This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. WLC 2016 : World LUMEN Congress. Logos Universality Mentality Education Novelty 2016 | LUMEN 15th Anniversary Edition Saint Basil the Great on Confessing Sins and the Severity of Penitence Liviu Petcu a * * Corresponding author: Liviu Petcu, liviuparaschiv@yahoo.com a PhD, Researcher, „Al. I. Cuza” University, Iași, Romania, liviuparaschiv@yahoo.com Abstract Writing at about the middle of the 4 th century, Saint Basil the Great, the bishop of Caesarea, has remained renowned for his ascetics and also for being a church canonist. He describes in detail the different categories of penitents and the type and duration of the repentance to which those who would commit sins of a sexual nature, murders or apostasies. Saint Basil does not conceive a confession in the absence of the priest, for he is the one who receives the secret confession, regulates the public one and imposes to the penitent the necessary canon in order for him to be healed of the disease that sin is. Therefore, a great role in designating the role of the penitent is played by the bishop or priest, who is described in numerous places by Saint Basil as being the “manager of repentance”. He is at the disposal of the ones he shepherds in order to listen to their confession and give them the canon they need. Saint Basil’s canon 34 imposes the secrecy of confession, as the role of the sacrament is not divulging the secrets of a man, causing a scandal or exposing him to the judgement of people. This study will introduce the reader in the teachings of Saint Basil the Great on confessing sins and the severity of penitence. The guidance which he offered in these respects remains eloquent for Christian clerics everywhere for good. © 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk Keywords: Basil the Great; repentance; confession of sins; spiritual father; canon. http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2016.09.93