HOLY BASILIY, BISHOP OF KINESHEM (1876

Ep. Vasily (Preobrazhensky)

Vasily (Preobrazhensky)
(1876 - 1945), Bishop of Kineshem, holy confessor Memory of July 31, October 5 on the day of the discovery of the relics, in the Cathedrals of Voronezh and Poltava (Ukr.) Saints

In the world, Veniamin Sergeevich Preobrazhensky, was born on January 7, 1876 in the city of Kineshma, Kostroma province, in the family of the priest Sergius and his wife Pavla, and owed his Christian upbringing entirely to his parents. The whole structure of life that surrounded the boy from childhood was similar to that of a monk. No news, no gossip, no idle talk penetrated the high fence of their house, which the children were forbidden to leave. It was a joy for the child to visit their home with poor brethren and wanderers. On the very day of his baptism, when Benjamin was brought home from the temple, an old wanderer came to them, who, looking at the boy, said: “This will be a great man.” There were other omens of his extraordinary future.

Education and teaching career

After graduating from high school, he entered the Kineshma Theological School, which he graduated in 1890. In 1896, he graduated from the Kostroma Theological Seminary as the first student [1] and entered the Kiev Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1900 with a candidate of theology degree and the right to receive a master's degree in theology without a new oral revision test, according to the instructions of the reviewers [2].

In 1900 he was appointed caretaker of the Alexander Nevsky Theological School in St. Petersburg.

In 1901, he was appointed teacher of accusatory theology, history and exposure of the Russian schism and local sects at the Voronezh Theological Seminary; At the same time he taught at a men's Sunday school and the Voronezh diocesan women's school. Since 1901 - full member of the Voronezh provincial scientific archival commission. He stayed in Voronezh until 1910.

Knowing both ancient and new European languages perfectly, he went to England for a more in-depth study of European culture and lived in London in 1910-1911. Upon returning to Russia, in 1911-1914 he taught foreign languages and general history at the Mirgorod men's gymnasium.

On January 20, 1912, he defended his master’s thesis at the KDA “Slavic-Russian Skete Patericon. Experience in historical and bibliographic research" and received a master's degree in theology.

In 1914 he moved to Moscow and got a job as a Latin teacher at the Petrovskaya Gymnasium. Teaching fascinated him so much that he graduated from the Pedagogical Institute. P. G. Shelaputin, having finally prepared for the profession of a teacher. But the Lord decreed otherwise.

One day, when he came to visit his parents in Kineshma, Veniamin persuaded his friends to go boating on the Volga. Already far from the shore, the boat suddenly capsized. Benjamin prayed, asking the Lord to save his life, promising to devote himself to serving the Orthodox Church. At that moment he saw a thick long board and, grabbing onto it, swam out.

Church service in Kineshma

Soon after this incident, Veniamin returned to Kineshma, and in October 1917 he became a psalm-reader in the Church of the Ascension, where his elderly father served. Remembering his vow to God, he began to preach in the churches of Kineshma and its environs. Realizing that without an accurate and deep understanding of the Holy Scriptures, an ignorant person could easily become the prey of deceivers and false teachers, Benjamin began to create Orthodox circles where great importance was attached to the study of the Holy Scriptures.

On July 16, 1920, he was ordained to the priesthood in the city of Kostroma by Metropolitan Seraphim (Meshcheryakov). Soon after this, his father, Archpriest Sergius, died, and Father Benjamin took monastic vows in honor of Basil the Great.

On September 19, 1921, he was consecrated Bishop of Kineshma, vicar of the Kostroma diocese. The ordination took place in the Assumption Cathedral of Kineshma.

Refusing any property, he settled on the outskirts of the city in a small bathhouse that stood in the garden of the widow-soldier Anna Alexandrovna Rodina. The saint did not have any property or furnishings; he slept on the bare floor, putting a log under his head. He hid his feat from strangers, receiving visitors in the office, set up in a house next to the Church of the Ascension. There was a bathhouse far from the temple. Every morning, before dawn, Vladyka walked through the entire city to the temple and returned home late at night. More than once robbers stopped him on the street, and with meekness and love he gave them everything he had; they soon began to recognize him and did not bother him.

In addition to daily church services, during which he always preached, the saint confessed, went around the houses of everyone who needed his help with words of consolation, visited monasteries and circles founded by him, scattered throughout the diocese.

