Saint Basil the New 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.
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