Basil the Blessed(1469 - 1552), also known as Vasily Nagoy - the legendary Moscow holy fool, canonized. He went down in history as a miracle worker who exposed lies and hypocrisy and had the gift of foresight.
Foolishness is a Christian feat, consisting in a deliberate effort to appear stupid, insane. The purpose of such behavior (for the sake of Christ's foolishness) is to denounce external worldly values, conceal one's own virtues and incur anger and insults on oneself, that is, conscious self-sacrifice. As a rule, holy fools renounced the blessings familiar to man, did not have a home and ate alms, many wore chains - iron chains, rings and stripes, sometimes hats and soles worn on a naked body to humble the flesh.
Biography of St. Basil the Blessed
There are many white spots in the biography of the saint: the life, the oldest list of which is dated 1600, does not tell in such detail about his life, and urban legends and traditions became almost the only source of information about him.
Vasily was born in 1469 in the village of Yelokhovo (now located within the boundaries of Moscow), on the porch, where his mother came to pray for a "favorable resolution." His parents were simple peasants, and Vasily himself was a hardworking and God-fearing young man, and as a teenager he was sent to be trained in shoemaking.
The gift of insight was discovered by accident: according to legend, a merchant came to the shoemaker, whose assistant Vasily worked, asking him to make boots for himself that he would not wear out until his death. Vasily, hearing this, laughed and wept; when the merchant left, the boy explained to the shoemaker that the customer really would not be able to wear them out, because he would die soon and would not even put on a new thing. And so it happened: the very next day the merchant died.
At the age of 16, he went to Moscow and until his death performed the feat of foolishness: both in the heat and in the cold, Vasily went naked all year round (for this reason he received the nickname Vasily Nagoy) and spent the night in the open, exposing himself to hardships. The holy fool lived in the area of Red Square and Kitay-gorod, after the construction of the Kitaigorod wall, he often spent the night at the Barbarian Gates. All his life, by word and by example, he taught people moral life and denounced lies and hypocrisy, sometimes doing rather strange things: he would scatter a trading stall, then throw stones at houses - angry townspeople beat an eccentric man, but then it turned out that his actions were righteous, they just were not immediately understood. Basil meekly accepted the beatings and thanked God for them, and they recognized him as a holy fool, a man of God and a denouncer of untruth. His veneration grew rapidly, people came to him for advice and healing.
Basil the Blessed found the reign Ivan III and Ivan IV the Terrible, and, as historians note, he was perhaps the only person whom Ivan the Terrible feared, believing him to be a seer of human hearts and thoughts. Grozny invited him to receptions, and when Vasily fell seriously ill, he personally visited him with Tsarina Anastasia and the children.
The holy fool died on August 15, 1552 (possibly 1551) and was buried in the cemetery of the Trinity Church, on the Moat. The coffin with his body was carried by Ivan the Terrible himself and the boyars closest to him, and the burial was performed by the Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia Macarius.
In 1555-1561, instead of the Trinity Church, in memory of the capture of Kazan, on the orders of Ivan the Terrible, was built Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, on the Moat. After the canonization of the saint in 1588, a church in honor of St. Basil the Blessed was added to the new cathedral, which was located above the place of his burial. Therefore, the people began to call the Intercession Cathedral Basil's Cathedral.
Miracles attributed to the saint
Although the way of life of the holy fool is quite specific, St. Basil the Blessed became famous as a seer and miracle worker who helped people and denounced lies and hypocrisy. He is credited with a large number of miracles, both committed during life and after death.
Passing by the houses of the righteous, Basil threw stones at them: according to him, there were demons around them that could not go inside, and he drove them away. At the dwellings of sinners, on the contrary, he kissed the corners of the walls and wept under them, explaining his behavior by the fact that this house casts out the Angels who protect it from itself, and until there is a place for them in it, they stand at its corners mournful and sad - Basil, with tears, begged them to pray to God for the conversion and forgiveness of sinners.
Once Vasily scattered rolls in the bazaar from one merchant, another time he knocked over a jug of kvass. At first, people did not understand what was the matter, but later the kalachnik admitted that he added lime to the flour, and the kvass turned out to be spoiled.
A certain boyar, probably grateful for something to the holy fool, gave him a fox fur coat. The thieves, seeing Vasily with a fur coat, wanted to take it away, but did not dare to attack and decided to lure her out by deceit: one of them pretended to be dead, while others went to Vasily and began to beg for a fur coat to cover the "deceased". Vasily recognized the deception, but covered the body of the "dead man" with his fur coat, and when the thieves took it off, it turned out that he was really dead.
