Saint Basil the Great
by VP
Posted on Wednesday June 14, 2023 at 09:26AM in Saints
Pd
"The good fight of the Lord: St. Basil, bishop of Caesarea, maintained, single-handed, the combat of the faith against the emperor Valens, the ardent partisan of Arianism. Although deserted by a great number of his colleagues, he did not lose heart; and though but freely seconded by those who remained faithful to him, he put himself in the foremost rank, in order to shield them with his protection. Having been first solicited and afterwards threatened by Modestus, the praetorian prefect, "What would you have, and what are your expectations?" he asked, "to lure me by the enticements of riches and dignities? these I despise. To drive me into exile? What matters it? To consign me to death? So much the better; I shall the sooner be with God!" "Never have I been spoken to thus," exclaimed Modestus. "That is because you have never had to deal with a bishop," replied Basil. Modestus went to give in his report to Valens, saying, " We are conquered." The emperor signed the sentence of exile; but his eldest son having been struck with sudden illness, he forthwith sent for Basil, who prayed for the child and cured it. The struggle did not terminate here, for heresy is as tenacious as faith is unbending; there was no further question of exiling him, however, and Basil died in peace in 379.
Moral Reflection: The combat is painful, but it is consolatory to die, saying, with St. Paul, "I have fought the good fight, and now I await the crown. " (2 Tim. 4. 7.)
Pictorial half hours with the saints By Auguste François Lecanu
