religious community of the order of St Basil. That saint, having retired into a desert in the province of Pontus, founded a monastery for the convenience of himself and his numerous followers; and, for the better regulation of this society, he drew up in writing the orders and rules which they were to observe. This new order soon spread all over the East, and ere long passed into the West; and it is even said that Basil, before he died, saw himself the spiritual father of more than ninety thousand monks in the East only. The historians of the order state that it produced fourteen popes, several cardinals, and a great number of patriarchs and archbishops, 1805 bishops, 3010 abbots, 11,803 martyrs, with an infinite number of confessors, virgins, &c. It was introduced into the West in 1557, and reformed in 1569 by Pope Gregory XIII, who united the religious of this order in Italy, Spain, and Sicily, into one congregation.