Popular name for the priests of the Community of Saint Basil, founded in Cappadocia in the 4th century by Saint Basil, under his Rule. This Rule spread gradually to all the monasteries of the East and at an early date acquired supremacy in the religious communities of the Greek world. In Italy and Sicily the monasteries of Basilians were always in communion with the Holy See. The monastery of Rossano founded by Saint Nilus the Younger, and those of San Salvatore of Otranto, San Salvatore of Messina, and Grottaferrata deserve mention. Recently the monasteries established by Greek monks in these countries have been united into congregations: <\/p>\n
the Melchite Congregation of Saint Saviour, dating from 1715 , has 10 monasteries , 170 priests, 15 brothers, and 30 sisters; <\/p>\n
the Ruthenian Congregation of Saint Saviour, united to the Church in 1595 and reorganized by Saint Josaphat, has 21 monasteries , 360 religious of whom 113 are priests, and 117 lay brothers; <\/p>\n
the Congregation of Aleppo, separated in 1829 from the Congregation of Chueir, has 7 monasteries , 47 priests, 18 brothers, and 26 sisters; <\/p>\n
the Baladite Congregation has 4 monasteries and 3 hospices. In Lithuania reformed Basilians work in the Apostolate in connection with the Uniat clergy. A reform of Italian Basilians, dating from 1573 , showed an inclination towards the use of the Latin Liturgy, which some monasteries adopted altogether. The Spanish Basilian monasteries , dating from the 16th century , also followed the Latin Liturgy; they were suppressed together with other orders in 1833 . There is a teaching order of Basilians, founded by Monsignor d’Aviau, Archbishop of Vienne, France , during the French Revolution; established at Annonay, 1802 ; approved, 1863 ; banished from France , 1905 ; and now established in England and America, with four colleges and parishes in Canada (at Montreal, Toronto, London, Winnipeg, and Edmonton) and in the United States (particularly in Detroit, Houston, Omaha, Rochester, and Aurora). <\/p>\n
(Priests of the Community of St. Basil)<\/p>\n
During the French Revolution, Mgr. D’Aviau, the last Archbishop of Vienne, saw his clergy diminish so rapidly through persecution, that only about one-third of them remained, with no recruits to replace them. It was impossible to maintain a college or a seminary, so in 1800 he founded a school in the almost inaccessible little village of St. Symphorien de Mahun, in the mountains of the Vivarais. This institution was placed in the charge of Father Lapierre, who had managed to take care of the parish of St. Symphorien during this period of persecution. His assistant was Father Marie Joseph Actorie, who had been professor of philosophy in the seminary of Die before the Revolution. In spite of its humble beginning and the many dangers to which it was exposed, the school prospered. In 1802, the state of the country had improved to such an extent that concealment was no longer necessary, and Father Picansel, parish priest of Annonay, and vicar general of the diocese, succeeded in obtaining from the municipal authorities of that town the lease of a former Franciscan monastery, to which the school was transferred. For many years the school performed the work which the bishop had expected from it, but the long fight against poverty and the persecution of so-called liberals threatened at last to be too much for those in charge. Some other method had to be tried, and in 1822, the professors asked to be permitted to found a religious community, with the college at Annonay for its mother-house. The bishop of Viviers, in whose diocese the town of Annonay was included, granted the necessary permission, and appointed a commission to draw up a rule for the new society. On 21 November, 1822, the ten members who were at the time the teaching staff of the college, made the promise which bound them temporarily to the work. They were, Fathers Lapierre, Duret, Vallon, Polly, Tourvieille, Tracol, Martinèche, Fayolle, Payan, and Pages.<\/p>\n
In 1837 a constitution was drawn up and sent to Rome for approval. By this the members of the society were to be bound by the simple vows of poverty, obedience, chastity, and stability. The vow of poverty, however, was limited. Each member of the community could retain all his own property and his Mass intentions, and was to receive a small salary from the community. By this vow he could not accumulate and increase his possessions, but had to spend all his salary and the annual income from his property, and this included the prohibition of speculation or any other worldly moneymaking. This community was to be under the direction of a superior general, residing at Annonay, the Diocese of Viviers, France. The aim of the society was to be the education of Catholic youth, especially of such as intended to become priests. This constitution was signed by several French bishops, all of whom had been able to appreciate the work done by the community, and to testify to the piety and zeal of its members. The Holy See was pleased to declare the society worthy of praise, and in 1863 Pius IX confirmed this decree, granting at the same time certain privileges and imposing certain restrictions on the possessions of the community. A few years ago, the constitutions were again sent to Rome, but the Holy See wished to make some changes in the administration of the community, and these are now being tested with a view to their final approval. When the recent decree banishing religious orders from France was put in force, the Basilians had colleges in Annonay, Périgueux, Aubenas, Privas, and Vernoux, in France; Blidah and Bone in Algiers; and Plymouth in England. All these, with the exception of he last, were transfered to seculars or confiscated, and the religious obliged to scatter until more favourable times.<\/p>\n
