ON ST. BASIL.
From the printed Menaea of the Greeks.
CommentaryBasil the Abbot, founder of the monastery at Deep River (S.)
J. P.
The anniversary memory of St. Basil is inscribed in the sacred Fasti of the Greek Menaea on the first day of July, in these words: "On the same day, of our holy Father Basil, who founded the monastery of Deep River": or "at the Deep Waters," as another renders this place into Latin. But both interpretations differ only in words. A brief notice of the same monastery recurs on the day XXVII September in the aforesaid Menaea, and it is called "of Christ the Savior, surnamed of the Deep River." The monastery of Christ the Savior, to which the surname of Deep River was given. A repeated mention of the same place is made on the 7th day of the aforesaid month, on occasion of St. Luke, who is said to have been there the third superior of the monastery. Further, in Constantine, in the life of his grandfather, number 41 of the Combefisian edition, that same place is indicated by the single word "Bathyrryax." Concerning the life, age, and the rest pertaining to St. Basil, I have nothing ascertained, except this one thing, that under his discipline the holy Abbot Ignatius was instructed in the study of the monastic life, who is honored among the Greeks on XXVII September, and "from infancy was consecrated to God by his parents like the sacred Samuel, and instructed in monastic strictness by the divine Basil the founder of the monastery." Consecrated to God by his parents from his earliest age like a second Samuel, and instructed in monastic discipline by St. Basil the founder of the monastery, then he presided as Superior over the aforesaid place, called of the Deep River. See the Menaea.