Basilios 3 was bishop of Gortyna in Crete; he attended the Third Council of Constantinople (the Sixth Ecumenical Council) in 680 and 681 and was present at all eighteen sessions: Riedinger, pp. 16-822 (= Mansi XI 209-669). In the lists of those attending each session he is styled Βασιλείου ἐπισκόπου πόλεως Γορτύνης τῆς Κρητῶν νήσου: Riedinger, p. 16, line 20, p. 28, line 24, etc. (= Mansi XI 209, 217, etc). In the subscriptions to the statement of the faith, which condemned monotheletism, and to the Council, he is styled Βασίλειος ἐλέει Θεοῦ ἐπίσκοπος μητροπόλεως Γορτύνης τῆς Κρητῶν νήσου καὶ ληγάτος τῆς ἁγίας συνόδου τοῦ ἀποστολικοῦ θρόνου τῆς πρεβυτέρας Ῥώμης (or similar): Riedinger, p. 780, lines 1-2, p.822, lines 32-34 (= Mansi XI 641, 669). He therefore represented the Council of Rome which had met at Easter 680, and condemned monotheletism, although he did not attend it himself; the evidence of the lists of those attending each session at Constantinople suggests that he did not begin to fulfil this representative role until the sixteenth session, when his name is moved from its previous position on the lists to join those of representatives of the Roman Council. Cf. also Ioannes 32 and Stephanos 22. According to the Liber Pontificalis it was he who removed the orarion from Makarios 1 when the latter was anathematised and deposed (at the eighth session of the Council): Lib. Pont. 81. 13 ("Basilius Cretensis episcopus"). At the ninth session (8 March 681) he defended the doctrine of Two Wills and criticised the arguments used by the monothelete monk, Stephanos 17: Riedinger, p. 270, line 9 (=\n Mansi XI 384) (Βασίλειος ὁ θεοφιλὴς ἐπίσκοπος Γορτύνης). During the tenth session (18 March), after the reading of a passage from Anastasios, an earlier archbishop of Antioch (probably Anastasios I, 559-570, 593-598), Basilios 3 asked if the Council accepted what Anastasios had written: Riedinger, p. 364, line 13 (= Mansi XI 437) (cf. Theodoros 26).

Basilios 3 was among those who signed the copy of the definition of the faith sent to the bishop of Rome, Agatho 1; he signed on his own behalf and on that of the bishops under him: Riedinger, p. 891, lines 21-22 (= Mansi XI 689). In 692 Basilios 3 attended the Quinisext Council at Constantinople, when he signed the canons; he is again attested as representing the bishops of the see of Rome: Ohme, Bischofsliste, p. 146, no. 15 (= Mansi XI 989) (Βασίλειος ἐπίσκοπος τῆς Γορτυνέων μητροπόλεως τῆς φιλοχρίστου Κρήτης νήσου καὶ τὸν τόπον ἐπέχων πάσης τῆς συνόδου τῆς ἁγίας ἐκκλησίας Ῥώμης).

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