In 1852, Mgr. De Charbonnel, Bishop of Toronto, Canada, requested the Basilians to found a college in his diocese. Accordingly, a small number were sent there, and opened a school which has developed into the present St. Michael’s College, the headquarters of the Basilians in America. It was opened in a small house, but was soon moved to a wing of the bishop’s palace which had been built for the purpose. In September, 1855, the cornerstone of the present building was laid. Since then various additions have been made, and the college is now able to accommodate a large number of students. The first superior was Father Soulerin, who managed the college from 1852 to 1865, when he was elected superior general of his community. St. Michael’s is federated with the University of Toronto, its president is ex officio a member of the Senate of the university and of the university council, and it also appoints two other representatives to the senate. There are three courses of study open to its students, the commercial, the classical, and the philosophical. Among the more prominent of those who made their studies, either partially or entirely, at St. Michael’s were the Archbishop of Toronto and the Bishops of Hamilton, Peterborough, London, and Sault Ste. Marie in Canada and Albany and Columbus in the United States.<\/p>\n
The American Province includes four other colleges and numerous parishes. The colleges are Assumption college, Sandwich, Canada; St. Basil’s College, Waco; St. Thomas’s College, Houston, and St. Mary’s Seminary, La Porte, in Texas. Of the parishes in charge of the Basilians, the most important are St. Basil’s and the Holy Rosary, Toronto, Sandwich, Amherstburg, and Owen Sound in Canada, and St. Anne’s, Detroit. The noviciate of the community and the scholasticate are in Toronto. The novitiate lasts for one year, after which the members remain under temporal vows for three years. As no one can enter the society who does not intend to become a priest, the final vows are not taken until the subdiaconate, so that, if, at the end of three years the scholastic is not ready for Holy orders, he renews his temporal vows. St. Basil’s College, Waco, Texas, was founded in 1889. The course of studies includes both the commercial and classical departments. St. Thomas’s College, Houston, Texas, was founded in 1900. It is a day school. St. Mary’s Seminary, La Porte, Texas, was opened in October, 1901, by the Rt. Rev. N.A. Gallagher, Bishop of Galveston. Its primary object is the education of young men for the priesthood, but there is also maintained in connection with the seminary a college in which boys and young men are prepared for any of the learned professions. It is under the direct supervision of the Bishop of Galveston.<\/p>\n
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J.C. PLOMER Transcribed by Ted Rego <\/p>\n
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York<\/p>\n
monks and nuns following the rule of St. Basil the Great, first published A.D. 263. The order spread with so great rapidity that it is said to have numbered at the death of the founder about 90,000 members. In the West it established convents in Spain, Italy, Germany, and Sarmatia, and the Basilian rule, up to the time of St. Benedict, was the basis of all monastic institutions. After the separation of the Greek Church from the Roman, the Basilian order remained the only one in the Greek churches of Russia (where there are about 400 monasteries of monks with about 6000 monks, and about 110 monasteries of nuns with some 3000 nuns), Austria (which in 1849 bad 44 monasteries of monks with 271 members, but no nuns), and Greece, and in the Armenian Church. In Turkey, where especially the monastic establishments of Matthew Athos (q.v.) are celebrated, all the convents of the Greek Church follow the rule of St. Basil, with the exception of those on Mts. Sinai and Lebanon.<\/p>\n
In the Roman Church, the monks of St. Basil, formerly constituting several independent communities, were placed by Pope Gregory XIII, in 1579, under an abbot-general. They were divided into the provinces of Rome, Calabria, Sicily, Spain, Germany, and Poland, and followed partly the Greek, partly the Roman rite. A congregation of Reformed Basilians (Tardonites) was established by Matteo de-la Fuente in Spain in 1557, and joined by a part of the Spanish convents. In Germany and Spain they disappeared with the other convents. In Russia, large numbers of Basilians, together with the whole, body of United Greeks, separated from the Roman Church in 1839. At present only a few convents of Basilians acknowledge the jurisdiction of the pope. They are divided into four congregations:<\/p>\n
(1.) the Ruthenian. in Russia, Poland, and Hungary, with 24 houses;<\/p>\n
(2.) the Italian, the principal convent of which is that of St. Savior at Messina, in Sicily, which still preserves the Greek rite;<\/p>\n
(3.) the French, which has its principal house at Viviers;<\/p>\n
(4.) the Melchite, in the United Greek Church of Asia Minor, which held, a few years ago, a general chapter, under the presidency of the papal delegate in Syria.<\/p>\n
According to the historians of the order, it has produced 14 popes, numerous patriarchs, cardinals, and archbishops, 1805 bishops, and 11,805 martyrs. One house of Basilians is at Toronto, Canada. Altogether there are about fifty houses with 1000 members. See Helyot, Ordres Religieux, 1:379 sq.<\/p>\n
Basilians Popular name for the priests of the Community of Saint Basil, founded in Cappadocia in the 4th century by Saint Basil, under his Rule. This Rule spread gradually to all the monasteries of the East and at an early date acquired supremacy in the religious communities of the Greek world. In Italy and Sicily … Continue reading “Basilians”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encyclopedic-dictionary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/dictionaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}