BASILIAN MONKS, EASTERN. - This is the name given to the religious of the East who model their monastic life on the rules of St. Basil. The expression "Order of St. Basil," under which all monks of the Byzantine rite were erroneously included from the 16th century down to our own times, originated in the West and was first used, at the beginning of the 11th century, as a simple chancery formula, by the Roman Curia, when the latter dealt with the Greek monks of southern Italy (v. BASILIANS of ITALY).
The Basilians, while preserving what is essential in the monastic life such as prayer, community life and the observance of the evangelical counsels, now differ from primitive monasticism in the variety of aims and regimes that guide them, and within Catholicism they comprise the following canonically recognized Orders:
I. BASILIAN ORDER OF ST. JOSAPHAT
It takes its name from the great monk and martyr Josaphat Kuncewicz (d. 1623), who felt moved to reform the monasticism of his country. When he became Archbishop of Polotsk, the reform gained strength through the work of Joseph Rutskyi, archimandrite from 1609 of the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Vilnius, who, having become metropolitan in 1614, convoked in July 1617 at his castle of Ruta near Novogrudok the first General Chapter of the reformed Basilians and, with the cooperation of the Jesuits, who had established themselves in Vilnius, drew up for them a draft of constitutions that mirrored down to the details the manner of life of the Society of Jesus, even better copied in the last legislative Chapter held at Torokany in 1780. Nevertheless the new Basilians retained the obligation of reciting the divine office, and whereas the monasteries of the East depend on the local bishop, Rutskyi grouped all the monasteries under the authority of a protoarchimandrite, a true general of the Order, freely elected by the Congregation. He established, however, that all the monks should depend, both for external ministry and for internal life, also on the metropolitan. He thus conferred on the institution a rigid organization perfectly suited to the active life as he had always desired, departing from the customs of the ancient Eastern monasteries. On the religious, in addition to the other three, was imposed the supplementary vow of refusing all dignities. Benedict XIV, however, dispensed them from it with the brief Incytam quidem of 12 April 1753. By decree of 4 October 1624, Propaganda Fide invited all the Ruthenian Basilians to unite in a congregation. And thus approved by Urban VIII with the brief Exponi nobis of 20 August 1631, it took the name of the Most Holy Trinity of Lithuania.
Meanwhile many monasteries of Poland, having come to the Catholic union, like others of new foundation, having remained independent of those congregations, united among themselves in the General Chapter held at Lviv in 1739, assuming the name of Congregation of the Protection of the B.V. Mary or of Poland. Benedict XIV, with the brief Etni dubitare of 27 November 1742, urged it to unite with the Congregation of Lithuania, as in fact happened in the General Chapter of the Duomo in May 1743. In this way there came to be a single Basilian Congregation divided into the two provinces of Lithuania and of Poland, and Benedict XIV, with the brief Inter plures of 11 May 1744, approving the resolutions of the Chapter, established that the congregation should take the name of Ordo s. Basilii Magni Ruthenorum and that the protoarchimandrite should be elected alternately from the one and the other province, as likewise the procurator general resident in Rome. These dispositions remained in force even after the partition of Poland. In 1744 the Ruthenian Basilians numbered about 1,300 with 72 monasteries in Lithuania and 69 in Poland. In 1780 the number of provinces was raised to three; one for Lithuania, another for the lands that had passed to Russia, and the third, of St. Nicholas, for White Russia. But when persecution broke out in Russia in 1832, in 1839 the Basilian Order could no longer exist there. In the Austrian domains the Order was not spared by Josephinism; so that, when the reform of Leo XIII was decreed in 1882, there existed in all only 14 monasteries.
The Ruthenian monks of Hungary, having remained independent of those of Poland, did not materially have to suffer; but, being by then reduced to very few, in 1922 they were annexed to the Congregation of Galicia reformed by Leo XIII. Of this congregation, which, in turn, was not in better conditions than the others, the same Pontiff, by the apostolic letter Singulare praesidium of 12 May 1882, entrusted the reform to the Jesuits, which, with the approval of the new constitution on 1 June 1896, was happily brought to completion by the monks themselves. The new congregation, called that of the Most Holy Savior, having become flourishing and numerous, was able to undertake missions in Brazil, in Canada and in the United States of America on behalf of Ruthenian emigrants and to take over in 1904 the direction of the Ruthenian College of Rome. In 1921 the Romanian Maxim, having become a Basilian in the monastery of Krekhiv in Galicia, wished to restore the ancient convent of Sts. Peter and Paul among his fellow countrymen of Transylvania. As a result of this, the necessity was felt to restore the local monastic organization, and the General Chapter, held at Dobromyl in July 1931, re-established the dignity of archimandrite for the whole congregation with residence in Rome and the authority of a protohegumen at the head of each of the three provinces, the Galician, the Subcarpathian for the lands south of the Carpathians, and the American-Canadian comprising also the United States of America, to which was added the vice-province of Brazil, today a province.
