MADAGASCAR - Toliara
Christianus Educandus In the twilight of the fourth century AD. between the land of saints Cappadocia, and the land of philosophers Athens, rises the greatest of personalities, the crown of theologians and an exemplar of ascetics, the truly Great amongst the humble, Basil. Lover of Christ and of fervent prayer, spectator of the uncreated light, and at the same time, philosopher, philologist, jurist, orator, naturalist, possessing profound knowledge in astronomy, mathematics and medicine, a man who had mastered all the available disciplines at the time. At one point in his writings, where he talks about his studies,
regretting that he was kept away from prayer, that is, away from his relationship to the Person of Jesus Christ, he decides to write the famous exhortation «To the youth», a Christian pedagogical textbook on how the young should approach knowledge and faith. In it, there is a beautiful analogy: «the young must move on the journey of knowledge like the bee, which avoids thorns to find nectar”, that is, to escape the thorny pluralism, the selfish gathering of information and to be initiated into the mystery of education which offers the whole horizon of expression for the experience of a Christian. 39
