Letters and Selected Works (incl. Hexaemeron, De Spiritu Sancto)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Selection or partial work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~370,000 words · 1,744 passages
Cite this work
- APABasil of Caesarea. (n.d.). Letters and Selected Works (incl. Hexaemeron, De Spiritu Sancto). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/basil-of-caesarea/letters-and-selected-works-incl-hexaemeron-de-spiritu-sancto
- MLABasil of Caesarea. Letters and Selected Works (incl. Hexaemeron, De Spiritu Sancto). Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/basil-of-caesarea/letters-and-selected-works-incl-hexaemeron-de-spiritu-sancto.
- ChicagoBasil of Caesarea. Letters and Selected Works (incl. Hexaemeron, De Spiritu Sancto). Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/basil-of-caesarea/letters-and-selected-works-incl-hexaemeron-de-spiritu-sancto.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Basil's letters together with the Hexaemeron, the homilies on the six days of creation, and the treatise on the Holy Spirit.
Context and history
The Hexaemeron is nine homilies preached over a single Lent, and it shows: Basil stops to talk about fish, birds and trees with whatever the science of his day knew. On the Holy Spirit served to establish the divinity of the Spirit, which Nicaea had left undefined. And the letters, usually passed over, are among the best sources there are for how a fourth-century church actually worked.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
secured him immunity from rough usage without loss of popularity. At Athens the two young Cappadocians were noted among their contemporaries for three things: their diligence and success in work; their stainless and devout life; and their close mutual affection. Everything was common to them. They were as one soul. What formed the closest bond of union was their faith. God and their love of what is best made them one. Himerius, a pagan, and Prohaeresius, an Armenian Christian, are mentioned among the well — known professors whose classes Basil attended. Among early friendships, formed possibly during his university career, Basil's own letters name those with Terentius and Sophronius. If the Libanian correspondence be accepted as genuine, we may add Celsus, a pupil of Libanius, to the group. But if we except Basil's affection for Gregory of Nazianzus, of none of these intimacies is the interest so great as of that which is recorded to have been formed between Basil and the young prince Julian. One incident of the Athenian sojourn, which led to bitter consequences in after days, was the brief