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Ascetic Discourse

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Chapter 1

Man was made after the image and likeness of God. But sin destroyed the beauty of the image, dragging his soul into passionate desires. Now God, Who made man, is the true life. So when man lost his likeness to God he lost his kinship with life, and it is impossible for him who is outside God to live a happy life. Let us then return to the original grace, from which we were alienated by sin. And let us adorn ourselves once more after the image of God, being made like the Creator by freedom from passions.² For he that has imitated in his own life, so far as is possible, the passionless character of the divine nature has restored in his soul the image of God. And he that has been made like unto God in the aforesaid manner has also attained completely the likeness of the divine life, abiding for ever in the eternal blessedness. If then through freedom from passions we have regained the image of God, and the likeness to God imparts to us never-ending life, let us neglect all else and devote ourselves to this object, so that our soul may never again be mastered by any passion, but that our mind may abide stedfast and unconquerable in all assaults of temptations, that we may become partakers of the divine blessedness.

Now virginity is a help to such devotion, for those who pursue this gift in a spiritual manner.³ For the mere refusal to produce children does not constitute the gift of virginity. On the contrary, the whole of one’s life and character must be virgin, showing the incorruption of the virgin in every action. For it is possible to commit fornication in word, and adultery with the eye; to be polluted by hearing, and receive uncleanness in the heart; and by reckless eating and drinking to pass the bounds of continence. He that in all these matters keeps himself in continence within the rule of virginity verily displays the grace of virginity in every way perfected within him.

Therefore if we really desire our soul’s character to be adorned after the likeness of God through freedom from passion, in order that thereby eternal life may be our portion, let us take heed to ourselves, lest doing anything unworthy of the promise we incur the condemnation of Ananias.⁴ For Ananias would have been justified, to begin with, in not promising his property to God. But when looking to human applause he consecrated it by a promise to God, that he might be admired by men for his munificence, and then held back part of the price, he aroused such anger of the Lord, Whose minister Peter was, against himself that he even found no space for repentance. Accordingly before professing the religious life it is allowable for him who desires, according to what is conceded and legitimate, to follow the usual course and give himself to matrimonial intercourse.

But when a man has already made his profession he must keep himself for God like some holy votive-offering, lest he incur the guilt of sacrilege⁵ by defiling again by the usages of ordinary life⁶ the body that has been consecrated to God by a solemn promise. In saying this I am not looking at one form of vice only, as some do, who keep the virtue of virginity by watchfulness over the body only; but I am thinking of every form of vicious disposition, and insisting that he who would keep himself for God must be defiled by none of the vices of the world. Anger, jealousy, revengefulness, falsehood, arrogance, uncontrolled thoughts, inopportune talk, slackness in prayer, desire for the things that have no real existence, neglect of commandments, ornamenting of clothes, beautifying of the face, meetings and conversations beyond what is fitting and necessary—all these require so much watchfulness on the part of him who has dedicated himself to God in virginity that the danger of falling into one of these is well-nigh as great as that of committing the forbidden sin.⁷ For every vicious action damages in a measure the purity of the soul and hinders the divine life. To these matters then must he look that has renounced the world, that he pollute in no way by v. ‘ou. usac: -imself, that is, God’s vessel. Especially must he cons: ih -.it, that the man who has chosen the life of angels has passea.e confines of human nature and crossed over to the bodiless state⁸ For this is the mark of the angelic nature, to be free from matrimonial intercourse and to think of no other beauty, but to gaze continually on the face of God. So he that has passed over to the order of angels, if he be defiled with human vices, is like a leopard’s skin, the hair of which is neither completely white nor wholly black, but, mottled with a mixture of divers colours, is numbered neither among the black nor the white. This then is a general exhortation to those who have chosen the continent and holy life.⁹ But as accurate instructions on particular points are required, it is necessary also to give a few brief notes concerning them.

Those who have separated themselves from the common life¹⁰ and are training themselves for the divine life must not do so by themselves or without help. For such a life should have witnesses, so as to be free from evil suspicion. For just as the spiritual law requires that they who eat the mystic passover shall be not less than twelve;¹¹ so here the decad of those who practise together the spiritual life should be increased rather than lessened. Let one man preside as ruler over this decorous life, preferred above the rest after testing of his life and character and well-ordered conversation, and let regard be had to his age as a factor in deciding whether he have the honour. For it is natural for men to pay greater respect to elder men. Let him have such great authority, the brethren rendering willing obedience with all docility and humility, that it be allowable to no man in the convent¹² to resist his will, when he orders anything that conduces to a well-ordered and disciplined life. But, as the apostle says that we must not resist the powers ordained by God, for they that resist the commandments of God are condemned,¹³ so also here the rest of the brethren should be persuaded that such power has been given to the ruler, not arbitrarily, but by the divine will, so that progress as God would have it may be unhindered, while he commands whatever is helpful and salutary and they receive his good counsels with docility. Since then it befits the convent to be in every respect docile and obedient towards the Superior,¹⁴ it is before all things necessary that he who is chosen as leader¹⁵ of this life should possess such a character that his life may be an example of every good thing to those that gaze upon it; that he be, as the apostle says, “temperate, sober-minded, orderly, apt to teach.”¹⁶ So I think it necessary to investigate his life and see not only whether he is old in years, for it is possible to have a juvenile character along with gray hairs and wrinkles, but especially whether his character and manners have grown old in decorous fashion, so that all he says and does may be a law and a rule to the convent.¹⁷

