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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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