| Novena Starts: | December 24 |
| Feastday: | January 2 |
| Birth: | c. 330 |
| Death: | 379 |
Patron saint of monks and the monastic life, hospital administrators and those who care for the sick and the poor, reformers of the Church, Cappadocia and Russia, and all who defend the faith of the Holy Trinity
St. Basil the Great Novena
St. Basil the Great (c. 330-379) was born into a family of saints, was educated at Athens beside his lifelong friend Gregory Nazianzen, and came home a celebrated orator until his sister Macrina shamed him out of his vanity. He founded the monastic Rule the whole Christian East still follows, sold his inheritance to feed the starving in a famine, and built outside Caesarea a city of charity with the first hospital the world had seen. When the Arian emperor Valens sent his prefect to break him, Basil answered every threat and was told no one had ever spoken so to a prefect. Perhaps, he said, you have never met a bishop. Pray this novena for the Church, for the sick and the poor, for monks and reformers, and for the favor you most need.
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Day 1
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptised in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,” such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.
O glorious Saint Basil, whom the Church has named the Great, you were given every gift that the world admires, birth and learning and eloquence, and you laid them all at the feet of Christ when your sister showed you the emptiness of praise. Obtain for us the humility to see ourselves as we are, and the courage to give up whatever keeps us from God.
You fed the hungry in the famine with your own hands, and you built outside your city a place where the sick, the stranger, the aged and the leper were received as Christ himself. Teach us to see him in the poor, and to serve them not from a distance but with our own hands, as you did.
You stood before the prefect of an heretical emperor, threatened with the loss of all you had, with exile, with torture and with death, and you answered him that a bishop has nothing to lose. Obtain for us that same freedom, that fearing God we may fear nothing else, and may confess the faith of the Trinity plainly when it is costly to do so.
You gave a Rule to those who wished to leave everything for God, and the monasteries of the East have kept it for sixteen hundred years. Bless all monks and nuns, all who live by a rule, and all who are drawn to the life of prayer, and obtain vocations for the contemplative life in our own day.
And now, dear Saint Basil, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all the grace to glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with one faith and one undivided heart.
Amen.
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the bishop Saint Basil the Great, grant, we pray, that in humility we may learn your truth and practise it faithfully in charity. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St. Basil the Great, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“I received tremendous peace throughout as well as new understandings. On the last day I received a beautiful gift I didn’t ask for, a beautiful memory of my son. I’m so grateful and extremely happy! Thank you St Michael!! Glory to you O sweet God!!”
Day 2
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptised in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,” such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.
O glorious Saint Basil, whom the Church has named the Great, you were given every gift that the world admires, birth and learning and eloquence, and you laid them all at the feet of Christ when your sister showed you the emptiness of praise. Obtain for us the humility to see ourselves as we are, and the courage to give up whatever keeps us from God.
You fed the hungry in the famine with your own hands, and you built outside your city a place where the sick, the stranger, the aged and the leper were received as Christ himself. Teach us to see him in the poor, and to serve them not from a distance but with our own hands, as you did.
You stood before the prefect of an heretical emperor, threatened with the loss of all you had, with exile, with torture and with death, and you answered him that a bishop has nothing to lose. Obtain for us that same freedom, that fearing God we may fear nothing else, and may confess the faith of the Trinity plainly when it is costly to do so.
You gave a Rule to those who wished to leave everything for God, and the monasteries of the East have kept it for sixteen hundred years. Bless all monks and nuns, all who live by a rule, and all who are drawn to the life of prayer, and obtain vocations for the contemplative life in our own day.
And now, dear Saint Basil, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all the grace to glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with one faith and one undivided heart.
Amen.
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the bishop Saint Basil the Great, grant, we pray, that in humility we may learn your truth and practise it faithfully in charity. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St. Basil the Great, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“I received tremendous peace throughout as well as new understandings. On the last day I received a beautiful gift I didn’t ask for, a beautiful memory of my son. I’m so grateful and extremely happy! Thank you St Michael!! Glory to you O sweet God!!”
Day 3
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptised in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,” such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.
O glorious Saint Basil, whom the Church has named the Great, you were given every gift that the world admires, birth and learning and eloquence, and you laid them all at the feet of Christ when your sister showed you the emptiness of praise. Obtain for us the humility to see ourselves as we are, and the courage to give up whatever keeps us from God.
You fed the hungry in the famine with your own hands, and you built outside your city a place where the sick, the stranger, the aged and the leper were received as Christ himself. Teach us to see him in the poor, and to serve them not from a distance but with our own hands, as you did.
You stood before the prefect of an heretical emperor, threatened with the loss of all you had, with exile, with torture and with death, and you answered him that a bishop has nothing to lose. Obtain for us that same freedom, that fearing God we may fear nothing else, and may confess the faith of the Trinity plainly when it is costly to do so.
You gave a Rule to those who wished to leave everything for God, and the monasteries of the East have kept it for sixteen hundred years. Bless all monks and nuns, all who live by a rule, and all who are drawn to the life of prayer, and obtain vocations for the contemplative life in our own day.