As regards food, it is fitting that such as practise this life should keep to the method which the apostle teaches, and working with their hands eat their bread honestly.¹⁸” The work should be performed under the superintendence of an elderly man, of good repute for gravity of life, who will arrange their manual labour in accordance with requirements, in such a way that the command is observed which bids us win our food with sweat and toil,¹⁹ and behaviour remains irreproachable, in that the brethren are never compelled to court publicity in order to satisfy the needs of life. Let this be the best rule and method of continence, to aim neither at luxury nor ill-usage of the flesh, but in both directions to avoid excess, that the flesh be neither troubled by stoutness nor becoming diseased be unable to keep the commandments.²⁰ For by both extremes equal harm is done to the soul, both when the flesh becomes unruly and through fulness of habit runs off into wrong courses and when it is oppressed by sufferings and becomes relaxed and feeble and sluggish. For in such a state of body the soul has no leisure to gaze with freedom upon higher things, but it is perforce pre-occupied with the sensation of pain and dwells upon it, depressed in sympathy with the ill-usage of the body.

Let then the use made of things correspond to the need of them, and let wine²¹ be neither abominated, if it be employed for curative purposes, nor procured unnecessarily. And let all other things in the same way serve not the desires but the needs of the ascetics. The whole of life should be a season of prayer. But since it is absolutely necessary to break the constant round of psalmody and kneeling by certain intervals one must follow the hours of prayer enjoined by the Saints. The great David says: “At midnight I arose to give thanks to thee because of thy righteous judgments.”²² We find Paul and Silas also following this rule when they praised God in the prison at midnight.²³ The same prophet says: “In the evening and in the morning and at noon-day.”²⁴ Moreover, the coming of the Holy Spirit took place at the third hour, as we have learned from the Acts; when the Pharisees mock at the disciples because of the manifold operations of the tongues, Peter says that those who speak thus are not drunk, for it is the third hour.²⁵ Then the ninth hour commemorates the Lord’s passion, which took place that we might live. But as David says: ‘Seven times in the day did I praise thee, because of thy righteous judgments,”²⁶ and the times of prayer mentioned do not complete the seven hours of prayer, we must divide the mid-day prayer and say part before and part after taking food: so that in the whole course of the day we may accomplish typically the sevenfold daily praise of God.²⁷

The gates of the monasteries²⁸ must be closed to women; and all men must not enter, only those whom the Superior²⁹ permits. For promiscuous visits often produce untimely conversations and useless gossip, and from foolish talk lead on to foolish and useless thoughts. And let this therefore be the common rule that, when conversation is necessary, the Superior alone be asked questions and give answers; and that the others do not answer when visitors engage them in frivolous conversation, lest they be led away in pursuit of idle talk.

Let all have a common store-cupboard, and let no man call anything his own, neither cloak, nor shoes, nor anything else that is necessary for the body. But let the Superior’s authority decide the use to be made of these things, and the assignment of them from the common stock according to the needs of each, as the leader³⁰ ordains. The law of love does not allow particular friendships and companionships in this common dwelling.³¹ For it is inevitable that particular affections should injure greatly the common harmony. As things are, it is fitting that all should look at one another with an equal degree of feeling and have one standard of love for all the company.³² But if anyone be found to have greater feelings of affection towards a monk that is a brother, or a kinsman, or no relation, however plausible his excuse, let him be chastened as an injurer of the commonweal. For excessive affection towards one person plainly shows a corresponding deficiency as regards others. Let the punishments of him who is condemned for any fault be suited to the measure of his sin: to be prevented from taking part in psalmody, to be excluded from the common prayers, or from participation in meals; wherein the monk who is entrusted with the oversight of discipline will assign the punishment in proportion to the greatness of the fault.

Let the service of the whole convent³³ be taken in rotation, two monks in succession for a week at a time performing all the work that need requires, that both the reward of humility may be shared by all and that no one be allowed to overreach the rest of the monks even in doing a good work, and that all may have rest equally. For periodical intervals of toil and rest make the weary no longer feel their toil. The Superior of the company has the power both to order those whom he thinks suitable to take necessary journeys and to bid those for whom it is best so to do to keep at home and abide within the house. For it often happens when men’s bodies are young, however zealously the hardships of continence are embraced, that the beauty inseparable from youth blooms, so to speak, and becomes an occasion of sin to those that meet them. So if anyone is young in respect of bodily bloom, let him hide such beauty and keep it out of sight, until his appearance reaches a fitting state.

