Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

Christian womanhood. Of this happy union were born ten children, 9 five boys and five
girls. One of the boys appears to have died in infancy, for on the death of the elder Basil
four sons and five daughters were left to share the considerable wealth which he left behind
him. 10 Of the nine survivors the eldest was a daughter, named, after her grandmother,
Macrina. The eldest of the sons was Basil, the second Naucratius, and the third Gregory.
Peter, the youngest of the whole family, was born shortly before his father’s death. Of this
remarkable group the eldest is commemorated as Saint Macrina in the biography written
by her brother Gregory. Naucratius died in early manhood, 11 about the time of the ordination
of Basil as reader. The three remaining brothers occupied respectively the sees of
Cæsarea, Nyssa, and Sebasteia.
As to the date of St. Basil’s birth opinions have varied between 316 and 330. The later,
which is supported by Garnier, Tillemont, Maran, 12 Fessler, 13 and Böhringer, may probably
be accepted as approximately correct. 14 It is true that Basil calls himself an old man in 374, 15
but he was prematurely worn out with work and bad health, and to his friends wrote freely
and without concealment of his infirmities. There appears no reason to question the date
329 or 330.
Two cities, Cæsarea in Cappadocia and Neocæsarea in Pontus, have both been named
as his birthplace. There must be some amount of uncertainty on this point, from the fact
that no direct statement exists to clear it up, and that the word πατρίς was loosely employed
to mean not only place of birth, but place of residence and occupation. 16 Basil’s parents
had property and interests both in Pontus and Cappadocia and were as likely to be in the
9 Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 182.
10 Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. (xx.).
11 Ib. 181, 191.
12 329. Prudent Maran, the Ben. Ed. of Basil, was a Benedictine exiled for opposing the Bull Unigenitus.
†1762.
13 “Natus. c. 330.”
14 Gregory of Nazianzus, so called, was born during the episcopate of his father, Gregory, bishop of Nazianzus.
Gregory the elder died in 373, after holding the see forty-five years. The birth of Gregory the younger cannot
therefore be put before 328, and Basil was a little younger than his friend. (Greg. Naz., Ep. xxxiii.) But the birth
of Gregory in his father’s episcopate has naturally been contested. Vide D.C.B. ii. p. 748, and L. Montaut, Revue
Critique on Greg. of N. 1878.
15 Ep. clxii.
Parentage and Birth.
16 Gregory of Nazianzus calls Basil a Cappadocian in Ep. vi., and speaks of their both belonging to the same
πατρίς. In his Homily In Gordium martyrem, Basil mentions the adornment of Cæsarea as being his own ad-
ornment. In Epp. lxxvi. and xcvi. he calls Cappadocia his πατρίς. In Ep. lxxiv., Cæsarea. In Ep. li. it is doubtful
whether it is Pontus, whence he writes, which is his πατρίς, or Cæsarea, of which he is writing. In Ep. lxxxvii.
9
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