Basil the Great

Basil the Great (c. 330–379), bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, was one of the three Cappadocian Fathers and a pillar of Nicene orthodoxy against Arianism. He wrote On the Holy Spirit and the Hexaemeron (homilies on the six days of creation), organised monastic life through his ascetic rules, and built one of the first great hospitals. He is a Doctor of the Church.

Basil's On the Holy Spirit drew on Scripture and the church's worship to establish the full deity of the Spirit, completing the Nicene confession of the Trinity, while his Hexaemeron — nine homilies on the six days of creation in Genesis 1 — modelled a reverent reading of the natural world as God's handiwork. Pastor, organiser of monastic life, and founder of one of the first Christian hospitals, he united rigorous theology with practical charity.