On major holidays, the saint served in the cathedral, and every Thursday he held all-night vigils in the Church of the Ascension. The people loved these all-night vigils, dedicated to the remembrance of the passion of the Lord, and gathered at them in large numbers. There were especially many workers, some of them lived in the outskirts of the city, they stood for long service and only got home late at night, and in the morning they went to work again, but the grace of church prayer was so great that people did not feel tired. The saint himself read the akathist to the passion of the Lord, and there was such silence in the temple, as if there was not a single person in it, and at the very far end of it every word could be heard.

Bishop Vasily's sermons attracted more and more people to the church. Some completely changed their lifestyle; others, following the example of the saint, distributed property to the poor, devoting their lives to serving the Lord and their neighbors. The light of faith also reached non-believers. No matter how another person felt about the Christian faith and the Orthodox Church, almost everyone felt that the word spoken by the bishop answered the inner needs of the soul, returned life to it, and illuminating meaning to life.

The bishop's missionary activity caused great concern among the authorities. But there was no reason to arrest the saint. And then the authorities began to send people to the temple, instructing them to ask tempting questions during the bishop’s sermon in order to confuse him. The Bishop foresaw that there were such people in the temple, and gave answers to many of their questions in advance. Convicted by their conscience, realizing how unprofitable their situation was, they left the temple without asking anything.

As a true shepherd, the saint protected his flock from all kinds of evil and error. If he found out that one of his spiritual children was thinking wrongly, he hurried to visit this person.

In March 1921, he was arrested and held as a hostage by the Ivanovo-Voznesensk Cheka during the Kronstadt uprising.

In the summer of 1922, a renovationist schism arose. In those parishes where the church was captured by the renovationists, the saint blessed the priests not to leave their flock, but to celebrate the liturgy in the village squares. He himself set an example of such service, and hundreds and thousands of people came to these services.

In 1922, famine broke out in the Lower Volga region, from which thousands of people died every day. The authorities ordered the selection of children left without parents and sent them to orphanages in different cities. Shortly before Easter, these children were brought to Kineshma. Having learned about this, the saint, after the service, addressed the people with a sermon, calling on them to help the starving. After her, many took children into their families.

Moves, exiles, conclusions

On March 4, 1923, he was appointed Bishop of Ivanovo-Voznesensk, but was unable to arrive at the see. On May 10, 1923, he was arrested and exiled to the Zyryansky region, in the village of Ust-Kulom, for two years. Soon Vladyka Vasily’s cell attendant, Alexander Chumakov, arrived here, voluntarily sharing with him the hardships of exile.

In May 1925, the exile ended, and Bishop Vasily returned to Kineshma. He informed the spiritual children about his return, and they began, gathering in small groups, to come to him at the Ascension Church; here after the evening service he confessed. The confession lasted for a long time, until late at night, and many unresolved questions accumulated.

At Christmas 1926, the authorities, concerned about the growth and strengthening of the Church, demanded that the bishop leave the city. Alexander Pavlovich offered to go to his homeland, to the village of Anapol, to wait out the difficult time there. The Bishop agreed.

In two weeks, Alexander Pavlovich built a small house. A throne was installed in the house and daily statutory services were held. The bishop and Alexander Pavlovich served alone; no outsiders were present at their services, since there was an Orthodox church nearby, where a priest close to the saint served, for whom Alexander Pavlovich had once been a psalm-reader.

In Vyazniki the bishop continued the work begun in Anapol. For a long time he wanted to collect the conversations he had in church and in circles into one book. He handed over the manuscript of the book to trusted people in Kineshma, and they copied it by hand.

At the beginning of 1927, Bishop Afanasy (Sakharov) sent his cell attendant Hieromonk Damaskin (Zhabinsky) to Vladyka in Vyazniki with a note asking whether Bishop Vasily would accept temporary administration of the Vladimir diocese in view of the fact that he, Bishop Afanasy, had been arrested and could not continue serving. At that time, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) was arrested, and Archbishop Hieromartyr Seraphim (Samoilovich) took over the administration of the Russian Orthodox Church. Bishop Vasily turned to him to resolve this issue, but Bishop Seraphim sent Bishop Damian (Voskresensky) to Vladimir, and appointed Saint Basil to the Ivanovo See. But there was no need to take advantage of the appointment. By this time, the saint’s sermons and his spiritual steadfastness began to attract many people to the temple and the authorities sent the bishop back to Kineshma. Here he served for several months when the authorities demanded that he leave.