In the summer of 1547, the holy fool came to the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery on the Island (near the street) and began to cry heavily. At first, Moscow did not understand why Vasily was crying, but the next day - June 21, 1547 - the reason for the tears was revealed: in the morning a wooden church caught fire in the monastery, the fire quickly went beyond it and spread throughout the city. The fire predicted by St. Basil the Blessed was devastating: all Zaneglimenye and Kitay-gorod burned out.
Once Ivan the Terrible invited the holy fool to his name day, during which wine was brought to him. Vasily poured 3 glasses of wine out the window one by one; the king got angry and asked him why he was doing this: pouring the wine offered by the king out the window is an unheard of impudence. The holy fool replied that with that wine he helped to extinguish a great fire in Novgorod. A couple of days later, the messengers brought the news that a terrible fire had broken out in Novgorod, which an unknown naked man helped to put out.
Above the Barbarian Gates of Kitay-Gorod was placed the image of the Mother of God, which was considered miraculous and attracted pilgrims thirsty for healing. Once Basil threw a stone at the image and broke it; the crowd attacked the holy fool and severely beat him, but he begged them to scrape the paint. When the paint layer was removed, it turned out that the icon was "adic" - the image of the devil was hidden under the image of the Mother of God.
One merchant planned to build a stone church, but the construction did not work: its vaults collapsed three times. He turned to St. Basil for advice, and he sent him to Kiev, advising him to find poor John there, who would help complete the construction of the church. The merchant went to Kiev and found John, who was sitting in a poor hut and rocking an empty cradle. The merchant asked who he was pumping, and John replied that he was pumping his own mother - he was paying an unpaid debt for birth and upbringing. Only then did the merchant remember that he had driven his mother out of the house, felt ashamed and understood why he could not complete the church. Returning to Moscow, he asked for forgiveness from his mother and returned her home, after which he was able to complete what he had begun.
Basil the Blessed tried to help those in need, but was ashamed to beg. Once the tsar richly endowed the holy fool; he, having accepted the gifts, did not keep them for himself, but gave them to a ruined foreign merchant, who was left without everything and had not eaten anything for 3 days, but could not beg. Although the merchant did not approach him, Vasily knew that he needed help more than anyone else.
Once Vasily saw a demon who pretended to be a beggar and sat at the Prechistensky Gate, providing everyone who gave him alms with immediate help in business. The holy fool realized that the demon corrupts people, tempting them to give alms for selfish purposes, and not out of sympathy for poverty and misfortune, and drove him away.
Urban legends say that after the death of St. Basil the Blessed, people more than once found healing at his grave: the blind man regained his sight, the dumb man began to speak. The most incredible incident occurred in 1588, when the saint was canonized: during August, 120 people were healed with his help.
In fact, due to insufficient information about the biography of the holy fool, it is completely incomprehensible which of the urban legends known about him can be true, and which ones were invented much later. In particular, the case of the inscription on the Barbarian Gates is often questioned, if only because historians are not sure in principle about the existence of inscriptions.
One way or another, the holy fool forever entered the history of Moscow, becoming one of the brightest legendary personalities of the capital.
He was born on September 1, 1468 in the village of Yelokhovo, then near Moscow, into a peasant family. His parents, Jacob and Anna, only towards the end of their lives, thanks to tireless prayers, had a child.
God rewarded Basil from birth with the gift of clairvoyance, and from the age of seven he began to make predictions. Over time, they began to fear him in the village, and his peers beat him, saying at the same time that he croaks and brings trouble.
At the age of sixteen, Vasily left his parents and moved to Moscow. He chose for himself one of the most difficult ways of serving God - foolishness.
By this time, the young man was not tall, stocky, he had gray eyes and brown, slightly wavy hair.
He was gentle and kind in nature. Resignedly endured numerous ridicule and beatings. He never took offense at anyone and accepted everything with a smile, while saying: "If winter is fierce, then paradise is sweet."
Vasily almost always walked the streets naked, even in the most severe frosts and colds. He meekly endured hunger and thirst.
The blessed one did not have a home, spending the night in a tower in the wall of Kitay-Gorod. I ate only what good people served. And always kept all the posts.
Muscovites have always listened to what the holy fool said.
