On the 1st of January, the Orthodox Church Commemorates Our Father Among the Saints BASIL THE GREAT, Archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia.

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

On the 1st of January, the Orthodox Church Commemorates Our Father
Among the Saints BASIL THE GREAT, Archbishop of Caesarea of
Cappadocia.

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of the Saint. First Tone

Thy sound hath gone forth into all the earth, which hath received thy
word. Thereby thou hast divinely taught the Faith; thou hast made
manifest the nature of all things that be; thou hast adorned the way of
man. O namesake of the royal priesthood, our righteous Father Basil,
intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Kontakion Hymn of the Saint. 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.

SAINT BASIL THE GREAT was born about the end of the year A.D. 329 in Caesarea of Cappadocia, to a family renowned for their learning and holiness. His parents’ names were Basil and Emilia. His mother Emilia (commemorated July 19) and his grandmother Macrina (January 14th) are Saints of the Church, together with all his brothers and sisters: Macrina, his elder sister (July 19th), Gregory of Nyssa (January 10th), Peter of Sevastia (January 9th), and Naucratius. Basil studied in Constantinople 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, 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 A.D. 370, when the bishop of his country reposed, he was elected to succeed to his episcopal 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 Holy Apostles. The Emperor Valens, and Modestos, the Eparch of the East, who were of one mind with the heretical 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 eery suffering for the sake of the Faith, showed himself to be a martyr by volition. Modestos, 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 ill, he asked Saint Basil to pray for him. The Saint promised that his son would be restored if Valens agreed to have him baptized by the Orthodox; Valens agreed, Basil prayed, the son was restored to health. But afterwards the Emperor had him baptized by heretical 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 Saint Basil was not banished. The truly Great Basil, spent with extreme ascetical practices and continual labors at the helm of the Church, departed to the Lord on the 1st January, in A.D. 379, at the age of forty-nine.

His writings are replete with wisdom and erudition, and with these gifts he set forth the doctrines concerning the mysteries both OF CREATION (his HEXAEMERON) and of the Holy Trinity (On the Holy Spirit). Because of the majesty and keenness of his eloquence, he is honored as "THE REVEALER OF HEAVENLY THINGS" and "the Great, Saint Basil." In the Office for his Feast, he is referred to AS A BEE OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, BRINGING HONEY TO THE FAITHFUL BUT STINGING THOSE IN HERESY. Many of the writings of this holy Father of the Church have survived–theological, apologetic, on asceticism, and on the holy Canons. There is also the Liturgy that bears his name. This Liturgy is celebrated TEN TIMES IN THE YEAR: on January 1st, on the Eves of Christmas and the Theophany, on every Sunday in the Great Fast (Lent) with the exception of Palm Sunday, and on the Thursday and Saturday in Holy and Great Week. Saint Basil is also celebrated on 30th of January with Saint Gregory the Theologian, and Saint John Chrysostomos. [Resources: The Great Horologion and The Prologue from Ochrid]

___________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
+Saint John Chrysostomos

With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George