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About St. Basil
St. Macrina and
her husband suffered under the persecution of Maximinus Galerius
(305-314) and fled for the lives, living in the mountains and suffering
many privations, thereby making St. Macrina a Confessor of the Faith.
Their son, St. Basil the Elder, married St. Emmelia, the daughter of a
martyr, and among SS Basil the Elder and Emmelia's ten children were
St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Peter of Sebastea, St. Macrina the Younger,
and the man who wrote the homilies you are about to read: St. Basil the
Great, Doctor of the Church.
St. Basil was
born around A.D. 329, and died on January 1, 379. In between, he
studied first in Caesarea, later in Constantinople, and, finally, in
Athens. In Athens, he became fast friends with St. Gregory of
Nazianzus. This duo fought fiercely against the heresies rampant at
that time (especially Arianism) and, along with St. Basil's brother,
St. Gregory of Nyssa, became known as "The Three Cappadocians." St.
Basil became Bishop of Caesarea in 370, greatly influenced religious life in both the East and
West, is one of the thirty-three Doctors of the Church, and is one of
the very few Saints to be awarded the title of "The Great" -- others
being three Popes (SS. Leo I, Gregory I, and Nicholas I) and SS. Albert
("Albert Magnus") and Gertrude.
What follows are the nine homilies that make up his work known as "On
the Hexaemeron" ("Hexaemeron" means "the six days of Creation"):
On The Hexaemeron
Homily I: In the Beginning, God Created the
Heaven and the Earth
Homily II: The Earth was
Invisible and Unfinished
Homily III: On the
Firmament
Homily IV: Upon the
Gathering Together of the Waters
Homily V: The
Germination of the Earth
Homily VI: The Creation
of Luminous Bodies
Homily VII: The Creation
of Moving Creatures
Homily VIII: The
Creation of Fowl and Water Animals
Homily IX: The Creation
of Terrestrial Animals
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