Post #6042

With invincible constancy he always defended the Church against the Arians and Macedonians: the Holy Spirit in fact filled him with divine wisdom and intelligence, so that, writing against those who could no longer bear sound doctrine, he attacked the Arians who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, reaffirming the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father, and prepared the triumph of orthodoxy over the error of Macedonius, solidly establishing the Catholic dogma about the Holy Spirit. With miracles he bent the Arian emperor Valens so irritated against him that, despite his decision to send him into exile, he forced him to withdraw from his purpose. In fact, the chair on which Valens wanted to sit to extend the decree of exile against Basil broke. And of the three pens he took to write the decree of exile, none let the ink pass, and while he persisted in his intention to write the wicked decree, his enervated right hand became all trembling. Amazed therefore, Valens tore up the paper with both hands. The same night then that she had given herself to Basilio to deliberate, Valens's wife was tortured by stomach pains, and her only son fell seriously ill. Then frightened, recognizing his iniquity, he called for Basil, who as soon as he arrived, the boy began to get better; but Valens, having then called the heretics to see the boy, died shortly afterwards. He celebrated the divine mysteries so holy and majestically that witnessing them once, in the Epiphany of 372, the Aryan emperor Valens, his enemy, was stunned. He was of marvelous abstinence and continence; he was content with a single tunic: very diligent in the observance of the fast, assiduous in prayer, in which he often spent the whole night. He conserved perpetual virginity. He wrote the famous monastic rule that bears his name, which was praised by St. Benedict, and which is still observed today by the monks of the East. In fact, in the monasteries he founded, he thus regulated the life of the monks, which beautifully brought together the advantages of the life of solitude and action. He wrote many works full of erudition; and no one, according to Gregory Nazianzen, explained the books of Scripture with more fecundity and truth. He rested in peace in Caesarea of Cappadocia, on January 1, 379, and since he had lived only for the spirit, it seemed that his body had nothing but bones and skin. The Roman Church celebrates his feast on this day by remembering his ordination. Saint Pius V proclaimed him a Doctor of the Universal Church on September 20, 1568. He is one of the four great Doctors of the East.