Presbyter
Saint Martyr Basil was born on February 25, 1875, in the town of Stary Oskol, Kursk province. After finishing school and the Kursk Spiritual Seminary, he was appointed as a psalmist in the church in the village of Ust-Stuzhen, and later ordained as a deacon and a law teacher at the parish school. In 1919, he became a priest at the church in the village of Dolbino, and in 1922, he was transferred to the church in the village of Rovenki.
On January 13, 1930, he was appointed to serve in the church in the village of Nizhny Ikorets. At that time, the clergy of the Voronezh diocese was engulfed in turmoil. Father Basil was arrested and imprisoned in the Voronezh prison, where he was held with other priests. He was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment in a concentration camp and sent to the Khabarovsk region.