And now, dear Saint Basil, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all the grace to glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with one faith and one undivided heart.
Amen.
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the bishop Saint Basil the Great, grant, we pray, that in humility we may learn your truth and practise it faithfully in charity. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St. Basil the Great, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“I received tremendous peace throughout as well as new understandings. On the last day I received a beautiful gift I didn’t ask for, a beautiful memory of my son. I’m so grateful and extremely happy! Thank you St Michael!! Glory to you O sweet God!!”
Day 4
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptised in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,” such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.
O glorious Saint Basil, whom the Church has named the Great, you were given every gift that the world admires, birth and learning and eloquence, and you laid them all at the feet of Christ when your sister showed you the emptiness of praise. Obtain for us the humility to see ourselves as we are, and the courage to give up whatever keeps us from God.
You fed the hungry in the famine with your own hands, and you built outside your city a place where the sick, the stranger, the aged and the leper were received as Christ himself. Teach us to see him in the poor, and to serve them not from a distance but with our own hands, as you did.
You stood before the prefect of an heretical emperor, threatened with the loss of all you had, with exile, with torture and with death, and you answered him that a bishop has nothing to lose. Obtain for us that same freedom, that fearing God we may fear nothing else, and may confess the faith of the Trinity plainly when it is costly to do so.
You gave a Rule to those who wished to leave everything for God, and the monasteries of the East have kept it for sixteen hundred years. Bless all monks and nuns, all who live by a rule, and all who are drawn to the life of prayer, and obtain vocations for the contemplative life in our own day.
And now, dear Saint Basil, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all the grace to glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with one faith and one undivided heart.
Amen.
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the bishop Saint Basil the Great, grant, we pray, that in humility we may learn your truth and practise it faithfully in charity. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St. Basil the Great, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“I received tremendous peace throughout as well as new understandings. On the last day I received a beautiful gift I didn’t ask for, a beautiful memory of my son. I’m so grateful and extremely happy! Thank you St Michael!! Glory to you O sweet God!!”
Day 5
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptised in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,” such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.
O glorious Saint Basil, whom the Church has named the Great, you were given every gift that the world admires, birth and learning and eloquence, and you laid them all at the feet of Christ when your sister showed you the emptiness of praise. Obtain for us the humility to see ourselves as we are, and the courage to give up whatever keeps us from God.
You fed the hungry in the famine with your own hands, and you built outside your city a place where the sick, the stranger, the aged and the leper were received as Christ himself. Teach us to see him in the poor, and to serve them not from a distance but with our own hands, as you did.
You stood before the prefect of an heretical emperor, threatened with the loss of all you had, with exile, with torture and with death, and you answered him that a bishop has nothing to lose. Obtain for us that same freedom, that fearing God we may fear nothing else, and may confess the faith of the Trinity plainly when it is costly to do so.
You gave a Rule to those who wished to leave everything for God, and the monasteries of the East have kept it for sixteen hundred years. Bless all monks and nuns, all who live by a rule, and all who are drawn to the life of prayer, and obtain vocations for the contemplative life in our own day.
And now, dear Saint Basil, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all the grace to glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with one faith and one undivided heart.
Amen.
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the bishop Saint Basil the Great, grant, we pray, that in humility we may learn your truth and practise it faithfully in charity. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St. Basil the Great, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“I received tremendous peace throughout as well as new understandings. On the last day I received a beautiful gift I didn’t ask for, a beautiful memory of my son. I’m so grateful and extremely happy! Thank you St Michael!! Glory to you O sweet God!!”
Day 6
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptised in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,” such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.
O glorious Saint Basil, whom the Church has named the Great, you were given every gift that the world admires, birth and learning and eloquence, and you laid them all at the feet of Christ when your sister showed you the emptiness of praise. Obtain for us the humility to see ourselves as we are, and the courage to give up whatever keeps us from God.
You fed the hungry in the famine with your own hands, and you built outside your city a place where the sick, the stranger, the aged and the leper were received as Christ himself. Teach us to see him in the poor, and to serve them not from a distance but with our own hands, as you did.
You stood before the prefect of an heretical emperor, threatened with the loss of all you had, with exile, with torture and with death, and you answered him that a bishop has nothing to lose. Obtain for us that same freedom, that fearing God we may fear nothing else, and may confess the faith of the Trinity plainly when it is costly to do so.
You gave a Rule to those who wished to leave everything for God, and the monasteries of the East have kept it for sixteen hundred years. Bless all monks and nuns, all who live by a rule, and all who are drawn to the life of prayer, and obtain vocations for the contemplative life in our own day.
And now, dear Saint Basil, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all the grace to glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with one faith and one undivided heart.
Amen.
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the bishop Saint Basil the Great, grant, we pray, that in humility we may learn your truth and practise it faithfully in charity. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St. Basil the Great, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“I received tremendous peace throughout as well as new understandings. On the last day I received a beautiful gift I didn’t ask for, a beautiful memory of my son. I’m so grateful and extremely happy! Thank you St Michael!! Glory to you O sweet God!!”
Day 7
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptised in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,” such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.