In 1521, Vasily, foreseeing the raid of the Tatars on Moscow, began to pray frantically to ward off trouble from the city. The prayers of St. Basil the Blessed and the intervention of the Mother of God averted the danger from the walls of the city. In memory of this miraculous deliverance, on May 21, the Orthodox Church celebrates a holiday in honor of the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God - the patroness of Moscow and Russia.
Even the king listened to the advice of the holy fool. Once Basil the Blessed was invited to the palace to the king, and as a respected guest they served him a cup of drink. Unexpectedly for everyone, the holy fool took and threw the drink out the window. Then he threw out the second served cup, then the third.
After that, Basil the Blessed said to the angry tsar: “Do not be angry, tsar, for with the libation of this drink I extinguished the fire that enveloped Novgorod at this hour.”
Having said this, the saint disappeared from the palace so swiftly that no one could catch up with him. Ivan the Terrible ordered to send a messenger to Novgorod to find out what had happened there. Everything was confirmed - on that very day and hour, when Vasily poured out the drink through the window, a terrible fire raged in Novgorod. According to eyewitnesses, the fire was extinguished from nowhere by a naked man with a bucket of water, who filled the raging flames.
When the Novgorod merchants arrived in Moscow, they recognized that same naked man in St. Basil the Blessed.
Here is another case testifying to the foresight of St. Basil the Blessed. Once Ivan the Terrible, standing in the temple, mentally thought about the construction of his palace on the Sparrow Hills. After the end of the service, Vasily reproached the tsar for the fact that he, being in the temple, mentally wandered around the construction site on Sparrow Hills.
The annals say that Ivan the Terrible was even afraid of the holy fool, who could read people's thoughts.
Basil the Blessed, wandering the streets of Moscow, did strange things - at some houses he kissed the corners of the building, he threw stones at the corners of other houses.
This was explained as follows - if in the house they “do good and pray”, then stones should be thrown at the corners of this bright house in order to drive away the demons gathered there. If, on the contrary, indecent things are happening in the house - they drink wine, sing shameless songs, then the corners of this house must be kissed, because angels expelled from their homes are now sitting there.
One day, a nobleman gave Vasily a warm fur coat, because there were unheard-of frosts on the street. Dashing robbers coveted this fur coat. They did not dare to rob the holy fool, because it was considered a terrible sin, and decided to deceive him with cunning.
One of them lay down on the ground and pretended to be dead, and his friends began to persuade Vasily, who was passing by, to donate something for the burial. Saint Basil sighed, seeing such craftiness, and asked: “Did your comrade really die? When did this happen to him? “Yes, he just died,” his friends confirmed.
Then the Blessed One took off his fur coat and, covering the lying one, said: “Let it be as they said. For your wickedness."
Vasily left, and when the pleased deceivers began to disturb their lying comrade, they were horrified to find that he had really died.
Basil the Blessed died at the age of eighty on August 2, 1552. Ivan the Terrible and the boyars carried his coffin, and Metropolitan Macarius performed the burial.
Vasily's body was buried in the cemetery of the Trinity Church in the Moat, where Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of the Pokrovsky Cathedral soon, in memory of the conquest of Kazan, better known as St. Basil's Cathedral.
Since 1588, they began to talk about miracles taking place at the tomb of Blessed Basil; as a result, Patriarch Job decided to celebrate the memory of the miracle worker on the day of his death, August 2.
In 1588, by order of Theodore Ioannovich, a chapel was built in the name of St. Basil the Blessed at the place where he was buried; a silver shrine was made for his relics.
Sarcophagus with the relics of St. Basil the Blessed
At the tomb of St. Basil, healings of many patients from various ailments began to take place. The Intercession Cathedral received from this a second name - St. Basil's Cathedral. This name, as a sign of respect for the great saint, has survived to this day.
Since ancient times, the memory of the Blessed in Moscow has been celebrated with great solemnity: the patriarch himself served and the tsar himself was usually present at the service.
Wonders
Basil the Blessed is credited with many miracles, both during life and after death.
A man came to the owner of Vasily to order boots and asked him to make them that he would not endure until his death. Vasily laughed and cried. After the merchant left, the boy explained his behavior to the master by saying that the merchant was ordering boots that he would not be able to wear, as he would soon die, which came true.
