St Basil

We learn of the Cappadocian monastic office from the writings of St.Basil the Great (d. 379). Basil, a well-educated and cosmopolitan bishop, had visited the monastic centers of Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Egypt to learn their spirit and uses, and had lived the ascetic life with his friend Gregory Nazianzen (d. ca. 390) before becoming bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia and exarch of Pontus in 370. His famous rules have had enormous influence on the whole history of cenobitic monasticism – St. Benedict relied heavily on Basil-right up to our own day.

To give seculars a living model of Christian life, Basil established his communities of ascetics in towns, and in Longer Rules 3:1 he explicitly rejects the idea that they are “monks.” They were simply Christians taking the whole business seriously. For this reason the practices Basil describes are close to the usages of the secular churches – otherwise how could they be an example to the laity? But at the same time to ignore the ascetical heritage of Egypt, the cradle of religious life in the popular mind, was unthinkable. So these Basilian ascetics celebrated matins and vespers in imitation of the cathedral offices, adding to them terce, sext, none, and later compline, as well as something new, a mesonyktikon or nightly vigil not at cockcrow as in Palestine and Antioch, but at midnight. Clearly, this cursus is mainly a “liturgicizing” of the ancient horarium of Christian daily prayer.

Liturgy of the Hours in East and West, 84