Basil of Caesarea
4th century · AD 379 · Eastern & Byzantine · 715 passages
Bishop, monastic founder, and preacher on creation; he built hospitals and taught that care for the poor is inseparable from faith.
Background on Basil of Caesarea
In his own words on Song of Solomon
- Song of Solomon 2:5
What reflection is sweeter than the thought of the magnificence of God? What desire of the soul is so poignant and so intolerably keen as that desire implanted by God in a soul purified from all vice and affirming with sincerity, "I languish with love." Totally ineffable and indescribable are the lightning flashes of divine Beauty.
THE LONG RULES 2
- Song of Solomon 5:2
According to the counsel of the apostle, the zealous person can do all things for the glory of God, so that every act and every word and every work has in it power of praise. Whether the just person eats or drinks, he does all for the glory of God. The heart of such a one watches when he is sleeping, according to him who said in the Song of Solomon: "I sleep, and my heart watches." For on many occasions the visions seen during sleep are images of our thoughts by day.
HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 16:1 (PSALM 33)
Quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations of the fathers — Aquinas's Catena Aurea, the Ante-Nicene and Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, and related editions. Each quotation links to its source.