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130 Pages
Page 17
It was so extensive as to go by the name of Newtown, [123] and was in later years known as the "Basileiad." [124] It was the mother of other similar institutions in the country-districts of the province, each under a Chorepiscopus. [125] But whether the Ptochotrophium [126] was or was not actually begun before Basil's episcopate, great demands were made on his sympathy and energy by the great drought and consequent famine which befell Caesarea in 368. [127] He describes it with eloquence in his Homily On the Famine and Drought. [128] The distress was cruel and widespread. The distance of Caesarea from the coast increased the difficulty of supplying provisions. Speculators, scratching, as it were, in their country's wounds, hoarded grain in the hope of selling at famine prices. These Basil moved to open their stores. He distributed lavishly at his own expense, [129] and ministered in person to the wants of the sufferers. Gregory of Nazianzus [130] gives us a picture of his illustrious friend standing in the midst of a great crowd of men and women and children, some scarcely able to breathe; of servants bringing in piles of such food as is best suited to the weak state of the famishing sufferers; of Basil with his own hands distributing nourishment, and with his own voice cheering and encouraging the sufferers.
About this time Basil suffered a great loss in the death of his mother, [131] and sought solace in a visit to his friend Eusebius at Samosata. [132] But the cheering effect of his journey was lessened by the news, which greeted him on his return, that the Arians had succeeded in placing one of their number in the see of Tarsus. [133] The loss of Silvanus was ere long followed by a death of yet graver moment to the Church. In the middle of 370 died Eusebius, breathing his last in the arms of Basil. [134]
[123] hekaine polis. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. cf. Sir Thomas More's Utopia, Bk. II. Chap. V.
[124] Soz. vi. 34.
[125] Epp. cxlii., cxliii.
[126] ptochotropheion, Ep. clxxvi. Professor Ramsay, in The Church and the Roman Empire, p. 464, remarks that "the New City' of Basil seems to have caused the gradual concentration of the entire population of Caesarea round the ecclesiastical centre, and the abandonment of the old city. Modern Kaisari is situated between one and two miles from the site of the Graeco-Roman city."
[127] For the date, cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. ix. S: 5.
[128] S: 2, p. 63. cf. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 340-342, and Greg. Nyss., In Eun. i. 306.
[129] Greg. Nyss., In Eunom. i. S: 10 (in this series, p. 45), remarks of Basil: ten patroan ousian kai pro tes hierosunes apheidos analosas tois penesi kai malista en to tes sitodeias kairo, kath' hon epestatei tes ekklesias, eti en to klero ton presbuteron hierateuon kai meta tauta, mede ton hupoleiphthenton pheisamenos. Maran (Vit. Bas. xi. S: 4), with the object of proving that Basil had completely abandoned all property whatsoever, says that this must refer to a legacy from his mother. The terms used are far more consistent with the view already expressed (S: III.). So in his Orat. in Bas. Gregory speaks of Basil at the time as "selling his own possessions, and buying provisions with the proceeds."
[130] Or. xliii.
[131] Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 187, Ep. xxx.
[132] Ep. xxxiv.
[133] Id.
[134] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/basil/life-works.asp?pg=17
