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St Basil

"ST. BASIL was born in Pontus, of holy parents; under whose care he had received such principles of virtue, that being sent to study at Athens, where the youths were very corrupt, he was proof against all their bad example. By seeking the company of such as were good, especially of St. Gregory Nazianzen, he still preserved a holy innocence amidst a general depravity. Being there improved in learning, he retired into a solitude; where having spent some years in the practice of prayer and great austerities, and laid the foundation of a religious Order of Monks, he was called forth to preach the Gospel to the people of Cæsarea in Pontus. There, with great zeal and success, he opposed the errors of Arius; and the bishop dying, he was chosen in his place. Here it was that God tried His servant by a persecution, not only of the Arian Emperor Valens, but of many religious men, and several bishops. But God, by miracle, gave him victory over the emperor; and by his learned apologies, and the assistance of St. Ambrose and St. Gregory, he was vindicated from all aspersions. After a life of almost continual prayer, rigorous fasting and extraordinary mortification, having been always of a very infirm disposition, and now nothing but skin and bones, he died in the year 379.

Pray for all those, who in their younger years are exposed to the danger of evil conversation. There is no security but by St. Basil's method in the choice of company. Pray for all prelates and pastors; that in zeal and holiness they may follow the example of this saint, and not be discouraged by whatever persecution is raised against them. Pray for the penitential spirit of this saint; who notwithstanding the infirmities of a weak body, yet lived in the practice of almost continual labour and mortification. Examine yourself on this point; and see if you are not too favourable in dispensing with whatever mortifies. How bold are you in venturing your health in matters of pleasure and pastime! But if half the danger appears in points of duty, or penance, your health must not be exposed. There is but too much of this partiality in the world." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

• "The doctrines of Godliness are overturned; the rules of the Church are in confusion; the ambition of the unprincipled seizes upon places of authority; and the chief seat is now openly proposed as a reward for impiety; so that he whose blasphemies are the more shocking, is more eligible for the oversight of the people. Priestly gravity has perished; there are none left to feed the Lordʼs flock with knowledge; ambitious men are ever spending, in purposes of self-indulgence and bribery, possessions which they hold in trust for the poor. The accurate observation of the canons are no more; there is no restraint upon sin.
  Unbelievers laugh at what they see, and the weak are unsettled; faith is doubtful, ignorance is poured over their souls, because the adulterators of the word in wickedness imitate the truth. Religious people keep silence, but every blaspheming tongue is let loose. Sacred things are profaned; those of the laity who are sound in faith avoid the places of worship, as schools of impiety, and raise their hands in solitude with groans and tears to the Lord in heaven."  Source: St. Basil the Great, The Church of the Fathers, John Henry Newman 1868

• "The ambition of men, who have no fear of God, rushes into high posts, and exalted office is now publicly known as the prize of impiety. The result is, that the worse a man blasphemes, the fitter the people think him to be a bishop. Clerical dignity is a thing of the past. There is a complete lack of men shepherding the Lord's flock with knowledge. Ambitious men are constantly throwing away the provision for the poor on their own enjoyment and the distribution of gifts. There is no precise knowledge of canons. There is complete immunity in sinning; for when men have been placed in office by the favour of men, they are obliged to return the favour by continually showing indulgence to offenders. Just judgment is a thing of the past; and everyone walks according to his heart's desire. Vice knows no bounds; the people know no restraint. Men in authority are afraid to speak, for those who have reached power by human interest are the slaves of those to whom they owe their advancement. And now the very vindication of orthodoxy is looked upon in some quarters as an opportunity for mutual attack; and men conceal their private ill-will and pretend that their hostility is all for the sake of the truth. Others, afraid of being convicted of disgraceful crimes, madden the people into fratricidal quarrels, that their own doings may be unnoticed in the general distress. Hence the war admits of no truce, for the doers of ill deeds are afraid of a peace, as being likely to lift the veil from their secret infamy. All the while unbelievers laugh; men of weak faith are shaken; faith is uncertain; souls are drenched in ignorance, because adulterators of the word imitate the truth. The mouths of true believers are dumb, while every blasphemous tongue wags free; holy things are trodden under foot; the better laity shun the churches as schools of impiety; and lift their hands in the deserts with sighs and tears to their Lord in heaven. Even you must have heard what is going on in most of our cities, how our people with wives and children and even our old men stream out before the walls, and offer their prayers in the open air, putting up with all the inconvenience of the weather with great patience, and waiting for help from the Lord.
  
  3. What lamentation can match these woes? What springs of tears are sufficient for them? While, then, some men do seem to stand, while yet a trace of the old state of things is left, before utter shipwreck comes upon the Churches, hasten to us, hasten to us now, true brothers, we implore you; on our knees we implore you, hold out a helping hand. May your brotherly bowels be moved toward us; may tears of sympathy flow; do not see, unmoved, half the empire swallowed up by error; do not let the light of the faith be put out in the place where it shone first." Source: ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To the Italians and Gauls. letter 92
  
  

•    St. Peter Damian wrote to Pope Leo IX in 1049 Of Clerics or Monks Who Are Seducers of Men (Letter31) He quotes Basil the Great (329-379):

  “Any cleric or monk who seduces young men or boys, or who is apprehended in kissing or in any shameful situation, shall be publically flogged and shall lose his clerical tonsure. Thus shorn, he shall be disgraced by spitting into his face, bound in iron chains, wasted by six months of close confinement, and for three days each week put on barley bread given him toward evening. Following this period, he shall spend a further six months living in a small segregated courtyard in the custody of a spiritual elder, kept busy with manual labor and prayer, subjugated to vigils and prayers, forced to walk at all times in the company of two spiritual brothers, never again allowed to associate with young men for purposes of improper conversation or advice.”