St. Basil (330-379) | EAST - Eternal Christendom

(Updated July 12, 2025)

This Quote Archive collects pertinent quotes from the Church Father, St. Basil.

Next to each quote are the topic-based Quote Archives in which they are included.

This Quote Archive is being continuously updated as research continues.

Treatises

**St. Basil, An Ascetical Discourse and Exhortation on the Renunciation of the World and Spiritual Perfection (373)¹**

Homosexual and Gender-Confusing Behavior

If you are youthful in body or mind, fly from intimate association with comrades of your own age and run away from them as from fire. The Enemy has, indeed, set many aflame through such means and consigned them to the eternal fire, casting them down into that loathsome pit of the five cities [Gen. 10:19; Deut. 29:23] on the pretext of spiritual love. Even those who have come safely through every wind and tempest on the sea and are safe in port he has sent down into the deep, together with the ship and crew. At meals take a seat far away from your young brother; in lying down to rest, let not your garments be neighbor to his; rather, have an elderly brother lying between you. When a young brother converses with you or is opposite you in choir, make your response with your head bowed lest, perchance, by gazing fixedly into his face, the seed of desire be implanted in you by the wicked Sower and you reap sheaves 23 | 24 of corruption and ruin. At home or in a place where there is no witness of your actions, be not found in his company under the pretext of meditation on the Divine Words or for any other excuse, even the most urgent need; nothing is of greater urgency than the soul for whom Christ died. Do not believe the crafty argument which suggests to you that this is quite harmless thing to do, but be fully convinced, by the oft-repeated experience of those who have fallen and have clearly demonstrated it to be so, that it is of itself an offensive act.

**St. Basil, The Holy Spirit (c. 374)**

Apostolic Tradition | Ch. 27, §66; Ch. 29, §71
Purgatory | Ch. 29, §73

(Ch. 27, §66)

Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly enjoined which are preserved in the Church some we possess derived from written teaching; others we have received delivered to us in a mystery by the tradition of the apostles; and both of these in relation to true religion have the same force. And these no one will gainsay—no one, at all events, who is even moderately versed in the institutions of the Church. For were we to attempt to reject such customs as have no written authority, on the ground that the importance they possess is small, we should unintentionally injure the Gospel in its very vitals; or, rather, should make our public definition a mere phrase and nothing more.

(Ch. 29, §§71, 73)

(§71) In answer to the objection that the doxology in the form with the Spirit has no written authority, we maintain that if there is no other instance of that which is unwritten, then this must not be received. But if the greater number of our mysteries are admitted into our constitution without written authority, then, in company with the many others, let us receive this one. For I hold it apostolic to abide also by the unwritten traditions. “I praise you,” it is said, “that you remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you” (1 Cor. 11:2); and “Hold fast the traditions which you have been taught whether by word, or our Epistle” (2 Thess. 2:15). One of these traditions is the practice which is now before us, which they who ordained from the beginning, rooted firmly in the churches, delivering it to their successors, and its use through long custom advances pace by pace with time. If, as in a Court of Law, we were at a loss for documentary evidence, but were able to bring before you a large number of witnesses, would you not give your vote for our acquittal? I think so; for at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the matter be established [Deut. 19:15]. And if we could prove clearly to you that a long period of time was in our favor, should we not have seemed to you to urge with reason that this suit ought not to be brought into court against us? For ancient dogmas inspire a certain sense of awe, venerable as they are with a hoary antiquity. I will therefore give you a list of the supporters of the word (and the time too must be taken into account in relation to what passes unquestioned). For it did not originate with us. How could it? We, in comparison with the time during which this word has been in vogue, are, to use the words of Job, but of yesterday [Job 8:9]. I myself, if I must speak of what concerns me individually, cherish this phrase as a legacy left me by my fathers. It was delivered to me by one who spent a long life in the service of God, and by him I was both baptized, and admitted to the ministry of the church. While examining, so far as I could, if any of the blessed men of old used the words to which objection is now made, I found many worthy of credit both on account of their early date, and also a characteristic in which they are unlike the men of today—because of the exactness of their knowledge…

(§73) …And if any one knows the Hymn of Athenogenes, which, as he was hurrying on to his perfecting by fire, he left as a kind of farewell gift to his friends, he knows the mind of the martyrs as to the Spirit. On this head I shall say no more.

