BASILIANI, MONACI ORIENTALI. – This is the name given to the religious of the East who model their monastic life on the rules of s. Basilio. The expression “Order of s. Basilio,” under which, from the 16th century to our own times, all monks of the Byzantine rite were mistakenly included, 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 it concerned itself with the Greek monks of southern Italy (v. BASILIANI D'ITALIA (ITALO-GRECI)).
The B., while preserving what is essential to monastic life, such as prayer, communal life, and observance of the evangelical counsels, now differ from primitive monasticism in the variety of the aims and regimes that guide them, and within Catholicism comprise the following canonically recognized Orders:
I. ORDER OF ST. JOSAPHAT BASILIANS. — 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 Giuseppe Rutskuyi, archimandrite from 1609 of the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity at Vilna. Having become metropolitan in 1614, Rutskuyi convened 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 settled in Vilna, drew up for them a draft of constitutions that reflected, even in their details, the way of life of the Society of Jesus, copied still more closely in the last legislative Chapter held at Torokany in 1780. The new Basilians nevertheless retained the obligation of reciting the divine office; and, whereas the monasteries of the East depended upon the local bishop, Rutskuyi grouped all the monasteries under the authority of a proto-archimandrite, the true superior general of the Order, freely elected by the Congregation. He nevertheless established that all the monks should depend upon the metropolitan both for their external ministry and for their internal life. In this way he gave the institution a rigid organization perfectly suited to the active life, as he had always desired, moving away from the customs of the ancient Eastern monasteries. In addition to the other three, the religious were required to take the supplementary vow of refusing all dignities. Benedict XIV nevertheless dispensed them from this by 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. Thus approved by Urban VIII through the brief Exponi nobis of 20 August 1631, it assumed the name of the Congregation of the Most Holy Trinity of Lithuania.
Meanwhile, many monasteries of Poland that had entered into Catholic union, together with others of recent foundation that had remained independent of those congregations, joined together at the General Chapter held at Lviv in 1739, assuming the name of the Congregation of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or of Poland. Benedict XIV, through the brief Etni dubitare of 27 November 1742, urged it to unite with the Congregation of Lithuania, as in fact occurred at the General Chapter of the Cathedral in May 1743. In this way there came to be a single Basilian Congregation divided into the two provinces of Lithuania and Poland; and Benedict XIV, by the brief Inter plures of 11 May 1744, approving the resolutions of the Chapter, established that the congregation should assume the name Ordo s. Basilii Magni Ruthenorum and that the proto-archimandrite should be elected alternately from one province and the other, as should the procurator general residing in Rome. These provisions remained in force even after the partition of Poland. In 1744 the Ruthenian Basilians numbered approximately 1,300, with 72 monasteries in Lithuania and 69 in Poland. In 1780 the number of provinces was increased to three: one for Lithuania, another for the countries that had passed to Russia, and the third, that of St. Nicholas, for White Russia. But when persecution broke out in Russia in 1832, the Basilian Order could no longer exist there from 1839 onward. In the Austrian dominions the Order was not spared Josephinism; consequently, when the reform of Leo XIII was decreed in 1882, only 14 monasteries existed in all.
The Ruthenian monks of Hungary, who had remained independent of those of Poland, did not materially suffer; but, since they had by then been reduced to very few, in 1922 they were incorporated into the Congregation of Galicia, reformed by Leo XIII. This congregation, in turn, was no better off than the others; and the same Pontiff, by the apostolic letter Singulare praesidium of 12 May 1882, entrusted its reform to the Jesuits. With the approval of the new constitution on 1 June 1896, the reform was successfully completed by the monks themselves. The new congregation, called that of the Most Holy Saviour, having become flourishing and numerous, was able to undertake missions in Brazil, Canada, and the United States of America on behalf of the Ruthenian emigrants, and in 1904 to assume the direction of the Ruthenian College in Rome. In 1921 the Romanian Maxim, having become a Basilian at the monastery of Krekhiv in Galicia, wished to restore the ancient convent of SS. Peter and Paul among his fellow countrymen in Transylvania. As a result, the need 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 entire congregation, with residence in Rome, and the authority of a proto-egumen at the head of each of the three provinces: the Galician, the Sub-Carpathian, for the countries south of the Carpathians, and the American-Canadian, also comprising the United States of America. To the latter was added the vice-province of Brazil, now a province.