Moreover, in the pontifical audience of 24 February 1932, the monks of the reform of Dobromyl, divided into 23 monasteries, obtained permission to assume the name of "Basilian Order of St. Josaphat" in memory of the part played by this saint in the rebirth of the ancient Ruthenian congregation.
II. MELKITE BASILIAN MONKS OF THE MOST HOLY SAVIOR
These Basilians, also called "Salvatorians," trace their origin to a foundation of Euthymius Şafii (1642-1722), metropolitan of Tyre and Sidon. As early as 1684 he had gathered together some priests, having them take religious vows and building for them in 1708, near Sidon, the monastery and church that still exist. Like Rutskuyi, Euthymius did not at first intend to found a true monastery of the Eastern rite, but immediately his monks appear as Basilians and at the same time as true missionaries. In the constitution Demandatum of 24 Dec. 1743, Benedict XIV considers the Salvatorians as existing viam facti, declares them Basilians, enjoining upon them the observance of the genuine rule of St. Basil, and subjects them to the ordinary of the place and mediately to the Melkite patriarch of Antioch, to whom they remain directly subject in rites where no Catholic ordinary exists. The form of their government is analogous to that of the Shuwairite and Aleppine Basilians.
Until the conquest of Syria by the Egyptians (1831-32) the Salvatorians attended to the parochial ministry in Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt and the city of Damascus; and even today they continue above all to exercise it in the dioceses of Tyre, Sidon, Ptolemais (St. John of Acre), Caesarea Philippi (Paneas), Tripoli (Lebanon) and Damascus, in which they number 7 monasteries and 290 monks, for the most part priests.
III. BASILIAN ORDER OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (BALADITI SÜWAJRITI) OF THE MELKITES
From the monastery of Balamand, near Tripoli, around 1710 the two hieromonks Gerasimus and Solomon went out to withdraw into solitude; having reached Lebanon, they founded a small monastery near the little church of St. John the Baptist, found between Süwajr and Btagrîn. Because of the war the monastery soon had to be abandoned in order to seek refuge in Beirut. Solomon remained there alone when his companion returned to Balamand. However, in Sept. 1722 Gerasimus returned to his monastery, obtaining great favors from the Catholic metropolitan of Beirut. As the number of monks multiplied, in June 1720 they joined together in Chapter: they elected as archimandrite their confrere Nicephorus Karmi and fixed the rules of their discipline in 18 articles. In 1722 the archimandrite prescribed the taking of the three vows, in addition to that of humility, imitating the Lebanese Maronite monks. Subsequently, in order to complete the short and long rules of St. Basil, Fr. Nicholas Şi'ig found it appropriate simply to adopt the constitutions of the aforementioned Lebanese monks, derived from Italian constitutions not yet clearly identified. Nevertheless the variations turned out to be of small extent and were approved by Benedict XIV with the brief Ecclesiae Catholicae regimini of 11 June 1757.
Toward the end of the 18th century the metropolitan of Beirut, Ignatius Sarrüf, under the pretext of certain abuses, sought to reform the Süwajrite Congregation, but did not succeed, and gave rise to a new Congregation in the monastery of Mâr Sim'ân (St. Simeon Stylites near Beirut). The patriarch Theodosius VI Dahan suppressed it with the approval of Propaganda Fide, which nevertheless approved certain parts of the regulations imposed on the Süwajrites by the metropolitan (1784). The Süwajrites, although monks from their origin, nevertheless had, like the Salvatorians, to adapt themselves to serving parishes lacking secular clergy in the dioceses of Beirut and Zahleh.
At present they number 5 convents, 5 procuratures and 118 professed, for the most part hieromonks, who together with the liturgical life also devote themselves to works of apostolate and charity.
IV. ALEPPINE MELKITE BASILIAN ORDER
It is an offshoot of the Süwajrite Congregation, from which they separated as early as 1824. Since the separation had been annulled by the Emir of Lebanon, Bashir II Shihab, only in Sept. 1829 was a definitive division possible, approved by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide on 9 Jan. 1832. From then on the members of the Lebanese branch called themselves "Baladites," while the others called themselves "Aleppines." The Aleppine Basilians have never exercised the care of souls in their own country, but they administer 25 parishes outside it in the dioceses of Baalbek, Zahleh, Tripoli (Lebanon), in Damascus, in Transjordan, in Egypt and in the Sudan. They number 75 monks and 5 monasteries, among them that of the Most Holy Savior in Saba (Lebanese Republic).