Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great, (330 -379) was the bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor (modern-day Kayseri, Turkey). St. Basil was born into the wealthy family of Basil the Elder, a famous rhetor, and Emmelia of Caesarea. His parents were known for their piety, and his maternal grandfather was a Christian martyr, executed in the years prior to Constantine I's conversion. The principal theological writings of Basil are his "De Spirity Sancto (On the Holy Spirit)," a lucid and edifying ...
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Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great, (330 -379) was the bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor (modern-day Kayseri, Turkey). St. Basil was born into the wealthy family of Basil the Elder, a famous rhetor, and Emmelia of Caesarea. His parents were known for their piety, and his maternal grandfather was a Christian martyr, executed in the years prior to Constantine I's conversion. The principal theological writings of Basil are his "De Spirity Sancto (On the Holy Spirit)," a lucid and edifying appeal to Scripture and early Christian tradition (to prove the divinity of the Holy Spirit), and his "Refutation of the Apology of the Impious Eunomius," written in 363 or 364, three books against Eunomius of Cyzicus, the chief exponent of Anomoian Arianism. The first three books of the "Refutation" are his work; the fourth and fifth books that are usually included do not belong to Basil, or to Apollinaris of Laodicea, but probably to Didymus "the Blind" of Alexandria.
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