- The Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ
- In keeping with the Law of Moses, the
Savior's parents had Him circumcised eight days after His birth (see Luke ch. 2). On
this day, following Jewish custom, he received the name Jesus (Yeshua, a form of Joshua),
meaning "God saves." Thus, on this day, the Covenant of Moses was fulfilled and
brought to an end, and the Salvation of God's people was proclaimed to the world.
- Our Father among the Saints Basil the Great (379).
- In its services, the Church calls St
Basil a "bee of the Church of Christ": bringing the honey of divinely-inspired wisdom to
the faithful, stinging the uprisings of heresy. He was born in Cappadocia to a wealthy
and prominent family. Their worldly wealth, however, is as nothing compared to the
wealth of Saints that they have given to the Church: his parents St Basil the Elder and St
Emmelia; his sister St Macrina (July 19), the spiritual head of the family; and his
brothers St Gregory of Nyssa (January 10), and St Peter, future bishop of Sebaste
(January 9).
-
Inspired and tutored by his father, a renowned professor of rhetoric, the brilliant
Basil set out to master the secular learning and arts of his day, traveling to Athens,
where he studied alongside his life-long friend St Gregory of Nazianzus. When he
returned from his studies in 356, he found that his mother and his sister Macrina had
turned the family home into a convent, and that his brothers had also taken up the
monastic life nearby. Puffed up by his secular accomplishments, he at first resisted his
sister's pleas to take up a life devoted to God, but at last, through her prayers and
admonition, entered upon the ascetical life.
-
After traveling among the monks of Egypt, Palestine and Syria, he settled in
Cappadocia as a hermit, living in utter poverty and writing his ascetical homilies. A
monastic community steadily gathered around him, and for its good order St Basil
wrote his Rule, which is regarded as the charter of monasticism. (St Benedict in the
West was familiar with this Rule, and his own is modeled on it.)
-
In about 370 he was consecrated Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Even as
bishop, he continued to live without any possessions save a worn garment to cover
himself. At this time the Arian heresy was rending the Church, and it became St Basil's
lot to defend Orthodoxy in Sermons and writings, a task which he fulfilled with such
erudition and wisdom that he is called "Basil the Great." He reposed in peace in 379, at
the age of forty-nine.
source: http://www.abbamoses.com
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