Subj : March 26th - St. Basil The Younger
To   : All
From : rich
Date : Wed Mar 25 2020 09:53:05

From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

March 26th - St. Basil The Younger

He left the world in his youth, and struggled in a desolate place.
Once, courtiers of the Byzantine Emperor were passing by and saw him
dressed in rags, and were alarmed by his strange appearance.
Suspicious of the holy ascetic, they captured him and brought him to
the city, where the patrician Samon questioned him. When asked who he
was, the saint merely said that he was a stranger in the land. They
subjected the monk to terrible tortures, but he endured it in silence,
not wishing to reveal the details of his ascetic life to them. Samon
lost his patience and asked St. Basil, "Impious one, how long will you
hide, who are you, and from where do you come?" The saint replied, "It
is more appropriate to call impious those who, like yourself, lead a
life of impurity."

After his public humiliation, Samon ordered his men to hang the saint
upside down with his hands and feet tied. These torments were so cruel
that those witnessing them murmured against Samon. When they released
the holy ascetic after three days of torture, they found him alive and
unharmed.

Samon attributed this miracle to sorcery and had St. Basil thrown to a
lion. However, the lion did not touch the saint, and lay peacefully at
his feet.

Samon ordered St. Basil to be drowned in the sea, but two dolphins
brought him to shore. The saint went into the city, where he met a
sick man named John, who was suffering from fever. St. Basil healed
the sick man in the name of the Savior, and accepted John's invitation
to stay in his home.

Numerous believers came to the saint for advice and guidance, and also
to receive healing from sickness through his prayers. St. Basil,
endowed with the gift of discernment, guided sinners on the path of
repentance, and he could predict future events. Among those who
visited St. Basil was a certain Gregory, who became his disciple and
later wrote a detailed Life of his teacher. Gregory once found an
expensive sash at an inn, which had been dropped by the inn-keeper's
daughter. He hid it on his person, intending to sell it and give the
money to the poor. On the way home, he lost the sash and some other
things. St. Basil admonished him in a dream, showed him a broken pot
and said, "If anyone steals such a worthless thing, they will be
chastized four times over. You hid a valuable sash, and you will be
condemned as a thief. You should return what you found."

After the death of St. Theodora, who had attended St. Basil, Gregory
very much wanted to learn about her life beyond the grave, and he
often asked the holy ascetic to reveal this to him. Through the
saint's prayers, Gregory saw St. Theodora in a dream. She told him how
her soul underwent tribulations after death, and how the power of the
prayers of St. Basil had helped her (The Feast Day of St. Theodora of
Constantinople is December 30). St. Basil died in about the year 944
at the age of 110.

The Church calls him Basil the New to distinguish him from other
ascetics of the same name.


<><><><>
"Take heed not to foster thy own judgment, for, without doubt, it will
inebriate thee; as there is no difference between an intoxicated man
and one full of his own opinion, and one is no more capable of
reasoning than the other"
--St. Francis de Sales

The blessed Alexander Sauli, a Corsican bishop, always asked others
advice in the affairs of his diocese, not trusting to his own opinion.
He considered himself ignorant and totally unfit for the duties of his
office, though he had been a famous professor of theology and director
of St. Charles, and had even been called the ideal of bishops.

(Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".=C2  March - Mortification)

Bible Quote:
And Jesus passing by, saw a man, who was blind from his birth: 2 And
his disciples asked him: Rabbi, who hath sinned, this man, or his
parents, that he should be born blind? 3 Jesus answered: Neither hath
this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be
made manifest in him. 4 I must work the works of him that sent me,
whilst it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 5 As long as
I am in the world, I am the light of the world. (John 9:1-5)
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)

.