Basile de Césarée
v. 330-379 4th century Feast day: January 2
Gathering the scattered mind back to God, and letting prayer open our hands to the poor.
Who was Basile de Césarée?
Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, a monk before he was a pastor, he founded at the gates of his city a vast complex of shelters for the poor, the sick and travellers. It came to be called the Basiliad. A theologian of the Holy Spirit and lawgiver of Eastern monasticism, he died worn out at forty-nine.
In their own words
The bread you are holding back belongs to the hungry; the coat you keep locked away, to the naked; the shoes rotting in your house, to the shoeless; the silver you keep buried, to the needy.
When the mind is no longer dissipated abroad among external things, nor scattered by the senses over the world, it returns to itself; and by itself it ascends to the thought of God.
Prayer is to be commended, for it engenders in the soul a distinct conception of God. And this is the indwelling of God: to hold God ever established within us by memory.