
by his avowed enemies, such as Athanasius, Basilius the Grreat, Gregorius Nazianzenus,
Gregorius of Nyssa, Chrysostom, and others, who attacked him not only in their
general works on the history of the church, but in separate polemical treatises.
Eunomius wrote several works against the orthodox faith; and Rufinus
(H. E. i. 25) remarks that his arguments were held in such high esteem by his
followers, that they were set above the authority of the Scriptures. After his
death, edicts were repeatedly issued that his works should be destroyed (Philostorg.
xi. 5; Cod. Theod. xvi. 34), and hence most of his works themselves have not come
down to us, and all that is extant consists of what is quoted by his opponents
for the purpose of refutig him.
The following works are known to have been written by him:
1. A commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, in seven books, which is censured
by Socrates (iv. 7; comp. Suidas, s. v. Eunomios) for its verbose style and shallowness.
2. Epistles, of which Photius (Bibl. Cod. 138) read about forty, and in which
he found the same faults as in the other works of Eunomius; but Philostorgius
(x. 6; comp. Niceph. xii. 29) preferred them to his other writings.
3. An Exposition of Faith, which was laid before the emperor Theodosius at Constantinople
in A. D. 383, when several bishops were summoned to that city to make declarations
of their faith (Socrat. v. 10 ; Sozom. vii. 12). This little work is still extant,
and has been edited by Valesius in his notes on Socrates, and after him by Baluz
in the Nora Collect. The best edition is that of Ch. H. G. Rettberg, in his Marcelliana,
Gotting. 1794, Apologetikos, or a defence of his doctrines. This is tile famous
treatise of which Basilius wrote a refutation in five books, which accordingly
contain a great many extracts from the Apologeticus. The beginning and the epi
logue are printed in Cave's Hist. Lit. with a Latin translation; but the whole
is still extant, and was published in an English translatilon by W. Whiston, in
his Eunomianismus Redivivus, London, 1711. The Greek original bas never been published
entire. After the refutation of Basilius had appeared, Eunomius wrote, Apologias
Apologia, which, however, was not published till after his death. Like the Apologeticus,
it was attacked by several orthodox writers, whose works, except that of Gregorius
of Nyssa, have perished together with that of Eunomius.
Eunomianism, a phase of extreme Arianism prevalent amongst a section of Eastern
churchmen from about 350 until 381; as a sect it is not heard of after the middle
of the fifth century. The teaching of Arius was condemned by the Council of Nicaea,
and the word homoousion adopted as the touchstone of orthodoxy. The subsequent
history of the Arian history is the history of the endeavours of arianizing sympathizers
to get rid of the obnoxious word. The diplomacy of court intriguers forms the
dark background against which stand out Eusebians and Semi-Arians. Imperial influence
had been all-powerful too long in the official religion to allow imperial ingerence
in church affairs to cease with the imperial change of attitude towards Christianity.
That influence was exercised through the court prelates tinged with the fundamental
rationalism underlying Arianism. They skilfully avoided the real issue, represented
the whole affair as merely a question of the propriety of using particular terms,
and for a time deluded those who were unfamiliar with the metaphysics of the question.
St. Athanasius was represented as a political fire-brand whose watchword was homoousion.
The Emperor Constantius (337-361), to his great personal annoyance, was obliged
to allow Athanasius to return from his second exile (339-346) to Alexandria (31
October, 346). The lull which seemed to follow the return of Athanasius was due
to the political circumstances arising out of the disastrous Persian War and the
civil war against Maxentius; and it was not until the victory of Mount Seleucus
(13 August, 353) that the emperor's hands were freed.
In the meantime a new and more defiant Arian school was arising, impatient
of diplomacy, and less pliant to imperial dictation. It frankly returned to the
fullest expression of the errors of Arius, and sought to defend it on the rationalizing
basis of Aristotelean dialectics. The history of the new school coincides with
the life-history of Aetius and Eunomius. Aetius, its founder, successively a goldsmith,
physician, and grammarian, turned his attention to theology under Arian influences
at Antioch and Alexandria. Aristotle's categories henceforth formed the limits
of his knowledge, and the abuse of the syllogism his principal weapon. Ordained
deacon at Antioch in 350, he was deposed by Leontius and sought refuge at Alexandria,
where he found a disciple in Eunomius. Radical and uncompromising in their heretical
thinking, they asserted that in substance and in all else the Son is unlike the
Father: animoios, "unlike", became their watchword as against the homoousios of
the Orthodox, the homoiousios of the Semi-Arians, and the later homoios of the
Acacians. Hence the Arian extremists became known as Aetians, and later as Eunomians
and Anomoeans. Their doctrines were received favourably by Eudoxius of Antioch
and the Synod of Antioch in 358; but the formulation of their tenets produced
a reaction, and in the same year they were condemned by the Semi-Arians at Ancyra
and at the Third Synod of Sirmium, and the leaders were exiled for a short time
to Pepuza. They reappeared, however, at the Semi-Arian Synod of Seleucia (September,
359), where Acacius of Caesarea rejected the animoios and the triumph of the Homoeans
led to the exile of Aetius to Mopsuestia in Cilicia and later to Amblada in Pisidia.
