Basil

CONCERNING ST. BASIL, CONFESSOR, BISHOP OF CRETE, THEN OF THESSALONICA.

AROUND THE YEAR OF CHRIST 870.

Basil, Bishop of Crete and Thessalonica (Saint)

BY I. B.

[1] The Greek Menaea celebrate on February 1 the memory of our holy Father the Confessor Basil, Archbishop of Thessalonica, a native of Athens: nor do they relate more about him. Basil the Athenian, He was (as Nicetas, surnamed David, relates in the Life of St. Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, which, translated into Latin by our Rader and previously published with the Acts of the eighth Ecumenical Council, we shall give on October 23) previously a Bishop in Crete; a Bishop in Crete, but when the Agarenes invaded that island, he was transferred to Thessalonica. The Spanish Agarenes occupied Crete, as Zonaras in book 3, Cedrenus, John Caropalates, and others write, in the first years of Michael Balbus, when the greater part of his forces were engaged against Thomas, who was rebelling under the pretext of avenging the murder of Leo the Armenian. Balbus seized the empire in the year of Christ 820 on Christmas night, and held it for 8 years and 9 months. At which time, says Cedrenus, when it was occupied by the Saracens, he fled: Thomas began to stir up revolution. When news of the affair was spread in all directions, the Barbarians under the leadership of Apochapsus first ravaged various islands of the East with a prepared fleet and carried home splendid plunder: then, having thoroughly explored everything, they occupied Crete, stripped of its garrison, around the year 823, and laid it waste far and wide, with the exception of a single city, the inhabitants being partly slain and partly reduced to slavery: then, having overcome several generals of the Emperor, they inflicted enormous evils upon the whole East for many years.

[2] At that time, therefore, Basil the Bishop fled from Crete, perhaps with many of his people. He was not, however, immediately elevated to the throne of Thessalonica, nor before the year of Christ 841. For Leo the Philosopher, a pupil of the elder Michael Psellus, after Leo the Philosopher, the iconoclast was lavished with benefits by the Emperor Theophilus (who succeeded his parent Balbus in the month of October of the year 829, heir both to his empire and his impiety) upon learning of his remarkable erudition, and was ordered to teach publicly; afterward he was also designated Bishop of Thessalonica, as Zonaras writes. Cedrenus adds that this was done through the agency of the impious Patriarch John, who was commonly called Iannes, to whom Leo was related by blood. But when Theophilus died in the year 841, along with the other Iconoclasts, Leo was deprived of that dignity; and while he was living in leisure at Constantinople, he was engaged by Bardas, the uncle of Emperor Michael III, and brother of the empress St. Theodora, to teach philosophy. he becomes Bishop of Thessalonica: And so Basil appears to have been substituted, not by St. Ignatius the Patriarch, as Rader has it in his manuscript annotations to the Greek Menaea, but by St. Methodius the Confessor, who, after John was removed for heresy and crimes, governed the Church of Constantinople for four years, and finally had St. Ignatius as his successor.

[3] Michael, educated by his mother Theodora in all virtue, once he began to spurn her counsels the depraved morals of Michael III, through the cunning of Bardas the Caesar, gave himself over to foul pleasures, unseemly sports, and contempt for sacred things: he even thrust his mother and sisters into a convent after 14 years, lest his own profane folly should thenceforth be chastised by their examples and her reproaches. The Patriarch Ignatius also was cast into exile, who had forbidden Bardas from the sacraments on account of his incestuous relations with his daughter-in-law. Photius was substituted for him, a man distinguished indeed for learning, but by no praise of piety. Since he had occupied the throne of another who was still living, as it were a lawful marriage-bed, contrary to the laws of the Church, he did not dare to censure the vices of Michael and Bardas (about which we shall treat on February 11 in the Life of St. Theodora, and more fully on October 23 in that of St. Ignatius), by whose favor he had been elevated to that dignity.

[4] But the Bishop of Thessalonica, Basil, could not remain silent at these things. Nicetas commemorates his remarkable deed as follows: Not long afterward the sacred anniversary day of Christ's Ascension into heaven was being celebrated, when toward evening the earth began to tremble with such a quake as never before, nor did it cease the entire following night. already rebuked by portents, And a certain muffled sound and a great roaring from land and sea so broke the hearts of men with fear that they nearly melted. The column of Justinian also, torn from the knees, fell down. Then Basil, formerly Bishop of Crete, but transferred to Thessalonica when the Agarenes invaded Crete, not without bringing disgrace upon Photius, who then occupied the See of Constantinople, himself dared to approach Michael, and partly with the authority of an admonisher, he rebukes him with words, partly of a teacher, sought to dissuade him from such an impious and sacrilegious mimicry and mockery of sacred things; for he declared that thereby the wrath of the Godhead was kindled. Michael, most gravely offended by this reproof and nearly stunned, and is therefore most cruelly beaten: knocked out the teeth of the venerable old man to the roots with most atrocious blows, and so mangled his back with lashes that nothing closer came to pass than that he should breathe out his soul under the torments. About which the hireling shepherd was not at all concerned: nay, he himself gradually took delight in those same sacrileges, and was keeping company and feasting together with the impure actors and the boy. But those sports, jests, and their life were not to last long. Thus Nicetas. Baronius also cites these passages at the year 862, number 4.

[5] So great, moreover, was Basil's authority with Pope Nicholas, that in letter 8 he wished him and five other Bishops, three Hegumens or Abbots, and one monk, to be sent to him he is summoned by Pope Nicholas: he defends St. Ignatius. as legates on behalf of Ignatius; and he would admit no one of the other parties unless these had been sent. These indeed were those of whom Cedrenus writes thus: After much harassment, Bardas at length banishes Ignatius to Mytilene. Many other Bishops also were treated in the same way at that time, because they did not approve the proceedings; and they declared they would accept no other Patriarch, whatever the outcome. Zonaras and Caropalates report the same.