Basilians (Vasilians, lat. OSBM, Ordo Sancti Basilii Magni) is the common name of several Catholic monastic orders of the Byzantine rite, following the cenobitic charter, which is attributed to St. Basil the Great. All Basilian orders also have female branches.
The Basilians are:
• Order of the Italian Basilians of the monastery of Grottaferrata, Italo-Albanian Catholic Church (lat. Ordo Basilianus Italiae, seu Cryptoferratensis);
• The Basilian Order of St. Josaphat, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (lat. Ordo Basilianus Sancti Josaphat, Ukrainian ChSVV, Order of St. Basil the Great, also Ukrainian. Basilian Order of St. Josaphat);
• Melkite Orders of the Holy Savior, St. John the Baptist and the Aleppine Order, Melkite Catholic Church.
Monastery of Grottaferrata
Abbey of Grottaferrata
The first monasteries of the Byzantine rite appeared in southern Italy in the 8th-9th centuries. They were founded by Greeks who fled from Byzantium during the period of iconoclasm. In 1004, the monk Nil Rossansky founded the monastery of Grottaferrata, 18 kilometers from Rome. After the Great Schism, this and a number of other monasteries in southern Italy continued to practice the Byzantine liturgy and live according to the rule of St. Basil the Great, being in communion with the Holy See as part of the Italo-Greek (later Italo-Albanian Eastern Catholic Church). The practice of using the rule of Basil the Great in the Catholic Church was finally legalized in 1561 by Pope Pius IV. In 1579, on the basis of the Greek monasteries in Central and Southern Italy, Pope Gregory XIII founded a single order of Italian Basilians with a center in Grottaferrata.
The order was almost destroyed at the end of the 18th-19th centuries as a result of the secularization policy pursued in the Kingdom of Naples, all the Basilian monasteries, except for Grottaferrata, were closed. In 1937, Pope Pius XII raised Grottaferrata Abbey to the status of a territorial abbey with direct subordination to the Vatican, the abbey is currently an independent unit within the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church. The monastery has 25 monks, of which 15 are priests[1]
Basilian of St. Jehoshaphat
The Order was founded in 1617 on the basis of the monasteries that accepted the Union of Brest in 1596. Originally called the Order of the Holy Trinity. Confirmed by Pope Urban VIII in 1631.
The order became widespread in the eastern regions of the Commonwealth, where the majority of the population traditionally adhered to the Byzantine rite. The activities of the order contributed to the transition to Catholicism of the Eastern rite of the Orthodox population of the eastern lands of the Commonwealth. Subsequently, the order was renamed in honor of St. Josaphat Kuntsevich.
Since 1720, all Greek Catholic monasteries in the Commonwealth belonged to the Basilians. Until the end of the 18th century, almost all the Greek Catholic metropolitans of Kyiv were Basilians. In the middle of the XVIII century, the order consisted of 195 monasteries and more than a thousand monks.
Great emphasis in the activities of the order was placed on the education of young people, in this field the Basilians competed with the Jesuits, and after the dissolution of the latter they received several Jesuit colleges in their possession, so that at the end of the 18th century they were in charge of about twenty-six schools. The Basilians also owned 4 printing houses, the largest was located in the Pochaev Lavra.
The heyday of the order ended with the divisions of the Commonwealth. In the 19th century, the order effectively ceased to exist as a centralized organization, although independent Basilian monasteries continued to exist in Austria-Hungary. In the Russian Empire, Basilian monasteries outside the Kingdom of Poland were closed in the 1830s, and in the Kingdom of Poland thirty years later.
By 1882, the order was reduced to 60 monks in 14 monasteries, but then a new rise of the order began. In 1896, Pope Leo XIII approved a new constitution for the order. The Basilians began to actively establish missions in the New World, working primarily with Ukrainian and Belarusian emigrants. By 1939 the number of monks had grown to 650.
After the Lvov Cathedral in 1946 and the ban of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the activities of the Basilians in the USSR were illegal, and the monasteries of the order continued to exist only in the diaspora countries.
After the collapse of the USSR and the exit of the Greek Catholics from the underground, the order was restored in independent Ukraine and in other Central and Eastern European countries, including Belarus.
Currently, the order is actively involved in the revival of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine and the spread of its activities in the eastern regions of the country. In Ukraine, the Basilians own 31 monasteries. In total, according to 2005 data, the order consisted of 609 monks, 310 of which were priests.[2]
Basilian-Melkites
There are three Basilian-Melkite orders, for which a single monastic constitution was created in 1934.
• The Basilian-Melkite Order of the Holy Savior (lat. Ordo Basilianus Sanctissimi Salvatoris Melkitarum) was founded in 1684 in Lebanon, approved by the Holy See in 1717. The residence of the order is located in the city of Saida (Lebanon). 18 monastic cloisters are located in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and the Palestinian Authority. In 1998, the order consisted of 123 monks, of which 94 were priests.
• The Order of the Basilian-Melkites of St. John the Baptist (lat. Ordo Basilianus Sancti Johannis Baptistae Melkitarum), also called the Order of the Shuwayrites, was founded in 1712 in Lebanon, in the village of Shuwayr. Approved by the Holy See in 1757. The residence of the order is located in the city of Khonchara (Lebanon). All 6 monastic cloisters are located in Lebanon. In 1998, the order consisted of 56 monks, of which 38 were priests.
• The Basilian-Melkite Order of the Aleppines (lat. Ordo Basilianus Aleppensis Melkitarum) was founded in 1829 in Lebanon, branched off from the Shuwayrites. Approved by the Holy See in 1832. 13 monastic cloisters are located in Egypt and Sudan. In 1998, the order consisted of 37 monks, of which 29 were priests.