One day, the thieves, noticing that the saint was dressed in a good fur coat, given to him by a certain boyar, planned to deceive it from him; one of them pretended to be dead, while others asked Vasily for burial. Vasily covered the dead man with his fur coat, but seeing the deceit, he said at the same time: “Fox fur coat, cunning, cover the fox case, cunning. From now on, be you dead for slyness, for it is written: let the sly ones be consumed. When the dashing people took off his fur coat, they saw that their friend was already dead.
Once, Blessed Basil scattered kalachi in the bazaar at one kalachnik, and he confessed that he had mixed chalk and lime into the flour.
The Book of Degrees tells that in the summer of 1547 Vasily came to the Ascension Monastery on Ostrog (now Vozdvizhenka) and prayed for a long time with tears in front of the church. The next day, the well-known Moscow fire began, namely from the Vozdvizhensky Monastery.
While in Moscow, the saint saw a fire in Novgorod, which he put out with three glasses of wine.
With a stone, he broke the image of the Mother of God on the Varvara Gates, which has long been considered miraculous. He was attacked by a crowd of pilgrims who flocked from all over Russia for the purpose of healing, and they began to beat him with a “mortal combat”. The holy fool said: “And you will scratch the paint layer!”. Having removed the paint layer, people saw that under the image of the Mother of God there was a "devil's mug".
Basil the Blessed, the Moscow miracle worker, they ask for healing diseases, especially eye diseases, about getting rid of fire.
Prayer to Saint Basil
O great saint of Christ, true friend and faithful servant of the All-Creator of the Lord God, blessed Basil! Hear us, many-sinners, now singing to you and calling on your holy name, have mercy on us, falling down today to your most pure image, accept our small and unworthy prayer, have mercy on our squalor and with your prayers heal every ailment and illness of the soul and body of our sinner , and make us worthy of the course of this life unharmed from visible and invisible enemies, sinlessly pass away, and the Christian death, shameless, peaceful, serene, and receive the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven with all the saints forever and ever. Amen.
Basil the Blessed, the most famous of the holy fools with whom Russia abounded, was born in 1468 in the village of Yelokhovo, not far from Moscow, into the family of pious peasants Jacob and Anna.
From childhood, he led an ascetic life, constantly prayed, and even then the first sprouts of Divine grace became visible in him. As a boy, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. One day a merchant came into the shop and ordered a lot of new boots. Sixteen-year-old Vasily laughed at him. When the customer left, the owner began to ask the young man about the reasons for his behavior. Vasily replied that it was strange to order as many boots as would be enough for many years, because this person should die the next day. His prediction came true. After that, Vasily did not want to stay with the owner anymore, or return to his parents, and went to Moscow.
Lost in the noisy city crowd, he chose the ascetic path of feigned madness in order to partake as fully as possible of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, completely refusing respect from people. Having no permanent home or even a place to lay his head, he lived almost naked on the streets and in public places, spending his nights in prayer on the church porch. Among the crowd, he kept his silence as strictly as hermits in the desert; forced to speak, he pretended to be tongue-tied. Having no close people, renouncing the world and its attachments, he showed great sympathy for the unfortunate, sick and oppressed. He often visited prisoners imprisoned for drunkenness in order to turn them to correction.
In an era when fear and oppression reigned in society, the life of St. Basil served as a living reproach to the unrighteous boyars and a consolation for the destitute. Almost all of his actions had a prophetic meaning. For example, the blessed one many times threw stones at the corners of houses where pious people lived, and when he passed by dwellings whose owners were slumped in sins, he kissed the corners of the walls. When asked about the reasons for such strange behavior, Vasily answered that in houses where holiness reigns there is no place for demons, and therefore, seeing them from the outside, he drove them away with stones. On the contrary, kissing the corners of wicked houses, he greeted the angels who remained outside, unable to enter inside. In the market, he knocked over the stalls of dishonest merchants. Once, having received money from the king, he, contrary to his custom, did not distribute it to the poor, but gave it to a well-dressed merchant, who, having lost his fortune, did not dare to beg and was dying of hunger.
In 1521, when the Tatar army of Mehmet Giray threatened Moscow, Saint Basil, shedding abundant tears, prayed for his homeland in front of the gates of the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin. Suddenly, a terrible noise was heard in the church, a flame broke out, and a voice from the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God announced that She was leaving Moscow because of the sins of its inhabitants. The saint intensified his prayers, and the terrible phenomenon disappeared. Mehmet Giray, who had already set the city suburbs on fire, was driven back from the city by the army that came to the rescue and fled beyond the borders of Russia.
Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible loved Blessed Basil and treated him with great reverence, just like the holy Metropolitan Macarius. One day the saint, invited to the palace for a royal feast, poured wine out of the window three times. When the tsar angrily asked him what he was doing, he replied that he was putting out the fire in Novgorod. A little later, messengers brought news of a great fire that had actually taken place in Novgorod. The fire, however, did not flare up, because a certain strange-looking man walked naked through the streets and sprinkled the burning houses. Seeing Basil, the messengers recognized in him the man of God who extinguished the flame.
Another time, in 1547, the saint began to weep bitterly in front of the temple of the Vozdvizhensky Monastery, in the place where, after some time, a great fire began, devastating Moscow. Shortly after this disaster, when the tsar was present at the Divine Liturgy, the blessed one, standing in a corner, looked at him attentively. After the liturgy, he said to the king: "You were not in the temple, but in another place." The king began to protest, but Vasily repeated: “You are not telling the truth. I saw how in your thoughts you went to Sparrow Hills to build yourself a new palace there. From that moment on, the king began to fear the saint and respect him even more. But this respect did not prevent him from showing cruelty, which became a byword.
Saint Basil also appeared to people on a ship in distress and saved them from death. He performed many more miracles during the 62 years of his feat of foolishness.
At the age of 88, the saint fell ill. Upon learning of this, the king, along with his family, immediately hurried to him to ask for his prayers. On his deathbed, Basil spoke prophecies about the future of the kingdom, then his face lit up, because he saw a host of angels who had come to receive his soul. Having come to rapture, he reposed in joy on August 2, 1557.
The whole city was then filled with fragrance, and many people gathered for his funeral. The king and his sons carried him on their shoulders to the church, where the metropolitan and the bishops were waiting for them. On the grave of the blessed one, which became a source of healing for the faithful not only from Moscow, but also from other regions, a church was built in honor of the Intercession of the Mother of God, in memory of the capture of Kazan. Later, the temple received the nickname of St. Basil's Cathedral among the people.
Miracles associated with the saint did not stop. And in 1588, under Metropolitan Saint Job, Basil the Blessed was canonized. On this day, 120 sick people were healed at the relics of the saint.
Basil the Blessed is revered as the patron saint of Moscow.
Compiled by Hieromonk Macarius of Simonopetra,
adapted Russian translation - Sretensky Monastery Publishing House
Basil the Blessed(1469, the village of Yelokhovo near Moscow - August 2, 1552, Moscow) - Russian saint, holy fool: sometimes he is called "Vasily Nagoy".
Basil the Blessed - Moscow holy fool. He was born in December 1469 in the village of Yelokhovo (now within the city limits of Moscow), on the porch, where his mother came to pray for a "favorable resolution."
His parents, peasants, sent him to be trained in shoemaking. A hard-working and God-fearing young man, - the life tells, - Vasily was awarded the gift of insight, which was discovered by chance. After sixteen years and until his death, he performed the feat of foolishness, without shelter and clothing, subjecting himself to great hardships. The Life of the Blessed describes how he taught the people moral life by word and example. He went about without clothes all year round, spent the night in the open air, constantly fasted, and endured hardships.
He constantly denounced lies and hypocrisy. Contemporaries noted that this was almost the only person whom Tsar Ivan the Terrible was afraid of. Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible honored and feared the Blessed One, "like a seer of human hearts and thoughts." When, shortly before his death, Vasily fell into a serious illness, the tsar himself visited him with Tsarina Anastasia.
Basil the Blessed died on August 2, 1552 (sometimes 1551 is also mentioned). Ivan the Terrible and the boyars carried his coffin, and Metropolitan Macarius performed the burial.
Vasily's body was buried in the cemetery of the Trinity Church in the Moat. Since 1588, they began to talk about miracles taking place at the tomb of Blessed Basil; As a result, Patriarch Job determined to celebrate the memory of the miracle worker on the day of his death, August 2.
Wonders
Basil the Blessed is credited with many miracles, both during life and after death.
- A man came to the owner of Vasily to order boots and asked him to make them that he would not endure until his death. Vasily laughed and cried. After the merchant left, the boy explained his behavior to the master by saying that the merchant was ordering boots that he would not be able to wear, as he would soon die, which came true.
