Pseudo-Basil

This article is about works spuriously assigned to Basil of Caesarea. For the work of Pseudo-Basil of Seleucia, see Life and Miracles of Saint Thecla.

Pseudo-Basil is the designation used by scholars for any anonymous author of a text falsely or erroneously attributed to Basil of Caesarea. Pseudo-Basilian works are usually known by Latin titles. They are often misattributed only in translation. They include:

• Ad Caesarienses apologia de secessu, a letter actually by Evagrius Ponticus^[1]
• Ad Chilonem discipulum suum^[1]
• Admonitio ad filium spiritualem, a Latin text and a partial Old English translation^[1]
• Admonitio ad iuniores^[1]
• Canones, an Arabic text and some Coptic fragments^[1]
• Constitutiones asceticae^[1]
• Contra Eunomium 4–5 (books 1–3 are authentic)^[1]
• De consotatione in aduersis^[1]
• De reliquis Dionysii, the sequel to an authentic letter to Ambrose of Milan^[1]
• De spiritu^[1]
• De virginitate ad Letoium, an Old Church Slavonic translation from Greek, actually by Basil of Ancyra^[1]
• De vita in Christo, a Coptic translation from Greek, also misattributed to Athanasius^[1]
• Dialogus IV de sancta Trinitate, an Armenian translation from Greek and Syriac fragments, also misattributed to Athanasius^[1]
• Doctrina, quoted in the Georgian Ethika of Euthymius the Athonite^[1]
• Epitimia^[1]
• Epitimia diversorum sanctorum de refectorio^[1]
• Erotapokriseis Basilii et Gregorii, an Arabic translation from Greek of an erotapokriseis sometimes also misattributed to John Chrysostom^[1]
• Liturgia sancti Basilii alexandrina, a Greek liturgy of the Alexandrian rite, also known in Arabic, both Bohairic and Sahidic Coptic and Ethiopic versions^[1]
• Transitus de dormitione Deiparae, a Georgian translation from Greek^[1]

Numerous apocryphal Basilian letters exist: to Bishop Eusebius of Samosata; to Eustathius, archiatrus and son of Oribasius; to Bishop Innocent of Tortona; to the Emperor Julian the Apostate; to Libanius; "to a lapsed monk" (ad monachum lapsum); to the Emperor Theodosius I; to the monk Urbicius on continence; and "to a widow" (ad viduam).^[1]

In addition, some passages in the Rule of Saint Basil are inauthentic.^[2][3]

References

1. Fedwick 1981, pp. xxix–xxxi, 633–635 and 713–715.
2. Basil and Apokatastasis new findings (PDF). pp. 132, 133, 134.
3. "Anna M. Silvas The Rule of St. Basil in Latin and English A Revised Critical Edition". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)

Bibliography

• Fedwick, Paul Jonathan, ed. (1981). Basil of Caesarea, Christian, Humanist, Ascetic: A Sixteen-Hundredth Anniversary Symposium. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.