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

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).

In addition, some passages in the Rule of Saint Basil are inauthentic.

References

Bibliography

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