Moreover, at the papal audience of 24 February 1932, the monks of the Dobromyl reform, divided among 23 monasteries, obtained permission to assume the name «Order of St. Josaphat Basilians», in remembrance of the part played by this saint in the revival of the ancient Ruthenian congregation.
II. B. MELKITE MONKS OF THE MOST HOLY SAVIOR. - These B., 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 several 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 genuine monastery of the Eastern rite; nevertheless, his monks soon appear as B. and at the same time as true missionaries. In the constitution Demandatum of 24 December 1743, Benedict XIV regards the Salvatorians as existing viam facti, declares them B., enjoining them to observe the genuine rule of s. Basil, and subjects them to the local ordinary and, mediately, to the Melkite patriarch of Antioch, to whom they remain directly subject in rites where there is no Catholic ordinary. Their form of government is analogous to that of the B. šuwajrites and Aleppines.
Until the conquest of Syria by the Egyptians (1831–32), the Salvatorians devoted themselves to parish ministry in Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and the city of Damascus; even today they continue chiefly to exercise it in the dioceses of Tyre, Sidon, Ptolemais (St. John of Acre), Caesarea Philippi (Paneas), Tripoli (Lebanon), and Damascus, where they have 7 monasteries and 290 monks, most of them priests.
III. ORDER OF THE MELKITE BASILIAN MONKS OF S. JOHN THE BAPTIST (BALADITI SÜWAJRITI). — From the monastery of Balamand, near Tripoli, around 1710 the two hieromonks Gerasimo and Salomone departed in order to withdraw into solitude. Having reached Lebanon, they founded a small monastery near the little church of S. John the Baptist, which they found between Süwajr and Btagrîn. Because of the war, the monastery soon had to be abandoned, and they sought refuge in Beirut. Salomone remained there alone when his companion returned to Balamand. However, in September 1722 Gerasimo returned to his monastery, receiving great favors from the Catholic metropolitan of Beirut. As the number of monks increased, in June 1720 they assembled in Chapter: they elected their confrere Niceforo Karmi archimandrite and established 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 s. Basil, Fr. Nicola Şi'ig considered it advisable simply to adopt the constitutions of the aforementioned Lebanese monks, derived from Italian constitutions that have not yet been clearly identified. Nevertheless, the variations proved to be minor and were approved by Benedict XIV in the brief Ecclesiae Catholicae regimini of 11 June 1757.
Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the metropolitan of Beirut, Ignazio Sarrüf, under the pretext of certain abuses, attempted to reform the Süwajrite Congregation, but did not succeed, and began a new Congregation in the monastery of Mâr Sim'ân (S. Simone stilita near Beirut). The patriarch Teodosio VI Dahan suppressed it with the approval of Propaganda Fide, which nevertheless approved certain parts of the regulations imposed upon the Süwajriti by the metropolitan (1784). The Süwajriti, although monks from their origin, were nevertheless obliged, like the Salvatoriani, to adapt themselves to serving parishes lacking secular clergy in the dioceses of Beirut and Zahleh.
At present they number 5 convents, 5 procurations, and 118 professed members, most of them hieromonks, who, together with the liturgical life, also devote themselves to works of apostolate and charity.
IV. ALEPPIAN B. ORDER OF THE MELKITES. — This is a derivation of the Süwajrite Congregation, from which they separated as early as 1824. Since the separation was annulled by the emir of Lebanon, Bašir II Šihab, only in Sept. 1829 was a definitive division possible, approved by the S. 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 B. have never exercised the care of souls in their own country; however, outside it they administer 25 parishes in the dioceses of Ba'albek, Zahleh, Tripoli (Lebanon), in Damascus in Transjordan, in Egypt and in the Sudan. They number 75 monks and have 5 monasteries, including that of the Most Holy Saviour at Saba (Lebanese Republic).
grèce-slave en Pologne et en Russie, 2 vols., 2nd ed., Paris 1892-1898; C. Korolevskii, Histoire des Patriarchats Melchites, Rome 1910; A. Kerzon, Die griech.-kathol. Kirche in Galizien, 1921; A. Fortescue, The Uniate Eastern Churches, London 1923; J. Pargoire, Basile de Césarée et B., in DACL, II, cols. 507-10; Analecta Ordinis s. Basilii Magni, Leopoli 1924 (for the Ruthenians); S. Congr. Orientale, Statistica della gerarchia e dei fedeli di rito orientale, Vatican City 1932, pp. 323-42.