Basil to Gregory, a Priest Living with a Woman

Canon 89. A letter to Gregory, an unmarried priest, ordering him to send away a woman whom he kept in his house. He was seventy years old and declared himself free of all desire for women, and Saint Basil seems willing to believe him on this point. Yet he cites the third canon of Nicaea against the practice, tells him to avoid scandal, to place the woman in a monastery, and to be waited on by men. He warns him that if he does not comply, he will die suspended from his office and will give account to God; that he will be anathema to all the people; and that those who receive him to communion will be excommunicated. [a]