BASILIAN MONKS, a monastic order, chiefly belonging to the Greek Church, who strictly follow the rules of Basil, the great Saint Basil (q.v.), who, after visiting the mon asteries of Egypt, Syria and Palestine, induced many to enter the monastic life and even to fcund convents. His rule, which was founded in 358, was confirmed by Pope Liberius in 363. In 379 there were at least 80,000 in the eastern monasteries. Many convents were dispersed in the 8th century dunng the iconoclast persecu tions, and all began to langliish about the time of the eastern schism. The order now com prises priests, lay-brothers, cenobites living in community, anchorites in cells and hermits in solitudes. They are governed by an archiman drite who has several convents under his juris diction, and b.y exarchs deputed by the archi mandnte to visit the convents. The order has developed more extensively in Russia than in other countries. In Austria, Poland and Hun gary there are many communities, Icnown as Ruthenians, in union with the Roman Catholic Church. In Italy also they had convents in Calabria, Sicily and Naples. In Spain they flourished for nearly two centuries until 18.35, when they were suppressed. The communities of Sisters of Saint Basil were founded by Saint Maerina, sister of Saint Basil. Other communities following the rule of Saint Basil are the Melchites in Libanus; the Bartholomites of the Armenian rites, so called because, after talcing refuge in Genoa in 1307, they had pos session of Saint Bartholomew's Church there until 1659.
Saint Basil, in the monastery which he founded near Neocesarea, set his face against the very ascetic tendencies which had already asserted themselves in monastic life in the Catholic Church. While strongly insisting on fasting and prayer he maintained that neither should be allowed to interfere with Work, which should always forrn an integral part of the life of every monastery. He taught that monas teries should be near towns in order to permit the monks to extend aid to all those who re quired it, which it was the duty and obligation, he asserted, of every monk to give. His pro gram insisted upon common meals, common work and common prayer, the latter seven times a day. Unquestioned obedience to the superior, self-denial, chastity, renouncing of all wealfh and property were exacted by Saint Basil of all who entered his monastery. Dur ing his life the members of the order were cenobites, never hertnits, for whom he had little respect So strong became the influence of the Basilians that they practically drove the hermit orders out of Cappadocia and the neigh boring provinces and finally established their order as the all-prevailing form of monasticism throughout the Greek and Slavonic countries.
About the beginning of the 9th century Theo dore, abbot of the monastery of Studium, in Constantinople, gave a real constitution and codified laws to the order of the Basilians. These were gradually adopted by all the mon asteries of the order throughout Greece and, later on, by all those in the Slavonic countries. This explams the statement often made that •The Rules of Basil and the Constitution of Theodore the Sudite, with the Canons of the Councils comprise the greater and most import ant part of the monastic law of the Greek Church.) Theodore made the sphere of action and the aims of the order very definite, dividing the day time between work, reading, liturgical services of the Church and prayer. The work element tended to make the order very popular so that Theodore had in his own monastery over 1,000 monks, many of whom were counted among the most famous copiers of manuscripts in Constantinople,. then the most celebrated centre of learning in the East The first Russian monastery was founded at Kiev about 1050 by a monk from the great Basilian centre of Mount Athos, in Greece; and in less than a century.the order had spread pretty well over the domains of the Tsar, from which it was rapidly extended to all the other Slavonic countries. In Russia there exist to day nearly 500 monasteries, in Turkey over 103, and in all the Slavonic countries outside Russia probably as many as in Turkey. Among the 4,000,000 people following the Ruthenian rites there are numerous Basilian monasteries which, while owing allegiance to Rome, follow, in practically every other respect, the rules and ordinances of the Greek Church. All the saints on their calendar are those of the East and not those of the West, and they adhere strictly to the rules of the order as laid down by Basil and Theodore. Most of the adherents of the Lithuanian faith are to be found in Galicia; but there are more than half a million of them in Austria, principally in the Polish part. In fact, the order is represented in every part of ancient Poland. In Hungary, where the Basi lian order was once strong, it now has but little influence. The monasteries among the Ar menians are nearly all under the rule of Saint Basil.