Venerable Father Basil, Son of Bagrat III

The Venerable Basil was the son of Bagrat III, king of Georgia. Inclined from childhood to the monastic life, the saint made a deep study of philosophy and theology, mastered many foreign languages, and was one of the eminent philosophers and theologians of his time.

Saint Basil laboured in the lavra of Khakhuli and directed its spiritual and educational work. Prince Ioane (1768–1830) describes him thus in the “Kalmasoba”: “Basil Bagrationi was accomplished in philosophy and theology, a good translator from other languages, a rhetorician and narrator and a composer in the lofty style, perfect in the monastic life and an enlightener of the churches, whom they called the ornament of the churches of the Georgians.”

Prince Vakhushti, in “The Ancient History of Georgia”, surveys the cultural situation of Georgia in the time of Bagrat IV and mentions Basil, son of Bagrat, beside other churchmen: “The translators of those times were: Basil, son of Bagrat”…

George the Lesser also preserved information about Basil, son of Bagrat, in the Life of George the Athonite: as soon as Jacob had brought the ten-year-old George to Khakhuli, his uncles, the venerable fathers George the Scribe and Sabbas (commemorated 19 December), took him for a blessing to the abbot of Khakhuli at that time, the Venerable Macarius (commemorated 21 December), and to those labouring there: the God-clad Anthony and “the great Basil, son of Bagrat the Third, who at that time was the teacher and enlightener of our land…”

Afterwards the Venerable Basil moved to the house on Athos and there wrote “Hymns to the Holy Father Euthymius”.

The ornament of the Church of Georgia and enlightener of our land, Saint Basil Bagrationi, reposed on the holy mountain of Athos, in the monastery of the Iberians.