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

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).^[1]

In addition, some passages in the Rule of Saint Basil are inauthentic.^[2][3]