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Saint Basil is the Father of Eastern Monasticism and the Doctor of Monasticism. He left his monastery to defend religious freedom. This Eastern bishop would advise us that all are called to holiness through commitment, prayer, and action with faith.
Perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from Basil is that we endeavor to be attuned to the Spirit. We need to be docile to the movements, motions and touches of the Holy Spirit. God is always encouraging us to listen to divine promptings. In fact, Basil was on his way to becoming a famous teacher when he decided to begin a religious life of gospel poverty.
God called Basil again to be an archbishop after he became a monk and moved him about according to the holy will of God and Basil's full cooperation.
From Fr Rengers' book: The 33 Doctors of the Church found in the doctoral sources: It has been said that the later years of St. Basil's life were just one long sickness. Cardinal Newman says of St. Basil that "from his multiplied trials he may be called the Jeremiah or Job of the fourth century... He had a very sickly constitution, to which he added the rigor of an ascetic life. He was surrounded by jealousies and dissensions at home; he was accused of heterodoxy in the world; he was insulted and roughly treated by great men; and he labored, apparently without fruit, in the endeavor to restore unity and stability to the Catholic Church." Cardinal Newman does not explicitly say so here, but even Pope St. Damasus suspected St. Basil of heresy. Basil's efforts to have St Damasus come to the East met with no success, and while Basil's ensuing bitterness indicated his intense dedication to Church unity, it showed too the personal pain of being misunderstood.
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