After 360 the Anomoean Arians ceased to be formidable. Julian the Apostate (361-363)
allowed Aetius to return; he was rehabilitated in an Arian synod, and died c.370.
Meanwhile Eunomius, supported by his friend Eudoxius, transferred from Antioch
to Constantinople (January, 360), became Bishop of the Orthodox See of Cyzicus
in Mysia. His flock appealed to Constantius, who obliged Eudoxius to take action
against him. Deposed in his absence and banished, Eunomius founded a sect of his
own, ordained and consecrated some of his followers. Julian recalled both Aetius
and Eunomius, who acquired considerable importance in Constantinople. The Synod
of Antioch, 362, explicitly set forth the Anomoean doctrine that "the Son is in
all things unlike (kata panta anomoios) the Father, as well in will as in substance".
The death of Eudoxius in 370 marks the beginning of the end of Eunomianism. The
sectaries were excluded from the benefit of Gratian's edict of toleration (end
of 378), were directly condemned by the Council of Constantinople (381), and were
the objects of special repressive measures in addition to those directed against
Arians and heretics in general. Moreover, disruptive forces were at work within
the sect. Eunomius died about 395, and for all practical purposes the sect may
be said to have died with him.
The dogmatic system of Eunomius is characterized at once by its presumptuous
dialectics and its shallowness. His errors concerning Christ are founded upon
his erroneous theodicy, which involves the assertion that a God of simplicity
cannot be a God of mystery at all, for even man is as competent as God to comprehend
simplicity. Eunomius proclaims the absolute intelligibility of the Divine Essence:
"God knows no more of His own substance, than we do; nor is this more known to
Him, and less to us: but whatever we know about the Divine substance, that precisely
is known to God; on the other hand, whatever He knows, the same also you will
find without any difference in us" (Socrates, Hist. Eccl., IV, vii). Agennesia,
he maintains, perfectly expresses the Divine Essence: as the Unbegotten, God is
an absolutely simple being: an act of generation would involve a contradiction
of His essence, by introducing duality into the Godhead. The Father is agennetos,
the Son gennetos; hence, he held, there must be diversity of substance. The general
line of his sophistical reasoning against the Orthodox was as follows: You allow
agennesia to be a Divine attribute. Now the simplicity of God excludes all multiplicity
of attributes. Consequently agennesia is the only attribute which befits the Divine
nature, the only one therefore essential to Him. In other words, God is essentially
incapable of being begotten. Hence it is folly to speak of a God begotten, of
a Son of God. The one God, agennetos and anarchos, unbegotten and without beginning,
could not communicate His own substance, nor beget even a consubstantial Son;
consequently there could be no question of identity of substance (homoousios)
or of likeness of substance (homoiousios) between the Father and the Son. There
could be no essential resemblance (kat ousian), but at most a moral resemblance.
for the Son is a being drawn forth from nothing by the will of the Father, yet
superior to all Creation inasmuch as He alone was created by the One God to be
the Creator of the world. He does not share in the incommunicable Divine Essence
(ousia), but he does partake in the communicable Divine creative power (energeia),
and it is that partaking which constitutes the Son's Divinity and establishes
Him, as regards creation, in the position of Creator: and as the principle of
paternity in God is not the ousia but the energeia, the sense in which the term
Son of God may be used is clear.
The works of Eunomius are of less importance in themselves than in
the fact that they called forth the best efforts of St. Basil and St. Gregory
of Nyssa. His Commentary on the Romans and his letters have perished. His "Apologeticus"
(P.G., XXX, 835), written before 365, seeks to refute the Nicene teaching concerning
the coeternal and consubstantial Divinity of the Son. It is extremely obscure,
and has been frequently misunderstood. For example, Tillemont, VI, 501-516, needs
careful checking. It was against this work of Eunomius that St. Basil wrote his
"Adversus Eunomium" (Antirretikon) in five books. (It is clear, however, that
books IV and V are from another pen.) Eunomius retorted with his Apologia hyper
apologias (Defence of the Defence), written after the death of St. Basil (1 January,
379), wherein he does his best to defend more fully and by new arguments his teaching
concerning the nature of God. This work was elaborately refuted by St. Gregory
of Nyssa in his lengthy "Adversus Eunomium", of which some twelve books have come
down to us preserving the fragmentary remains of the Apologia, which are gathered
in Rettberg's "Marcelliana" (Gottingen, 1794, pp.124-147). A very full analysis
of it is found in Diekamp, "Gotteslehre des hl. Gregor von Nyssa" (1896), I, 123
sqq. The third extant work is his ekthesis pisteos, or "Confession of Faith",
presented by order to the Emperor Theodosius in 383. (See ARIANISM.)
Edward Myers, ed.
Transcribed by: Sean Hyland
This text is cited Dec 2005 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
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