Fish Eaters: The Whys and Hows of Traditional Catholicism


Genesis 1:31 " And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good."


On The Hexaemeron
by St. Basil the Great

The Six Days of Creation

 

 
About St. Basil

St. Macrina and her husband suffered under the persecution of Maximinus Galerius (305-314) and fled for the lives, living in the mountains and suffering many privations, thereby making St. Macrina a Confessor of the Faith. Their son, St. Basil the Elder, married St. Emmelia, the daughter of a martyr, and among SS Basil the Elder and Emmelia's ten children were St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Peter of Sebastea, St. Macrina the Younger, and the man who wrote the homilies you are about to read: St. Basil the Great, Doctor of the Church.

St. Basil was born around A.D. 329, and died on January 1, 379. In between, he studied first in Caesarea, later in Constantinople, and, finally, in Athens. In Athens, he became fast friends with St. Gregory of Nazianzus. This duo fought fiercely against the heresies rampant at that time (especially Arianism) and, along with St. Basil's brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa, became known as "The Three Cappadocians." St. Basil became Bishop of Caesarea in 370, greatly influenced religious life in both the East and West, is one of the thirty-three Doctors of the Church, and is one of the very few Saints to be awarded the title of "The Great" -- others being three Popes (SS. Leo I, Gregory I, and Nicholas I) and SS. Albert ("Albert Magnus") and Gertrude.

What follows are the nine homilies that make up his work known as "On the Hexaemeron" ("Hexaemeron" means "the six days of Creation"):

 

On The Hexaemeron

Homily I: In the Beginning, God Created the Heaven and the Earth
Homily II: The Earth was Invisible and Unfinished
Homily III: On the Firmament
Homily IV: Upon the Gathering Together of the Waters
Homily V: The Germination of the Earth
Homily VI: The Creation of Luminous Bodies
Homily VII: The Creation of Moving Creatures
Homily VIII: The Creation of Fowl and Water Animals
Homily IX: The Creation of Terrestrial Animals

 


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