The Cappadocian Father who defended Nicene orthodoxy, wrote an enduring monastic rule, and pioneered organized Christian charity.
Life
Basil the Great (330–379), bishop of Caesarea, was the eldest of the three Cappadocian Fathers. He defended the divinity of the Holy Spirit and Nicene Trinitarianism against Arianism, composed monastic rules still followed in Eastern Christianity, and built the Basiliad, a vast complex of hospital and hostel for the poor — a landmark in the history of institutional charity. A Doctor of the Church and one of the Three Holy Hierarchs, he shaped both the theology and the social conscience of Christianity.