Presbyter
Hieromartyr Basil was born on April 11, 1870, in the village of Klyuchi, Kerensky Uyezd, Penza Governorate, into a priest’s family. In 1890, he graduated from the Penza Theological Seminary. He married; his family consisted of his wife, Yulia Yakovlevna, and their three daughters. In 1890, Vasily Alexandrovich was appointed psalmist and teacher at the parish school. In 1891, he was ordained to the priesthood and assigned to the church in the village of Ilmino, Gorodishchensky Uyezd, Penza Governorate.
In 1911, Father Basil was appointed rector of the cathedral in the fortress of Sveaborg in Finland, and in the same year Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) of Moscow elevated him to the rank of archpriest. In 1918, the parish community of the Church of Venerable Chariton the Confessor in Moscow petitioned the church authorities to appoint Archpriest Basil to that church, and the request was granted. In 1921, Archpriest Basil was awarded the palitsa, and in 1923 Patriarch Tikhon awarded him the mitre.
In the spring of 1937, following the arrest of Archpriest Alexander Lebedev, rector of the Theophany Cathedral in Dorogomilovo, Moscow, Archpriest Basil was appointed rector of the cathedral and served there until his own arrest.
Hieromartyr Alexander was born on May 30, 1886, in the village of Spasskoye, Moscow Uyezd, Moscow Governorate, into a priest’s family. He graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and was ordained to the priesthood. Until 1929, he served in churches of the Moscow region. In 1929, Father Alexander was arrested because he was unable to pay the tax imposed on him by the village council and was sentenced to one year of imprisonment. Father Alexander appealed the unjust sentence, was acquitted, and released. After that, he moved to Moscow and served in various churches of the city; from 1934, he served at the Theophany Cathedral in Dorogomilovo.
On December 11, 1937, the entire clergy of the Moscow Cathedral of the Theophany in Dorogomilovo was arrested, including the cathedral’s rector, Archpriest Basil (Yagodin), and Priest Alexander Buravtsev.
On December 20, 1937, an NKVD troika sentenced Priests Basil and Alexander to execution by shooting. On December 22, 1937, Archpriest Basil Yagodin and Priest Alexander Buravtsev were executed and buried in an unmarked common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.
