Archbishop
Saint Martyr Basil, Archbishop of Chernigov and Nezhin, was born in February 1867 in the village of Staroye Seslavino in Tambov Province. He came from a priestly family. In 1888, he graduated from the Tambov Theological School and in 1900 from the Kazan Theological Academy. In 1907, he completed his dissertation, entitled The Second Book of Maccabees. In 1908, he became a monk and a lecturer at the Chernigov Theological Seminary. From 1909 until 6 May 1917, he served as a bishop.
In 1917, by order of the Provisional Government, he was forced to retire. He was transferred to the Nikolaev-Terebensk Monastery and later became head of the Zaikonospassky Monastery in Moscow. He participated in the proceedings of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church and, in 1918, was sent to Perm to investigate the arrest and murder of Archbishop Andronik.
His train was stopped by Red Army soldiers, who killed the members of the commission and threw him from the Kama River bridge on 14 August (27 August according to the New Style calendar) 1918. His body was buried by local peasants. However, shortly afterwards, the Bolsheviks exhumed his remains and burned them.
He was canonised among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000.
