Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 8 (Basil: Letters and Select Works)

to mean not only place of birth but place of residence and occupation. Basil's parents had property and interests both in Pontus and Cappadocia, and were as likely to be in the one as in the other. The early statement of Gregory of Nazianzus has been held to have weight, inasmuch as he speaks of Basil as a Cappadocian like himself before there was any reason other than birth for associating him with this province. Assenting, then, to the considerations which have been held to afford reasonable ground for assigning Cæsarea as the birthplace, we may adopt the popular estimation of Basil as one of "The Three Cappadocians," and congratulate Cappadocia on the Christian associations which have rescued her reputation from the slur of the epigram which described her as constituting, with Crete and Cilicia, a trinity of unsatisfactoriness. Original: "Καππάδοκες, Κρῆτες, Κίλικες, τρία κάππα κάκιστα" (Cappadocians, Cretans, Cilicians, three "K"s, the worst of men). Basil's birth nearly synchronizes with the transference of the chief seat of empire from Rome to Byzantium. He was born into a world where the victory already achieved by the Church had been officially recognized for sixteen years. He was born into a Church in which the first great Council The Council of Nicaea, 325 AD. had already given official expression to those cardinal doctrines of the faith, of which the final and formal vindication was not to be assured until after the struggles of the next 120 years. Rome, reduced civilly to the subordinate rank of a provincial city, was pausing before she realized all her loss, waiting for the crowning outrage of the barbarian invasions before beginning to make serious efforts to grasp, ecclesiastically, something of her lost imperial prestige. For a time, the center of ecclesiastical and theological interest was to be in the East rather than the West.

II. — EDUCATION.

The place most closely connected with St. Basil's early years is neither Cæsarea nor Neocæsarea, but an insignificant village not far from the latter place, where he was brought up by his admirable grandmother, Macrina. In this neighborhood his family had considerable property, and here he afterwards resided. The estate was at Annesi, on the river Iris (Jekil-Irmak), and lay in a landscape of romantic beauty. Basil's own description of his retreat on the opposite side of the Iris matches the reference of Gregory of Nazianzus to the narrow glen among lofty mountains, which keep it always in shadow and darkness, while far below, the river foams and roars in its narrow, precipitous bed.

There is some difficulty in understanding the statement of Basil in Letter 216, that the house of his brother Peter—which he visited in 375 and which we may assume to have been on the family property—was "not far from Neocæsarea." As a matter of fact, the Iris nowhere winds nearer to Neocæsarea than at a distance of about twenty miles, and Turkhal is not at the nearest point. But it is a question of degree. Relative to Cæsarea, Basil's usual place of residence, Annesi is near Neocæsarea. An analogy would be found in the statement of a writer usually residing in London, that if he came to Sheffield he would be "not far from Doncaster."

At Annesi his mother Emmelia erected a chapel in honor of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, to which their relics were translated. It is possible that Basil was present at the ceremony.