- One day, the thieves, noticing that the saint was dressed in a good fur coat, given to him by a certain boyar, planned to deceive it from him; one of them pretended to be dead, while others asked Vasily for burial. Vasily covered the dead man with his fur coat, but seeing the deceit, he said at the same time: “Fox fur coat, cunning, cover the fox case, cunning. From now on, be you dead for slyness, for it is written: let the sly ones be consumed. When the dashing people took off his fur coat, they saw that their friend was already dead.
- Once, Blessed Basil scattered kalachi in the bazaar at one kalachnik, and he confessed that he had mixed chalk and lime into the flour.
- The Book of Degrees tells that in the summer of 1547 Vasily came to the Ascension Monastery on Ostrog (now Vozdvizhenka) and prayed for a long time with tears in front of the church. The next day, the well-known Moscow fire began, namely from the Vozdvizhensky Monastery.
- While in Moscow, the saint saw a fire in Novgorod, which he put out with three glasses of wine.
- With a stone, he broke the image of the Mother of God on the Varvara Gates, which has long been considered miraculous. He was attacked by a crowd of pilgrims who flocked from all over Russia for the purpose of healing, and they began to beat him with a “mortal combat”. The holy fool said: “And you will scratch the paint layer!”. Having removed the paint layer, people saw that under the image of the Mother of God there was a "devil's mug".
St. Basil's Cathedral
The Moscow Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, on the Moat, began to be built in 1555 by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in memory of the capture of Kazan. After the canonization of the saint, by order of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich in 1588, a church in honor of St. Basil the Blessed was added to the Intercession Church - over the burial place of Basil, as narrated by a stylized inscription on the wall of this church. Today, the whole cathedral is better known as "St. Basil's Cathedral".
The memory of St. Basil the Blessed was celebrated in Moscow with great solemnity: the patriarch himself served, and the tsar himself was usually present at the service.
Blessed Basil - quotes
The great turmoil will continue in the kingdom for a long time until it is stopped by the great warrior called by all our people... 
Holy fools... People who embarked on this difficult path deliberately presented themselves as insane, neglected all worldly blessings, humbly endured the hail of endless ridicule, contemptuous attitude, and various punishments from those around them. Using an allegorical form, they tried to find a way to people's hearts and souls, preached the ideas of kindness and mercy, exposed deceit and injustice. Not everyone succeeded in suppressing the rudiments of pride in themselves, not taking into account the needs of the body, spiritually becoming higher than those around them. One of those who managed to do this is Blessed Basil, the most famous and revered holy fool. Our material is about him.
Basil the Blessed: life
His life path is amazing from the very first day. December 1469. Dates vary, and some sources give 1464. On the porch (Epiphany Cathedral in the village of Yelokhovo) appears a simple woman named Anna. She came here with prayers for the safe birth of a child. The words of the woman were heard by the Mother of God. And in the same place, Anna had a boy who received the name Vasily (Vasily Nagoy - that's what he is also called). A pure soul and an open heart is what he came into the world with.
His parents from among ordinary peasants were pious, they revered Christ, they built their lives according to his commandments. From an early age, they sought to instill in their son a respectful and reverent attitude towards God. Blessed Basil was growing up, and, dreaming of a good life for his son, his father and mother decided to introduce him to shoemaking.
Apprentice work
The young apprentice was distinguished by diligence and obedience. He would have worked for so long, if not for one amazing incident, after which his master realized what an extraordinary person Vasily is. Once a merchant appeared in the workshop with a request to make such boots so that they would not be demolished for a whole year. Blessed Basil, shedding tears, promised him shoes that he would never wear out. The student later explained to the bewildered master that the customer would not even be able to put on the ordered pair, death would soon await him. It took quite a bit of time, and these words came true.
Way to Moscow
After this incident, Vasily decided to part with shoemaking and spend his life following the thorny path of foolishness. Until his death, he lived without any savings, unprotected from ridicule or insults, having only an invisible amulet - faith and an all-encompassing love for God. All his clothes were made up of chains.
Vasily, leaving his parents, went to Moscow. At first, the people perceived the strange naked guy with surprise and ridicule. But soon the Muscovites recognized him as a man of God, a holy fool for Christ's sake.
Basil the Blessed: miracles
People, usually not understanding his strange actions, got angry. Only later did their secret meaning become clear. Somehow, having deliberately scattered rolls at one of the merchants, Vasily dutifully endured the curses and beatings that rained down on him. Later, the unlucky kalachnik confessed to adding lime and chalk to the dough.
