Skip to main contentAccessibility feedback
Dear catholic.com visitors: This website from Catholic Answers, with all its many resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. A fully independent, lay-run, 501(c)(3) ministry that receives no funding from the institutional Church, we rely entirely on the generosity of everyday people like you to keep this website going with trustworthy, fresh, and relevant content. If everyone visiting this month gave just $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

Basil of Amasea

Bishop and Martyr

Click to enlarge

Basil of Amasea (BASILEUS or BASILIUS), Bishop and Martyr. In St. Jerome’s Latin version of the Chronicle of Eusebius the statement occurs under the 275th Olympiad (A.D. 321-324) that Basileus, Bishop of Amasea in Pontus, suffered martyrdom in the reign of Licinius [ed. Schone (Berlin, 1875), 191]. There is no reason for doubting the trustworthiness of this information. Among the signatures of the bishops who attended the Councils of Ancyra and Neo-Caesarea (314) is to he found the name of Basileus of Amasea (Mansi, Col. Conc., II, 534, 548). Eusebius also relates (Hist. eccl., X, viii) that in the time of Licinius Christians were treated with great cruelty, especially in Amasea and the other cities of Pontus, and that, in particular, the governor inflicted upon several bishops the ordinary punishments of evildoers. St. Athanasius mentions the great Basileus of Pontus among the bishops of the early part of the fourth century who held firmly to the like substance of the Son with the Father; the reference is evidently to the martyr-bishop of Amasea (Athan. Opera, ed Mannius, I, 122). The statement of Philostorgius (ed. Valesius; Eusebius, Hist. eccl. (Turin, 1748), III, 433), that Basileus attended the Council of Nicaea, cannot be quoted against this proof of the martyrdom of Basileus under Licinius, as there is evidently a mistake in what Philostorgius says; among the signatures at the Council of Nicaea appears that of Eutychianus as Bishop of Amasea. The Acts of the martyrdom of Basileus, supposedly written by an eyewitness, a presbyter named Johanned, are not authentic and the narrative is entirely legendary. The feast of Basileus falls on April 26, on which date it occurs both in the Greek synaxaria and menaea and in the Roman martyrology.

J. P. KIRSCH


Did you like this content? Please help keep us ad-free

More from Catholic.com

Enjoying this content?  Please support our mission!Donate