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Constitutiones asceticae

OF OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS BASIL, ARCHBISHOP OF CAESAREA IN CAPPADOCIA, ASCETICAL CONSTITUTIONS, TO THOSE IN

PRACTICING THE ASCETIC LIFE IN COMMUNITY AND IN SOLITUDE.

PREFACE. Having undertaken the philosophy according to Christ, and having lifted your mind above worldly desires and pleasures and cares, and having been eager in every way to separate and distinguish your reasoning from carnal passions, you have often spoken many words to us, inquiring in what way one ought to perfect the undertaking of the contest, being in no way captured by the carnal desires that pass through the body to the soul; and what first must especially be guarded against, and what after the first; and which of the good things must be emulated, so that by watchfulness one might flee the working of what is unfitting, and by zeal accomplish the doing of good things. Then, however, you requested that the exposition of our counsel on this matter be made for you in writing. For this reason, we ourselves were also moved not to overlook your good zeal, but in the way possible for us to support and confirm it by our own 31.1324 counsels; not as offering a discourse sufficient for the subject, but as not hiding what we have, as if under a mound, with silence, and thereby fleeing the threatened judgment against the one who hid the talent in the earth. Marriage, then, is for most people the pretext for worldly desires and pleasures and cares. For one would not find a desire for the female in men, or for the male in women, more vehement and violent inherent in the nature of the body; and quite reasonably so, being naturally constituted for the generation of offspring; which, having a most opportune function, was bound also to bring with it a more vehement impulse; nor do heavier cares befall people than those that suddenly rush in on account of marriage, as Paul says: He who has married is anxious about the things of the world, being burdened with cares. For one who is alone might endure his own and his body's proper needs, or perhaps even despise them, being able easily to persuade himself to this; but one who cares for a wife and children is no longer master of his own will, but is constrained to do for her things according to her pleasures, and being occupied with the care of his children, draws up a great abyss of cares, which to enumerate would be too long for the present occasion. Therefore, he who yearns to be free from the bonds of the world has fled marriage as if it were certain fetters; and having fled this, he has dedicated his own life to God, and has professed chastity; so that there is no license for him to return to marriage, but he must in every way hold to the contests for chastity, wrestling with nature and its more violent impulses. For such a one, having become a lover of God, and desiring to possess His impassibility, at least in the smallest degree, and longing to taste of spiritual holiness, and of tranquility and imperturbability, and of gentleness, and of the gladness and joy born from these, has been eager to lead his thoughts far away from every material and bodily passion that troubles the soul; and with a pure and unclouded eye of the soul he contemplates divine things, being insatiably filled with the light from thence. Into such a habit and state

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Constitutiones asceticae

ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΥ ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΙΑΣ ΚΑΠΠΑ∆ΟΚΙΑΣ ΑΣΚΗΤΙΚΑΙ ∆ΙΑΤΑΞΕΙΣ, ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΕΝ

ΚΟΙΝΟΒΙΩ ΚΑΙ ΚΑΤΑΜΟΝΑΣ ΑΣΚΟΥΝΤΑΣ.