In June 1927, Bishop Vasily came to Kostroma, where he lived for about a year. His main concern was spiritual children; he wanted to know everything about each one and did not miss an opportunity to instruct and spiritually support each of them. Correspondence with them took a lot of time and could not be entrusted to the post office. The bishop gave the letters to his subdeacon Vasily Smirnov, who took them to Ekaterina Knishek, and she already distributed them to their recipients, in turn collecting letters to the bishop.

In 1928, the bishop went to Yaroslavl to talk with the confessor, Metropolitan Agafangel, on issues of church life. He met him in the temple, where he had come to pray. The Metropolitan invited Bishop Vasily to remain in Yaroslavl as a suffragan bishop, but he refused.

In August of this year, the bishop returned to Kineshma and a month later was arrested. Bishop Vasily spent about six months in Ivanovo prison and was sentenced to three years of exile.

The bishop went into exile in a prison convoy. The saint settled in the small taiga village of Malorechka, twenty-five kilometers from the regional town of Taborovo, Yekaterinburg region. Alexander Pavlovich shared with him the difficulties of exile here too. Together they set up a throne in the house, the bishop consecrated it and performed divine services every day.

Prayer, hard work in the forest - life was like a monastery with the most severe rules. Alexander Pavlovich earned money by fishing and making wooden troughs. They spoke to each other little and rarely. Sometimes the hour of rest came, and they went into the forest. Three years passed in solitude, prayer and work, and the fourth was already ending. The bishop's thoughts were inclined to remain here forever. But it turned out that the link cannot be chosen freely. Just as he was about to ask the local authorities for permission to stay, they themselves began to demand that he leave.

Thinking about which place to choose as a place of exile, the bishop turned to Alexander Pavlovich, whose stories about Optina Pustyn he loved to listen to:

- What about the baker Photius, whom you helped in Optina, where you were from?

- From Orel.

- Well, that’s good, let’s go to the homeland of Photius.

The bishop arrived in Orel in September 1932. Immediately, nun Vitalia came to him from Kineshma and brought many letters. To some he wrote the answers himself, to others he gave answers orally, so that they would write them down and pass them on. Until December, the bishop lived alone, because Alexander Pavlovich lingered in the Urals, waiting for the winter route to be established in order to take things out of the taiga wilderness.

Bishop Vasily Kineshemsky, prison photo, 1933

In March 1933, the bishop received news that his spiritual children were being interrogated in Kineshma, some had already been arrested, and investigators were asking about the bishop.
On March 31, Bishop Vasily and Alexander Pavlovich were summoned to the Oryol vocational school, arrested and sent to the Kinesha prison. The Bishop was accused of:

«being an opponent of the Soviet regime, focusing on the restoration of state power, in 1918 he created a network of counter-revolutionary circles - a branch of the TOC (True Orthodox Church), which set as its task, through the religious anti-Soviet education of the religious masses, the overthrow of the existing system... Organized and trained cadres of secret prayer monasticism... Achieved in in a number of village councils of the Kineshma region, the decline in the growth of collectivization, mass unrest and the departure of old women workers from production

».

In July 1933, Bishop Vasily was sentenced to five years in a forced labor camp. Together with him, eleven people were sentenced, in particular the priest Pavel Berezin, Alexander Chumakov and the nun Vitaly - to five years, Maria Andreevna Dmitrova and her sister Elizaveta - to three years in the camps.

The bishop served his imprisonment near Rybinsk during the construction of a canal.

In January 1938, the bishop was released from the Rybinsk camp. He settled in Rybinsk with a landlady who provided him with a separate room. In the camp, Vladyka met the priest of the village of Arkhangelsk, Uglich region, Father Sergius Yaroslavsky, who, after his release, began to serve in Uglich, and Vladyka often visited him. On one of his visits to Uglich, the bishop met the regent of the church in the village of Kotovo, Iraida Osipovna Tikhova, and she invited him to live with her in Kotovo.

Having moved to the village of Kotovo, Vladyka agreed with the local priest Konstantin Sokolov to serve together all-night vigil and liturgy on weekdays in the presence of only his closest people; Later, in the garden of the owner of the house, in the bathhouse, a small temple was built.

On November 5, 1943, Bishop Vasily was arrested by the Yaroslavl NKGB and on November 7 imprisoned in the Yaroslavl internal prison. The bishop's confiscated property turned out to be little: one old cassock, a wooden cross, an icon, a children's toy, a leather belt and a comb. Upon admission to the prison, the doctor diagnosed myocarditis and recommended light work. Vladyka was sixty-eight years old.

