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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.

St Basil, 330-379. Doctor of Monasticism. Feast Jan 2nd.

Doctors of the Catholic Church

Saint Gregory Nazianzus is the Doctor of Theologians. His profound words are: God accepts our desires as though they were a great value. God longs ardently for us to desire and love the Supreme Being who is always our Father, Brother and Lover.

Gregory's message is for everyone, especially for justices in all courts of law: social, civil, criminal, corporate, canon. etc. He wrote about God's justice and explained it. No one can adequately explain God or divine attributes without expressing and discovering justice.

In Constantinople, St Gregory was the leader of a group that was pitifully small and poor. Moreover, persecution from the Arians was intense, putting Gregory in mortal danger. But his holiness of life, his burning eloquence and brilliant explanation of doctrine especially regarding the divinity of Christ gradually won followers and great numbers of converts. Jerome, scholarly, eloquent and renowned, came to admire and to listen to him. St. Gregory’s clear-cut exposition of truth dealt a crippling blow to Arianism. He was the stylist who could sum up the writings of St. Athanasius, St. Hilary and St. Basil. He was the accomplished orator who could make true doctrine live in the minds of his audience. For this reason he has received the title, “The Christian Demosthenes,” after the famous Greek orator – Taken from the book: The 33 Doctors of the Church by Fr. Christopher Rengers, O.F.M.Cap.

Like many other doctors, Gregory suffered slander, insults and even personal violence. He is famous for his writings and sermons on the Trinity. "The Theologian" is buried in St Peter's Cathedral where fittingly all sacred Theology should proceed and from sacred scripture, the Word of God. However, in a magnanimous gesture of goodwill, his relics were returned to the Eastern church in 2004-2005 by the late Pope John Paul II before he died in 2005.

St Gregory Nazianzus, 330-390. Doctor of Theologians. Feast Jan 2nd.