Saint Vasilios Great 2

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Basil the Great is a father and teacher of the Orthodox Church. He was born in 329 AD, in the village of Annissa in Pontus and grew up in Caesarea in Cappadocia. He had eight siblings, three boys and five girls. Of the four boys, three became bishops. Armed with this Christian upbringing, Vasilios begins an amazing upward spiritual journey. And most importantly, he conquers the Divine Knowledge of the Gospel, which he immediately puts into practice, with his strict ascetic life. After his first studies in Caesarea and then in Byzantium, he visited, still young, Athens, where he completed his studies for four years, having among his fellow students Gregory of Nazianzus and Julian the Transgressor. However, he decided to follow the monastic life and for this reason, he went to the centers of asceticism, to be taught the monastic life in Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia. The exemplary way of his spiritual work did not take long to elevate him to the throne of the high priesthood, succeeding Eusebius in the bishopric of Caesarea. In his struggles against Arianism, he courageously defended Orthodoxy, surprising the king and the Arians. And the rest of his pastoral activity was unparalleled, building the famous "Vassiliada", a complex with noble institutions, such as a poorhouse, an orphanage, etc. At the age of fifty, Vasilios the Great, due to his illness and his strict ascetic life (some sources say from severe liver or kidney disease), died on January 1, 378 AD. 
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