Basil of Caesarea (c. 328-378) was the great father of Christian monasticism in eastern Anatolia, whose influence spread into all the Greek, Latin and Syriac speaking churches. Basilâs counsels for ascetics in community are collected in his Asketikon. The earliest version, the Small Asketikon, did not survive in the Greek, but only in a Latin translation (The Rule of Basil), and in a Syriac translation (The Questions of the Brothers). Silvas presents the first ever edition of the entire Syriac translation, drawn from five manuscripts, the oldest from the late 5th century. The introductory study shows how the Syriac translator was himself a warm-hearted spiritual father who made his own authorial contributions to the Questions of the Brothers.
Earning her PhD from UNE (2001), Silvas is an experienced researcher in Basil of Caesarea and and his circle. She has located the site of his original ascetic retreat and published an updated critical edition of the Rule of Basil. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
All interested in Basil, Christian monasticism, Syriac studies, the late 4th century, textual transmission, the oriental churches, the collaboration of Christian traditions; practioners too, of the monastic life and spirituality.