Saint Basil the Great Speaks Out On Sacred Tradition

St. Basil, in the mid-fourth century, needed to correct those who would attempt to dismiss doctrine because it was handed down as St Paul would say, instead of being written down. He too must have heard one too many times "where does it mention the sign of the cross in the Bible, huh?" or similar questions. St. Basil's comments below could have come from a modern day Catholic apologist explaining sacred tradition to a bible-only believer.


"Time will fail me if I attempt to recount the unwritten mysteries of the Church. Of the rest I say nothing; but of the very confession of our faith in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, what is the written source? If it be granted that, as we are baptized, so also under the obligation to believe, we make our confession in like terms as our baptism, in accordance with the tradition of our baptism and in conformity with the principles of true religion, let our opponents grant us too the right to be as consistent in our ascription of glory as in our confession of faith. If they deprecate our doxology on the ground that it lacks written authority, let them give us the written evidence for the confession of our faith and the other matters which we have enumerated. While the unwritten traditions are so many, and their bearing on single word which has come down to us from the Fathers;--which we found, derived from untutored custom, abiding in unperverted churches;--a word for which the arguments are strong, and which contributes in no small degree to the completeness of the force of the mystery?" St Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea (329-379)