Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia

Reading from the Synaxarion:

Saint Basil the Great was born about the end of the year 329 in
Caesarea of Cappadocia, to a family renowned for their learning and
holiness. His parents' names were Basil and Emily. His mother Emily
(commemorated July 19) and his grandmother Macrina (Jan. 14) are Saints of the
Church, together with all his brothers and sisters: Macrina, his elder
sister (July 19), Gregory of Nyssa (Jan. to), Peter of Sebastia (Jan.
9), and Naucratius. Basil studied in Constantnople under the sophist
Libanius, then in Athens, where also he formed a friendship with the young
Gregory, a fellow Cappadocian, later called "the Theologian." Through the
good influence of his sister Macrina (see July 19), he chose to
embrace the ascetical life, abandoning his worldly career. He visited the
monks in Egypt, in Palestine, in Syria, and in Mesopotamia, and upon
returning to Caesarea, he departed to a hermitage on the Iris River in
Pontus, not far from Annesi, where his mother and his sister Macrina were
already treading the path of the ascetical life; here he also wrote his
ascetical homilies.

About the year 370, when the bishop of his country reposed, he was
elected to succeed to his throne and was entrusted with the Church of
Christ, which he tended for eight years, living in voluntary poverty and
strict asceticism, having no other care than to defend holy Orthodoxy as
a worthy successor of the Apostles. The Emperor Valens, and
Modestus, the Eparch of the East, who were of one mind with the Arians,
tried with threats of exile and of torments to bend the Saint to their
own confession, because he was the bastion of Orthodoxy in all
Cappadocia, and preserved it from heresy when Arianism was at its strongest.
But he set all their malice at nought, and in his willingness to give
himself up to every suffering for the sake of the Faith, showed himself
to be a martyr by volition. Modestus, amazed at Basil's fearlessness
in his presence, said that no one had ever so spoken to him.
"Perhaps," answered the Saint, "you have never met a bishop before." The
Emperor Valens himself was almost won over by Basil's dignity and wisdom.
When Valens' son fell gravely sick, he asked Saint Basil to pray for
him. The Saint promised that his son would be restated if Valens
agreed to have him baptized by the Orthodox; Valens agreed, Basil
prayed, and the son was restored. But afterwards the Emperor had him
baptized by Arians, and the child died soon after. Later, Valens,
persuaded by his counsellors, decided to send the Saint into exile because
he would not accept the Arians into communion; but his pen broke
when he was signing the edict of banishment. He tried a second time
and a third, but the same thing happened, so that the Emperor was
filled with dread, and tore up the document, and Basil was not banished.
The truly great Basil, spent with extreme ascetical practices and
continual labours, at the helm of the church, departed to the Lord on the
1st of January, in 379. at the age of forty-nine.

His writings are replete with wisdom and erudition, and rich are
these gifts he set forth the doctrines concerning the mysteries both of
the creation (see his Hexaemeron) and of the Holy Trinity (see On the
Holy Spirit). Because of the majesty and keenness of his eloquence, he
is honoured as "the revealer of heavenly things" and "the Great."

Saint Basil is also celebrated on January 30th with Saint Gregory the
Theologian and Saint John Chrysostom.

Rest from labour.

Apolytikion in the First Tone
Your voice resounded throughout the world that received your word by
which, in godly manner, you taught dogma, clarified the nature of
beings, and set in order the character of people. Venerable father, Royal
Priesthood, intercede to Christ God to grant us great mercy.

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
For the Church art thou in truth a firm foundation, granting an
inviolate lordship unto all mortal men and sealing it with what thou hast
taught, O righteous Basil, revealer of heavenly things.