Let there be no sign of anger, unforgivingness, jealousy or contention among the monks; no gesture, movement, word, look, expression, or anything of the kind, calculated to stir a companion to wrath. But if any should be guilty of any one of these, that he has experienced something to annoy him is not sufficient to excuse the sin into which he has fallen. For wrong is equally wrong whenever it is perpetrated. Every form of oath³⁴ must be excluded from the ranks of the ascetics. But let a nod of the head and a verbal assent be counted as an oath, both by the speaker and the listener. If any man believe not a bare asseveration, he condemns his own conscience, showing that he has not maintained truthfulness in conversation, and he will be accordingly reckoned among the wrong-doers by the Superior and chastened by a salutary punishment. When the day is over and all work, both bodily and spiritual, has come to an end, before going to rest it is fitting that each man’s conscience be examined by his own heart. And if anything wrong has happened, forbidden thoughts, or conversation beyond what is fitting, or slackness in prayer, or inattention in psalmody, or desire for the life of the world,³⁵ let the sin not be hidden, but told to the brethren,³⁶ that the fault of him who has done such wrong be healed by the prayers of all.³⁷

Notes

Eiusdem sermo asceticus (τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγος ἀσκητικός).
ἀπαθείας. This word became suspect at the time of the Pelagian controversy. Previously writers used it unsuspiciously. The conception of ἀπάθεια as a Christian virtue is alien to modern ideas. It was the characteristic quality of the Stoic σοφός. The present passage shows how naturally the idea arose in Christian minds. Sin drags man, made in God’s image, into passionate (ἐμπαθεῖς) desires, and destroys the divine image in him. God is ἀπαθής, therefore the restoration of His image in man involves the attainment of ἀπάθεια. Virginity is represented as a help in its attainment, no more (see below).
κατὰ λόγον, cf. 1 Peter ii 2, where λογικός is best translated “spiritual.”
Acts v.
Cf. F. 14; and on the whole subject of B.’s teaching on vows see Clarke, p. 107 f.
τοῦ κοινοῦ βίου, see below.
i.e. of unchastity.
This seems to imply the later monastic title Ἀσώματοι.
τὸν ἐγκρατῆ καὶ ἁγνὸν βίον = τὸν τῶν ἀγγέλων βίον above. On “the angelic life” see Hörmann, Untersuchungen zur griech. Laienbeicht, pp. 62–65. As this passage is the earliest he quotes for the phrase and this homily is on other grounds to be pronounced non-Basilian, its occurrence here and in De Ren. is an additional argument against their genuineness.
τοῦ κοινοῦ βίου. It is most improbable that the author of F. 7 (where however B. calls life in the coenobium ὁ κοινωνικὸς βίος) called life in the world ὁ κοινὸς βίος.
Or ten, a reading which Garnier prefers, remarking that it is obviously right since ten follows as the minimum number for a convent. But “spiritual” and “mystic” clearly refer to the Last Supper, which twelve ate with Christ. I conclude that twelve is the right reading and a scribe altered it to ten, influenced by “decad” below. Cf. the Jewish custom of having at least ten for the passover, Jos. B.J. VI. ix. 3. On this interpretation the writer finds ten the minimum number; he advocates its being raised to twelve at least. A fully organised Basilian monastery must have been considerably larger.
συνοδίᾳ, not used in the Rules.
Rom. xiii. 1; 2 ¶.
τῷ προεστῶτι.
καθηγούμενον, not of Superior in Rules.
1 Tim. iii. 2 †.
συνοδίᾳ.
2 Thess. iii. 12 ¶.
Gen. iii. 19.
Thoroughly Basilian in spirit.
The use of wine “for the stomach’s sake” only is recommended in F.19. Cf. B.’s first Homily on Fasting, where wine is discussed at great length.
Ps. cxix. 62.
See Acts xvi. 25.
Ps. lv. 17.
Acts ii. 15 ¶.
Ps. cxix. 164.
The seven hours are Midnight, Dawn, 9 A.M., before and after the midday meal, 3 P.M., and evening. This scheme is irreconcileable with the eight-fold system of F. 37.
τῶν ἀσκητηρίων. Here and 326B, not in Rules; found in Greg. Naz. Or. xliii. 62 of B.’s monasteries.
τοῦ καθηγουμένου, and twice below.
τοῦ προηγουμένου.
συσχηνίᾳ.
πληρώματος.
συνοδίᾳ.
No allusion, as the context shows, to private vows of austerity such as B. condemns in Ep. cxcix. 28.
τοῦ κοινοῦ βίου.
τῷ κοινῷ.
See F. 26, 44, 46; B. 110, 229, 288, and the notes on these passages. The problem is complicated, but the plan recommended here is definitely forbidden in B. 288.