Other miracles of St. Basil the Blessed are also known. Once a merchant turned to him: the vaults of the church he was building collapsed three times for unknown reasons. The Moscow holy fool advised him to find poor Ivan in Kiev. Having done this, the merchant found a man in a poor house who was rocking an empty cradle. The merchant asked what this meant. The poor man explained that in this way he decided to pay tribute to his mother. It became clear to the unfortunate "builder" why Vasily sent him here. After all, even earlier, he drove his mother out of his home. Without repenting of what he had done, he dreamed of glorifying the Almighty by building a temple. The Lord refused to accept a gift from a person who is low in soul. Blessed Basil could help this man: he repented, made peace with his mother, and the woman forgave him. Then the construction of God's temple was successfully completed.
Further manifestation of the gift
Basil the Blessed, whose brief biography has come down to us, always abstained from pleasures, dutifully endured the hardships of his existence, lived on the street among a large number of people, patiently endured all hardships. At the same time, his soul remained innocent and bright. Over time, his gift manifested itself with increasing force.
With the help of the Almighty, Blessed Basil, the miracle worker of Moscow, was able to predict the invasion of Moscow. The situation was as follows: he, as usual, prayed at night, when a sign appeared - a flame that escaped from the church windows. Basil's prayers became more fervent. Gradually the fire died out. Some time after this incident, the Crimean Tatars attacked the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery and the villages nearby, they were looted and burned, but Moscow remained untouched.
The next wonderful event. 1543. July. Basil the Blessed is again visited by a vision that predicted a strong fire: a number of streets turned out to be burned out, the trouble touched the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery, the Royal and Metropolitan courtyards.
Once on a winter day, one boyar managed to persuade the holy fool to accept a gift from him - a fur coat. Vasily, after long protests, agreed. Walking in this fur coat, he met a gang of thieves. Those, fearing to forcibly take away clothes, were not too lazy to play a real performance in front of the revered holy fool. One pretended to be dead, others began to beg for a fur coat, supposedly to cover a dead friend. The holy fool, covering the pretender, asked if he was really dead. The thieves assured him of the veracity of what had happened. Basil's wish for their answer was the punishment of hypocrisy. After his departure, the thieves literally froze - their comrade no longer needed to pretend, he actually died.
All his life, the holy fool helped people, sympathized with them. And, absolutely everyone. Especially those who were ashamed to ask for help. So, he gave the gifts received from the king to a foreign merchant. He lost money and went hungry for more than one day. He did not ask for help - he was ashamed because of his rich clothes.
Vasily was a frequent visitor to Kitai-Gorod. He went to the penitentiary for drunkards located there. Encouraging words and exhortations are what he helped the fallen people to return to a normal way of life.
The attitude of Ivan the Terrible to the holy fool
Basil the Blessed, we continue to consider his life, lived under two autocrats. Reverence and fear - with such feelings one of them treated him - Ivan the Terrible. The man of God, whom he saw in the holy fool, was for the king a constant reminder that it is necessary to live justly and not be stingy with good deeds and deeds.
Faced with several cases, Ivan the Terrible became convinced that it was in fact a pious, estranged fool from the affairs of the world. Once Basil the Blessed was invited by the king to a feast. The sovereign was angry when, in front of his eyes, the holy fool threw out the wine served to him three times. Ivan the Terrible until then doubted the explanation of the holy fool about, they say, the extinguished fire in Veliky Novgorod, until a messenger appeared from the city. He brought news of the incident and that a naked man had intervened and put out the fire. The same person was recognized by the Novgorodians who arrived in Moscow in a holy fool.
Having conceived the construction of a palace on the Sparrow Hills, the tsar only thought about this. Once at the church festive service, he behaved just as thoughtfully and inattentively to what was happening around him. Basil the Blessed, who was there, the king simply did not notice, being immersed in his own thoughts. At the end of the service, Grozny began to blame the holy fool for his absence from the church. To these words, Basil the Blessed admonished the king, answering that his body was in the service, and his soul was hovering near the palace being built. From that time on, Grozny had even more respect and fear in relation to the holy fool. When the latter fell ill from a serious illness, the king came to visit him.
The end of the path of St. Basil the Blessed
Despite the fact that his life was full of hardships, Vasily lived to be almost ninety years old. To the tsar who came to visit him with his family, he uttered another prediction: the tsar's son Fedor would become the ruler of Russia in the future. And in this he was not mistaken either. After all, we all know that the angry tsar himself raised his hand to Ivan (his eldest son).