Letters

**St. Basil, Letter 125: Transcript of the Faith Dictated by St. Basil, and Subscribed to by Eustathius, Bishop of Sebasteia (373)**

The Papacy and the Invincibility of the Church | §1

(§1)

Both men whose minds have been preoccupied by a heterodox creed and now wish to change over to the congregation of the orthodox, and also those who are now for the first time desirous of being instructed in the doctrine of truth, must be taught the creed drawn up by the blessed fathers in the Council which met at Nicaea. The same training would also be exceedingly useful in the case of all who are under suspicion of being in a state of hostility to sound doctrine, and who by ingenious and plausible excuses keep the depravity of their sentiments out of view. For these too this creed is all that is needed. They will either get cured of their concealed unsoundness, or, by continuing to keep it concealed, will themselves bear the load of the sentence due to their dishonesty, and will provide us with an easy defense in the day of judgment, when the Lord will lift the cover from the hidden things of darkness, and “make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (1 Cor. 1:5). It is therefore desirable to receive them with the confession not only that they believe in the words put forth by our fathers at Nicaea, but also according to the sound meaning expressed by those words. For there are men who even in this creed pervert the word of truth, and wrest the meaning of the words in it to suit their own notions. So Marcellus, when expressing impious sentiments concerning the hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ, and describing Him as being Logos and nothing more, had the hardihood to profess to find a pretext for his principles in that creed by affixing an improper sense upon the Homoousion. Some, moreover, of the impious following of the Libyan Sabellius, who understand hypostasis and substance to be identical, derive ground for the establishment of their blasphemy from the same source, because of its having been written in the creed “if anyone says that the Son is of a different substance or hypostasis, the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes him.” But they did not there state hypostasis and substance to be identical. Had the words expressed one and the same meaning, what need of both? It is on the contrary clear that while by some it was denied that the Son was of the same substance with the Father, and some asserted that He was not of the substance and was of some other hypostasis, they thus condemned both opinions as outside that held by the Church.

**St. Basil, Letter 140: To the Church at Antioch (373)²**

Development of Doctrine

We believe these truths [in the Nicene Creed]. But, since the doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit was undefined, as at that time the Pneumatomachi [heretics of a sect founded by Macedonius] had not yet appeared, they [the Fathers of Nicaea] were silent as to the necessity of anathematizing those who say that the Holy Spirit is of a created and servile nature. For, absolutely nothing of the Divine and Blessed Trinity is created.

**St. Basil, Letter 159: To Eupaterius and His Daughter (373)³**

Development of Doctrine

Since the question which has at present arisen among those who are always attempting to make innovations [heretics], but which had been passed over in silence by the men of earlier times [i.e. the Fathers of Nicaea] because the doctrine was not contradicted, has been left unexplained (I mean, of course, that concerning the Holy Spirit), we are adding the explanation of it in conformity with the meaning of the Scriptures…

**St. Basil, Letter 164: To Ascholius, Bishop of Thessalonica (374)**⁴

Judas Within: Enduring Evil Within the One True Church

In fact, we ascribe to ourselves and our sins the blame for such extensive spreading of the power of the heretics. For, almost no part of the world has escaped the conflagration of heresy…But, what are our conditions? Charity has grown cold. The doctrine of the Fathers is being destroyed; shipwreck in the faith is frequent; the mouths of the pious are silent; people, driven from the houses of prayer, out in the open fields lift up their hands to the Lord in heaven. Truly, the afflictions are heavy, but nowhere is there martyrdom, because those who inflict the evils upon us have the same name as we do. For these reasons do you yourself beseech the Lord and join with you in prayer in behalf of the churches all the noble athletes of Christ, in order that, if some time still remains for the existence of the world, and all things are not being driven 325 | 326 together in the opposite direction [i.e. destruction], God, being reconciled to His churches, may lead them back again to the ancient peace.

**St. Basil, Letter 188: To Amphilochius, Concerning the Canons (374)**

Abortion | §§2, 8

(§§2, 8)⁵

(§2) She who has deliberately destroyed a fetus has to pay the penalty of murder. And there is no exact inquiry among us as to whether the fetus was formed or unformed. For, here it is not only the child to be born that is vindicated, but also the woman herself who made an attempt against 12 | 13 her own life, because usually the women die in such attempts. Furthermore, added to this is the destruction of the embryo, another murder, at least according to the intention of those who dare these things. Nevertheless, we should not prolong their penance until death, but should accept a term of ten years, and we should determine the treatment not by time, but by the manner of repentance… 13 | 19

(§8) …Moreover, those [women], too, who give drugs causing abortion are murderers themselves, as well as those receiving the poison which kills the fetus. These, then, are the explanations for such a matter.

**St. Basil, Letter 199: To Amphilochius, Concerning the Canons (375)**

(§§31, 37)

(§31) Clerics who are guilty of the sin unto death [1 John 5:16] are degraded from their order, but not excluded from the communion of the laity…

(§37) The man who marries after abducting another man’s wife will incur the charge of adultery for the first case; but for the second will go free.