The Greek text of the Life of Basil

One of the most significant figures of the Eastern Church, Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea (329–79), is remembered nowadays as the founder of monasticism and the author of the liturgy of the Christian Orthodox Church. Basil was born and died in Caesarea, Cappadocia (modern Turkey), a region which no longer exists politically, but which has maintained a strong identity and which held an important metropolitan role in the Middle Ages. During his lifetime, Basil was a very influential figure as a leader of the Eastern Church. After a brief period of asceticism, which more closely reflected his inclinations, Basil found himself involved in the struggle against the Arian heresy and its greatest supporter, the Emperor Valens (368–78). During his episcopacy (370–9), Basil turned the metropolitan see of Caesarea into a citadel of orthodoxy, bringing it honour, riches and power, while struggling to maintain its jurisdictional position after Valens’ division of Cappadocia into two provinces, Cappadocia Prima and Cappadocia Secunda. When Basil died, a plethora of biographical material was written in his honour, mostly in the form of encomia by his brother Gregory of Nyssa, by his close friend Gregory of Nazianzus and by Pseudo-Ephrem.

The surviving hagiographies depict Basil as a model of fortitude and determination, placing more emphasis on his leadership in the Church than on his importance as a theologian. The main Greek hagiography is also crowded with extravagant details: there is, for example, no evidence outside this text for the existence of a certain Eubolus, who appears as Basil's teacher and became Basil's pupil after their trip to Jerusalem, disappearing from the narrative after the first quarter of the text. In addition, the Greek hagiography also contains many anachronisms: the most glaring and interesting of these is perhaps the encounter between Basil and Julian the Apostate (emperor 361–3). According to the Greek text, at the time of this encounter Basil was already bishop of Caesarea, even though he only acquired this title upon the death of his predecessor Eusebius in 370.

The surviving Greek life of Basil (BHG 247–60, CPG 3253) was for a long time attributed to Amphilochius of Iconium (ca. 340–95), a contemporary and close friend of Basil, but it is now generally believed to have been compiled, anonymously, several centuries after the archbishop's death.