Basil the Great was born in Cappadocia of Pagan parents. He had a brother called Gregory and a sister called Macrina. His mother got him involved in the Christian faith and he was baptized by Saint Gregory Nazianzen. He was educated at home and then later entered the catechetical school of Basil, where he became a monk and was ordained a deacon
Read more
He went to Constantinople where he met his friend Gregory of Nyssa and began to study theology. At some point he became a priest and eventually returned to Cappadocia. Basil was appointed bishop of Caesarea, but after only three months he retired from this office on account of poor health.
He seems to have had a strong sense of his own mission in life and used every means available to him to arrive at its realization: prayer, fasting, asceticism, and self-denial. He led an austere life and withdrew into solitude for 13 years in order that he might more effectively pray and fast for others. After retiring from his episcopate, he spent the last five years of his life in solitude again with only one attendant, his disciple Procopius.
In the last year of his life Basil wrote a great deal of material for his school which was held every evening from sunset to sunrise at the monastery. It is said that when he began writing it was too dark even for him to see what he was writing, but that when he completed it there were light enough for him to read by.