Vasily the Blessed (known also as Basil, and as the fool for Christ; the Wonderworker of Moscow; or Blessed Vasily of Moscow; , Vasily Blazhenny) is a

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

of the type known as ''

yurodivy Foolishness for Christ (; ) refers to behavior such as giving up all one's worldly possessions upon joining an ascetic order or religious life, or deliberately flouting society's conventions to serve a religious purpose—particularly of Christia ...

'' or "holy fool".

Life

Vasily was born to

serf Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed du ...

s in December 1468 at the portico of the Epiphany Cathedral at Yelokhovo (now in Moscow)."Blessed Basil of Moscow the Fool-For-Christ", Orthodox Church in America
/ref> His father was named Jacob and his mother Anna. Originally an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...

, he went to Moscow when he was sixteen. There he helped those who were ashamed to ask for alms, but were in need of help. He adopted an eccentric lifestyle of

shoplifting Shoplifting (also known as shop theft, shop fraud, retail theft, or retail fraud) is the theft of goods from a retail establishment during business hours. The terms ''shoplifting'' and ''shoplifter'' are not usually defined in law, and genera ...

and giving to the poor to shame the

miser A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend money, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions. Although the word is sometimes used loosely to characterise anyone ...

ly and help those in need. He went naked and weighed himself down with chains. He rebuked

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; – ), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible,; ; monastic name: Jonah. was Grand Prince of Moscow, Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia from 1533 to 1547, and the first Tsar of all Russia, Tsar and Grand Prince of all R ...

for not paying attention in church. Vasily was said to have the gift of prophecy. When he died on August 2, 1552, or 1557, St. Macarius,

Metropolitan of Moscow This article lists the metropolitans and patriarchs of Moscow, spiritual heads of the Russian Orthodox Church. Since 1308, there have been 59. History The Russian Orthodox Church traces its beginnings to the Christianization of Kievan Rus' ...

, served his funeral with many clergy. He is buried in St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, which was commissioned by Ivan for commemoration of his conquest of Kazan' and was named for the saint later. Vasily was formally

canonised Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of sai ...

in 1588. His

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

is celebrated on August 2 (August 15, N.S.).

Citations

General sources

* Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. ''The Penguin Dictionary of Saints''. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. .

External links

St Basil of Moscow
Orthodox Icon and Synaxarion

from the ''Prologue from Ohrid'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Basil Fool For Christ 1460s births 1550s deaths 15th-century Eastern Orthodox Christians 15th-century Russian people 16th-century Christian saints 16th-century Eastern Orthodox Christians 16th-century Russian people Russian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church Yurodivy Miracle workers

Life

See also

Citations

General sources

External links