Archbishop
Saint Martyr Basil, Archbishop of Chernihiv and Nizhyn, was born in February 1867 in the village of Staroe Seslavino, Tambov Province, in the family of a priest. In 1888, he graduated from the Tambov Theological Seminary, and in 1900 — from the Kazan Theological Academy. In 1907, he was awarded the degree of Master of Theology for his dissertation on the topic: “The Second Book of Maccabees.” In 1908, he took monastic vows and became the rector of the Chernihiv Theological Seminary. From 1909 to May 6, 1917, he occupied the Chernihiv See as a bishop.
In 1917, by the order of the Provisional Government, he was sent into retirement for “belonging to the old order.” He was transferred to the Nikolaev Tereben Monastery, and later managed the Moscow Zaikonospassky Monastery. He participated in the activities of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church and in 1918 was commissioned to Perm to investigate the arrest and murder of Archbishop Andronicus.
After the investigation, his train was stopped by Red Army soldiers, who killed the members of the commission, and the bishop himself was thrown from the Kama Bridge into the river on August 14 (27 new style) 1918. His body was buried by local peasants, but later the Bolsheviks exhumed it and burned it. He was canonized among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Archpastoral Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for public veneration.