From the next day, interrogations began - the bishop was interrogated, not allowing him to sleep for many days. This investigative conveyor belt, torture by hunger against the backdrop of the infirmities and diseases of old age, broke the will to resist investigative speculation. And when the investigator once again brought the interrogation report typed ahead of time, the bishop signed it; he decided to speak at least somehow, to explain at least something. He talked for a long time about his religious path. How he was in England before the revolution and watched the Christian student movement there with interest, how he returned to Russia and here he himself became a member of the Moscow student circle. How he later created “evangelical circles” and how he reacted completely negatively to the October revolution. For some time he thought that as a result of the law on the separation of the Church and the state, it would gain freedom from state violence, but soon the state opened the most severe persecution of the Church, and then he left for Kineshma to visit his father.

The investigator wrote down in his own way:

«Having united around himself people dissatisfied with the Soviet regime from among supporters of the illegal church living in the cities and districts of the Ivanovo and Yaroslavl regions, he created an anti-Soviet organization and led it until the moment of his arrest, nurturing the hope that a change in the political system in our country would be inevitable...

In January 1944, the NKGB of the USSR telegraphed to Yaroslavl so that Bishop Vasily would be transported to Moscow to an internal prison.

Exhausted by his two-month stay in the Yaroslavl prison and interrogations, the saint was brought to Moscow barely alive. Upon admission to the internal prison of the NKGB on January 26, the doctor diagnosed: myocarditis, arteriosclerosis, exhaustion and wrote out a referral to the hospital.

At the end of January, the bishop was sent to the Butyrka prison hospital. But he didn't stay here long. Two weeks later he was transferred to the internal prison of the NKGB for interrogation. State Security Major Polyansky interrogated Vladyka. Bishop Vasily was included in the same “case” with Bishop Afanasy (Sakharov), who was also taken to Moscow. On July 13, the bishop was transferred to Butyrka prison and the sentence was announced: five years of exile, after which the bishop suffered a severe heart attack.

In the general stage, he was sent to the prison of the city of Krasnoyarsk, where he was told that he must follow himself to the place of exile in the village of Birilyussy. The bishop had nothing except a cassock, an icon, and a cross; he found a tiny piece of paper and wrote a statement to the Krasnoyarsk NKGB, so that from the money taken during the arrest, he would be given at least a hundred rubles for the initial establishment.

The bishop found himself in a remote Siberian village. The morals of the youth were corrupted by godlessness and hardened by the war; even children were driven wild by cruelty. For a long time the bishop could not find an apartment for himself and finally settled in the house of a widow who had three young children. When the bishop prayed, they rolled balls from horse dung and threw them at the saint with the words: “Here, grandfather, eat.”

Soon the Lord gave him some relief: believing women found him another apartment. The owner was lonely, and at that time an exiled nun lived with her.

The saint began to get very sick; in Birilyussy he suffered partial paralysis; now it became difficult for him to walk and he needed care.

On August 13, 1945, the bishop felt death approaching and called the nun who lived with his mistress. He asked her to read the canon on the outcome of the soul. The nun began a leisurely reading, the bishop prayed. When she read the last prayer, the saint himself said in a firm voice: “Amen,” and quietly rested.

Relics and veneration

Vasily Kineshemsky

On October 18, 1985, the holy remains of the saint were found and transported to Moscow.
In July 1993, the relics of Bishop Vasily were transferred to the Vvedensky Monastery in the city of Ivanovo. In August of the same year, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II blessed the local veneration of the saint. On August 13, the first prayer service to St. Basil of Kineshem was served at the Vvedensky Monastery.

Canonized as new martyrs and confessors of Russia at the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000.

On June 11, 2012, the secretary of the Synodal Commission of the Moscow Patriarchate for the canonization of saints, Abbot Damaskin (Orlovsky), arrived in Ivanovo with an order signed by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' that he, Abbot Damaskin should accept from the Vvedensky Monastery in the city of Ivanovo the relics of St. Basil of Kineshma and transfer to the monastery the relics of the holy martyr Vladimir Vvedensky. At the request of the sisters of the monastery, this order was duplicated by the decree of Bishop Joseph of Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Vichuga. Hegumen Damascene received the relics of St. Basil at the Vvedensky Monastery and transferred the relics of the Hieromartyr Vladimir to this monastery. However, representatives of the Ivanovo Metropolis were not present. Then Abbot Damascene with the relics of St. Basil left the Ivanovo region in order to deliver the shrine to the place that would be determined for it by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill [3], the location of the relics was not announced.