O glorious Saint Basil, whom the Church has named the Great, you were given every gift that the world admires, birth and learning and eloquence, and you laid them all at the feet of Christ when your sister showed you the emptiness of praise. Obtain for us the humility to see ourselves as we are, and the courage to give up whatever keeps us from God.
You fed the hungry in the famine with your own hands, and you built outside your city a place where the sick, the stranger, the aged and the leper were received as Christ himself. Teach us to see him in the poor, and to serve them not from a distance but with our own hands, as you did.
You stood before the prefect of an heretical emperor, threatened with the loss of all you had, with exile, with torture and with death, and you answered him that a bishop has nothing to lose. Obtain for us that same freedom, that fearing God we may fear nothing else, and may confess the faith of the Trinity plainly when it is costly to do so.
You gave a Rule to those who wished to leave everything for God, and the monasteries of the East have kept it for sixteen hundred years. Bless all monks and nuns, all who live by a rule, and all who are drawn to the life of prayer, and obtain vocations for the contemplative life in our own day.
And now, dear Saint Basil, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all the grace to glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with one faith and one undivided heart.
Amen.
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the bishop Saint Basil the Great, grant, we pray, that in humility we may learn your truth and practise it faithfully in charity. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St. Basil the Great, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“I received tremendous peace throughout as well as new understandings. On the last day I received a beautiful gift I didn’t ask for, a beautiful memory of my son. I’m so grateful and extremely happy! Thank you St Michael!! Glory to you O sweet God!!”
Day 8
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptised in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,” such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.
O glorious Saint Basil, whom the Church has named the Great, you were given every gift that the world admires, birth and learning and eloquence, and you laid them all at the feet of Christ when your sister showed you the emptiness of praise. Obtain for us the humility to see ourselves as we are, and the courage to give up whatever keeps us from God.
You fed the hungry in the famine with your own hands, and you built outside your city a place where the sick, the stranger, the aged and the leper were received as Christ himself. Teach us to see him in the poor, and to serve them not from a distance but with our own hands, as you did.
You stood before the prefect of an heretical emperor, threatened with the loss of all you had, with exile, with torture and with death, and you answered him that a bishop has nothing to lose. Obtain for us that same freedom, that fearing God we may fear nothing else, and may confess the faith of the Trinity plainly when it is costly to do so.
You gave a Rule to those who wished to leave everything for God, and the monasteries of the East have kept it for sixteen hundred years. Bless all monks and nuns, all who live by a rule, and all who are drawn to the life of prayer, and obtain vocations for the contemplative life in our own day.
And now, dear Saint Basil, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all the grace to glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with one faith and one undivided heart.
Amen.
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the bishop Saint Basil the Great, grant, we pray, that in humility we may learn your truth and practise it faithfully in charity. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St. Basil the Great, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“I received tremendous peace throughout as well as new understandings. On the last day I received a beautiful gift I didn’t ask for, a beautiful memory of my son. I’m so grateful and extremely happy! Thank you St Michael!! Glory to you O sweet God!!”
Day 9
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O doctor of the Holy Ghost, O defender of the Word Consubstantial to the Father, grant that we, now prostrate at thy feet, may ever live to the glory of the Holy Trinity. These are the words of thine own admirable formulary: “To be baptised in the Trinity, to hold one’s belief conformable to one’s baptism, to glorify God according to our faith,” such was the essential basis set down by thee, for the being a Monk; but is it not that also of the being a Christian? Would that all might thoroughly understand this! Vouchsafe, dear Saint, to bless us all.
O glorious Saint Basil, whom the Church has named the Great, you were given every gift that the world admires, birth and learning and eloquence, and you laid them all at the feet of Christ when your sister showed you the emptiness of praise. Obtain for us the humility to see ourselves as we are, and the courage to give up whatever keeps us from God.
You fed the hungry in the famine with your own hands, and you built outside your city a place where the sick, the stranger, the aged and the leper were received as Christ himself. Teach us to see him in the poor, and to serve them not from a distance but with our own hands, as you did.
You stood before the prefect of an heretical emperor, threatened with the loss of all you had, with exile, with torture and with death, and you answered him that a bishop has nothing to lose. Obtain for us that same freedom, that fearing God we may fear nothing else, and may confess the faith of the Trinity plainly when it is costly to do so.
You gave a Rule to those who wished to leave everything for God, and the monasteries of the East have kept it for sixteen hundred years. Bless all monks and nuns, all who live by a rule, and all who are drawn to the life of prayer, and obtain vocations for the contemplative life in our own day.
And now, dear Saint Basil, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all the grace to glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with one faith and one undivided heart.
Amen.
O God, who were pleased to give light to your Church by the example and teaching of the bishop Saint Basil the Great, grant, we pray, that in humility we may learn your truth and practise it faithfully in charity. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St. Basil the Great, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“I received tremendous peace throughout as well as new understandings. On the last day I received a beautiful gift I didn’t ask for, a beautiful memory of my son. I’m so grateful and extremely happy! Thank you St Michael!! Glory to you O sweet God!!”
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