Basil the Great was born ca. 330 CE at Caesarea in Cappadocia into a family noted for piety. He was at Constantinople and Athens for several years as a student with Gregory of Nazianzus and was much influenced by Origen. For a short time he held a chair of rhetoric at Caesarea, and was then baptized. He visited monasteries in Egypt and Palestine and sought out the most famous hermits in Syria and elsewhere to learn how to lead a pious and ascetic life; but he decided that communal monastic life and work were best. About 360 he founded in Pontus a convent to which his sister and widowed...
Basil the Great was born ca. 330 CE at Caesarea in Cappadocia into a family noted for piety. He was at Constantinople and Athens for several years...
This volume presents several treatises of St. Cyprian (200/10?-258) in translation. To Donatus (Ad Donatum) is a monologue written shortly after Cyprian's baptism in 246 in which he extols his spiritual rebirth in the sacrament of baptism. Literary criticism has come to view this treatise as a model for St. Augustine's Confessions. The Dress of Virgins (De habitu virginum) written in 249 is addressed to women (""flowers in the Church's garden"") who have dedicated their lives to God's service. In this treatise on virginity Cyprian warns these women against seeking finery and the pitfalls of...
This volume presents several treatises of St. Cyprian (200/10?-258) in translation. To Donatus (Ad Donatum) is a monologue written shortly after Cypri...