Since 2013, memory has been saved. Basil on July 31/August 13 and October 5/18 are absent from the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House. His name was not included in the Council of Saints of the Ivanovo Metropolis, approved on May 7, 2015 by Patriarch Kirill [4], and in the official list of the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church [5], there was no official explanation of the reasons for the exclusion of his name. According to some reports, this is due to the discovery of documents testifying to the behavior of individuals during interrogations and their testimony.

On April 4, 2014, the Museum of St. Basil of Kineshma was opened in Kineshma.

Prayers

From the vigil service compiled (judging by the edges of the canon) in the Makariyevo-Reshemsky monastery, typescript from the Vvedensky convent in Ivanovo [6]

Troparion, tone 5

New confessor to the Church of Russia,/ imitator of the apostolic works,/ warm preacher of the right faith,/ inspired expounder of the Scriptures,/ endured exiles, prisons and tribulations from the godless ,/ royal consecration, our Father Vasily,/ and now I stand before the Holy Trinity,/ praying for the fatherland yours and the people // who worthily honor your holy memory.

Troparion, tone 4

Today the weakened knees are strengthened, / the weak arms are stretched out in prayer, / the combs are watered with tenderness, / the psalms and songs are heard in the hearing, / for the witness of Christ comes to us in glory faithful body,/ Royal and All-Blessed Basil,/ conqueror of lies and malice,/ Chrysostom is an imitator and a zealot of faith,/ at the same time, the image gives salvation to the faithful,// and prays for those who honor his memory with faith and love.

Kontakion, tone 3

We praise your courage, Saint Basil of Christ,/ and we extol the purity of faith,/ and we are amazed at the gift of your words,/ that you have received from heaven the Divine grace// to instruct and protect the flock of X Ristovo.

Essays

From the spiritual heritage of Bishop Vasily, sermons have been preserved, the most complete being “Conversations on the Gospel of Mark.”

Publications:

“Slavic-Russian Skete Patericon. Experience in historical and bibliographic research" (K., 1909, master's thesis).
Boy Scouts. Practical education in England according to the system of R. Baden-Powell. M., 1915. 232 p.
Boy Scouts. Guide to self-education of youth according to the scouting system by Sir Robert Baden-Powell in relation to the conditions of Russian life and nature / revised by V. A. Popov, V. S. Preobrazhensky. M., 1917. 383 p.
Conversations on the Gospel of Mark. M., 1996, 2004. 623 p.
Seed of love. M., 2012
Spiritual alphabet. M., 2012.

Bishop Vasily of Kineshma (Preobrazhensky)

In the world, Veniamin Sergeevich Preobrazhensky was born in 1876 in the city of Kineshma, Kostroma province, into the family of priest Sergius and his wife Pavla, and owed his Christian upbringing entirely to his parents. Purification of the mind and heart through the Sacraments and prayer—this was the meaning and purpose of the spouses’ earthly life. And therefore, parents tried to protect their children from the influence of the world, knowing how difficult it is to tear out the thorns of sins and passions from the heart if they have already sprouted.

The whole structure of life that surrounded the boy from childhood was similar to that of a monk. No news, no gossip, no idle talk penetrated the high fence of their house, which the children were forbidden to leave. And it was a joy for the child to visit their home with poor brethren and wanderers. On the very day of his baptism, when Benjamin was brought home from the temple, an old wanderer came to them, who, looking at the boy, said: “This will be a great man.” There were other omens of his extraordinary future.

After graduating from high school, Veniamin entered the Kyiv Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1901 with a candidate of theology degree, and was assigned as a teacher at the Voronezh Theological Seminary. Interested in Christian deeds from his youth, he wrote a dissertation entitled “On the monastery patericon,” for which he was awarded a master’s degree in theology. Veniamin stayed in Voronezh until 1910.

Knowing both ancient and new European languages perfectly, Benjamin went to England for a more in-depth study of European culture and lived in London in 1910–1911. After returning to Russia, he became a teacher of foreign languages and world history at the Mirgorod Men's Gymnasium. In 1914, Veniamin moved to Moscow and got a job as a Latin teacher at the Petrovskaya Gymnasium. Teaching fascinated him so much that he graduated from a pedagogical institute, finally preparing for the profession of a teacher. But the Lord decreed otherwise.

