#saint basil

Just the most beautiful church in the world <3

For #CoffeeWithACodex on May 1 (rescheduled from March 20), Curator Dot Porter will bring out Ms. Roll 2062, three fragments from an 11th-century manuscript roll of the Liturgy of Saint Basil in the Byzantine Rite. The roll has been located to Berat, Albania, and was written between 1040 and 1099.

Coffee With A Codex is an informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak curators and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different manuscript and the expertise of one of our curators. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Register here:

St. Basil, one of the most distinguished Doctors of the Church and Bishop of Caesarea, was likely born in 329 and died on 1 January 379.

He ranks after Athanasius as a defender of the Oriental Church against the heresies of the fourth century, especially Arianism, which denied the divine nature of Jesus Christ. 

He was also a strong supporter of the Nicene Creed.

With his friend Gregory of Nazianzus and his brother Gregory of Nyssa, he is part of the trio known as "The Three Cappadocians" — of which he was the most important in practical genius and theological writings.

Basil resisted the pressure from Emperor Valens, an Arian himself, who wanted to keep him in silence and admit the heretics to communion. 

No wonder the responsibility of being the defender of the faith against Aryanism fell upon Basil when the great St. Athanasius died.

As God illumines all people equally with the light of the sun, so do those who desire to imitate God let shine an equal ray of love on all people. For wherever love disappears, hatred immediately appears in its place. And if God is love, then hatred is the devil. Therefore as one who has love has God within himself, so he who has hatred within himself nurtures the devil within himself.