ΠΡΟΟΙΜΙΟΝ. Τὴν κατὰ Χριστὸν φιλοσοφίαν ἐπανελόμενος, καὶ τῶν βιωτικῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν τε καὶ ἡδονῶν καὶ φρον τίδων ἀνώτερον ἄρας τὸ φρόνημα, καὶ τῶν σαρκι κῶν παθημάτων τὸν λογισμὸν ἐκ παντὸς τρόπου χωρίζειν καὶ ἀποκρίνειν ἐσπουδακὼς, πολλάκις μὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς πολλοὺς πεποίησαι λόγους, πυνθα νόμενος τίνα τρόπον δέοι τὴν τοῦ ἀγῶνος ἔνστασιν τελειῶσαι, μηδαμοῦ ταῖς σαρκικαῖς ἐπιθυμίαις ταῖς διὰ τοῦ σώματος παριούσαις ἐπὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἁλισκό μενον· καὶ τί μὲν πρῶτον, ὡς μάλιστα παραφυ λακτέον, τί δὲ μετὰ τὸ πρῶτον· τίνα δὲ τῶν κα λῶν ζηλωτέον, ὥστε τῇ μὲν παραφυλακῇ φυγεῖν τὴν τῶν ἀτόπων ἐνέργειαν· τῷ δὲ ζήλῳ κατορ θῶσαι τὴν τῶν καλῶν πρᾶξιν. Ἔπειτα μέντοι ἠξίους καὶ ἔγγραφόν σοι τῆς ἡμετέρας περὶ τούτου συμβου λῆς γενέσθαι τὴν ἔκθεσιν. Τούτου χάριν καὶ αὐτοὶ προήχθημεν τὸν ἀγαθόν σου ζῆλον μὴ παριδεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν ἐνόντα τρόπον ταῖς παρ' ἑαυτῶν ὑπο 31.1324 θήκαις ἐπιστηρίξαι καὶ βεβαιώσασθαι· οὐχ ὡς ἀρκοῦντα πρὸς τὴν ὑπόθεσιν παρεχόμενον λόγον, ἀλλ' ὡς τὸν ὄντα μὴ κατακρύπτοντες, ὥσπερ τινὶ χώματι, τῇ σιγῇ, καὶ ταύτῃ φεύγοντες τὴν ἐπὶ τῷ κατακρύψαντι τὸ τάλαντον εἰς τὴν γῆν ἠπειλη μένην δίκην. Πρόφασις μὲν οὖν, ὡς τὰ πολλὰ, τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τῆς περὶ τὰς κοσμικὰς ἐπιθυμίας τε καὶ ἡδονὰς καὶ φροντίδας ὁ γάμος. Οὔτε γὰρ τῆς τοῦ θήλεος ἐπιθυμίας ἀνδράσιν, ἢ γυναιξὶ τῆς τοῦ ἄῤῥενος σφοδροτέραν καὶ βιαιοτέραν εὕροι τις ἂν ἐγκειμένην τῇ φύσει τοῦ σώματος· καὶ μάλα γε εἰκότως, οἷα δὴ περὶ τὴν τῶν ἐκγόνων βλάστησιν συνίστασθαι πεφυκυῖαν· ὃς, καιριωτάτην ἔχων ἐνέρ γειαν, ἤμελλε καὶ τὴν ῥύμην σφοδροτέραν ἐπάγε σθαι· οὐδὲ φροντίδας βαρυτέρας ἀνθρώποις παρ εισπιπτούσας τῶν διὰ τὴν συζυγίαν ἀθρόως ἐφιπτα μένων, καθὼς ὁ Παῦλός φησιν· Ὁ γαμήσας με ριμνᾷ τὰ τοῦ κόσμου, τὰς φροντίδας ἐπηχθισμένος. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ μόνος ἑαυτοῦ καὶ τῶν οἰκείων τοῦ σώ ματος ἀναγκῶν ἀνάσχοιτο ἂν, ἢ ἴσως καὶ περιφρο νήσειε ταύτας, ἑαυτὸν εἰς τοῦτο πείθειν εὐκόλως δυνάμενος· ὁ δὲ γαμετῆς καὶ παίδων ἐπιμελούμε νος οὐκέτι τῆς οἰκείας γνώμης κύριος γίνεται, ἀλλὰ ἀνάγκην ἔχει ταύτῃ τὰ καθ' ἡδονὰς πράττειν, καὶ περὶ τὴν τῶν παίδων ἐπιμέλειαν ἀσχολούμενος, πολ λὴν ἄβυσσον ἐπαντλεῖσθαι φροντίδων, ἃς καταλέγειν μακρότερον ἢ κατὰ τὸν παρόντα καιρὸν ἂν εἴη. Ὁ τοίνυν τῶν τοῦ κόσμου δεσμῶν ἐλεύθερος εἶναι γλιχόμενος τὸν γάμον ὥσπερ τινὰς πέδας ἀπ έφυγε· τοῦτον δὲ ἀποφυγὼν, τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον ἀνέθηκε Θεῷ, καὶ τὴν ἁγνείαν καθωμολόγησεν· ὡς μήτε ἄδειαν ὑπάρχειν αὐτῷ τῆς ἐπὶ τὸν γάμον ἐπι στροφῆς, ἀλλ' ἔχεσθαι αὐτὸν ἐκ παντὸς τρόπου τῶν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἁγνείας ἀγωνισμάτων φύσει προσπαλαίον τα, καὶ ταύτης ταῖς βιαιοτέραις ὁρμαῖς. Ἐραστὴς γὰρ ὁ τοιοῦτος τοῦ Θεοῦ καταστὰς, καὶ τῆς ἐκείνου ἀπαθείας, κατὰ γοῦν τὸ σμικρότατον, κατασχεῖν ἐφιέμενος, καὶ τῆς πνευματικῆς ἁγιότητος, γαλήνης τε καὶ ἀταραξίας, καὶ ἡμερότητος, καὶ τῆς ἐκ τού των τικτομένης εὐφροσύνης τε καὶ χαρᾶς ἐπιθυμῶν ἀπογεύσασθαι, παντὸς μὲν ὑλικοῦ καὶ σωματικοῦ πάθους τοῦ τὴν ψυχὴν ἐπιθολοῦντος, πόῤῥω τοὺς λογισμοὺς ἀπάγειν ἐσπούδακε· καθαρῷ δὲ καὶ ἀν επισκιάστῳ ὄμματι τῆς ψυχῆς τὰ θεῖα περιαθρεῖ, ἀπλήστως τοῦ ἐκεῖθεν φωτὸς ἐμφορούμενος. Εἰς τοιαύτην τε ἕξιν καὶ κατάστασιν