The date of the death of St. Basil the Blessed is August 2, 1557 (according to the new style, this is August 15). The tsar and the boyars carried the coffin with the body of the holy fool. The funeral and burial ceremony was conducted by Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia Macarius. When the burial was carried out, many patients recovered. The cemetery of the Trinity Church (in the Moat near the Kremlin) was chosen as the burial place. A little later, the Intercession Cathedral was erected here. In it they built a chapel in honor of the holy fool. He was revered with such force that since that time one common name has been fixed for the Trinity Church and the Intercession Cathedral - St. Basil's Cathedral. Moreover, its history is interesting not only by its name.
Basil's Cathedral: a combination of different styles
This temple combines Gothic and Oriental architecture. Its unprecedented beauty gave rise to a real legend: allegedly, on the orders of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the architect's eyes were gouged out so that he could no longer build such structures.
The temple was not once tried to destroy. But he somehow miraculously continues to rise in his place. In 1812, during the escape from the capital, Napoleon ordered the destruction of the Intercession Cathedral along with the Kremlin. But the hurrying French could not cope with the required number of tunnels. The Pokrovsky Cathedral turned out to be unscathed, as during the rain the wicks lit by them went out.
In the post-revolutionary years, the cathedral also avoided demolition. Its last rector, Archpriest John Vostorgov, was shot in 1919, and in 1929 St. Basil's Cathedral was completely closed, its bells were melted down. In the 1930s, Lazar Kaganovich, who succeeded in destroying many Moscow churches, proposed to demolish the Pokrovsky Cathedral as well. He put forward a good reason: supposedly this made it possible to free up space for holding solemn parades and demonstrations.
There is a legend that he made a model of Red Square with a removable Intercession Cathedral. With his creation, he came to Stalin. Convincing that the temple is a hindrance, he suddenly ripped off his seat for the leader. At the same time, the stunned Stalin escaped with the historical phrase: “Lazar, put it in its place!”. The well-known restorer P. D. Baranovsky sent telegrams addressed to Stalin with an appeal to save the temple. It was said that Baranovsky, who was invited to the Kremlin to solve this problem, did not hesitate to kneel before the members of the Central Committee and begged to save the temple. They listened to him. St. Basil's Cathedral (the story could have ended there) was left alone. Only later Baranovsky was awarded an impressive term.
Saint Basil's Day
After the death of Vasily, miraculous phenomena did not stop. We wrote above that people ran into them and near the coffin. For this reason, in 1588 (this is the time when Fyodor Ivanovich reigned), the saint was canonized by Patriarch Job of Moscow. They also set the day of his memory - August 2 (the day of his death). Until 1917, Vasily's Memorial Day was always solemnly celebrated. The presence of the emperor with his relatives was common. The service was conducted by the patriarch. The highest clergy were present, as well as residents of Moscow, who sacredly revered the miracle worker.
Let's digress a little and remember another story. Basil the Blessed, whose prophecies have come down to our time, once behaved not in the best way in relation to the image of the Mother of God. Taking a stone, he broke it. Miraculous properties were attributed to this image. Unable to stand it, the pilgrims beat Vasily. He endured everything humbly. And then he gave advice to remove one of the layers of paint from the image. They listened to him, and it turned out that a devilish image was hidden under him.
Icons of the saint
A wealthy Muscovite who went blind at the age of twelve (her name was Anna) knew that blind men who prayed to Vasily could see. She found an icon painter and turned to him with a request: the woman wanted the icon of St. Basil the Blessed to be painted. This icon was donated by Anna to the temple. It is known for sure that it was St. Basil's Cathedral. The story doesn't end there. Every day she went there to pray. According to legend, after some time, Anna was completely cured: her sight returned to her.
In the early works, Basil was depicted naked; in later works, the saint began to be depicted girded with a towel. Often the Blessed One was depicted against the background of the Kremlin and against the backdrop of Red Square, because it was here that he lived. Such an icon is kept today in St. Basil's Cathedral. Other Russian churches also have icons depicting the saint.
So, the story of St. Basil the Blessed appeared before us. This man, with amazing fortitude, showed by his deeds and life that everything earthly is not eternal. That if you remember about goodness and justice, then you can survive in any difficult situations.