Soon after this incident, Benjamin moved to his homeland, to Kineshma, and in October 1917 he became a psalm-reader in the Church of the Ascension, where his elderly father served. Remembering his vow to God, he began to preach in the churches of Kineshma and its environs. Realizing that without an accurate and deep understanding of the Holy Scriptures, an ignorant person could easily become the prey of deceivers and false teachers, Benjamin began to create Orthodox circles where great importance was attached to the study of the Holy Scriptures.

On July 16, 1920, Veniamin was ordained to the priesthood in the city of Kostroma by Metropolitan Seraphim (Meshcheryakov). Soon after this, his father, Archpriest Sergius, died, and Father Veniamin took monastic vows with the name Vasily - in memory of Basil the Great; On September 19, 1921, he was consecrated Bishop of Kineshma, vicar of the Kostroma diocese. Ordained a bishop, he intensified his ascetic labors. Refusing any property, he settled on the outskirts of the city in a small bathhouse that stood in the garden of the widow-soldier Anna Alexandrovna Rodina. The bishop did not have any property or furnishings; he slept on the bare floor, putting a log under his head. He hid his feat from strangers, receiving visitors in the office, set up in a house next to the Church of the Ascension. There was a bathhouse far from the temple. Every morning, before dawn, Vladyka walked through the entire city to the temple and returned home late at night. More than once robbers stopped him on the street, and with meekness and love he gave them everything he had; they soon began to recognize him and did not bother him.

In addition to daily church services, during which he always preached, Bishop Vasily confessed, went around the houses of everyone who needed his help with words of consolation, visited monasteries and circles founded by him, scattered throughout the diocese.

On major holidays, Vladyka served in the cathedral, and every Thursday he held all-night vigils in the Church of the Ascension. The people loved these all-night vigils, dedicated to the remembrance of the passion of the Lord, and gathered at them in large numbers. There were especially many workers, some of them lived in the outskirts of the city, they stood for long service and only got home late at night, and in the morning they went to work again, but the grace of church prayer was so great that people did not feel tired. He himself read the Akathist to the Passion of the Lord, and there was such silence in the temple, as if there was not a single person in it, and at the very far end every word could be heard.

Bishop Vasily's sermons attracted more and more people to the church. Some completely changed their lifestyle; others, following his example, distributed property to the poor, devoting their lives to serving the Lord and their neighbors. The light of faith also reached non-believers. No matter how another person felt about the Christian faith and the Orthodox Church, almost everyone felt that the word spoken by the bishop answered the inner needs of the soul, returned life to it, and illuminating meaning to life.

The bishop's missionary activity caused great concern among the authorities. But there was no reason to arrest Bishop Vasily. And then the authorities began to send people to the temple, instructing them to ask tempting questions during the bishop’s sermon in order to confuse him. The Bishop foresaw that there were such people in the temple, and gave answers to many of their questions in advance. Convicted by their conscience, realizing how unprofitable their situation was, they left the temple without asking anything.

As a true shepherd, Vladyka Vasily protected his flock from all kinds of evil and delusion. If he found out that one of his spiritual children was thinking wrongly, he hurried to visit this person.

In the summer of 1922, a heretical church movement arose - renovationism. Everywhere in the country, renovationists seized churches, expelled Orthodox priests and bishops, whom the Soviet authorities handed over to imprisonment and death. In those parishes where the church was captured by the renovationists, the bishop blessed the priests not to leave their flock, but to celebrate the liturgy in the village squares. He himself set an example of such service, and hundreds and thousands of people came to these services.

Soon after his consecration, Bishop Vasily met his future cell attendant, Alexander Pavlovich Chumakov, who shared with him the difficulties of exile and imprisonment.

In 1922, famine broke out in the Lower Volga region, from which thousands of people died every day. The authorities ordered the selection of children left without parents and sent them to orphanages in different cities. Shortly before Easter, these children were brought to Kineshma. Having learned about this, Bishop Vasily, after the service, addressed the people with a sermon, calling on them to help the starving: “The Easter holidays will soon come.” When you come from the festive service and sit down at the table, then remember the starving children...

After this sermon, many took children into their families.

Bishop Vasily served at the department for less than two years, and on May 10, 1923 he was arrested and exiled to the Zyryansky region, in the village of Ust-Kulom, for two years.

Soon Vladyka Vasily’s cell attendant, Alexander Pavlovich, arrived here, voluntarily sharing with him the hardships of exile.

In two weeks, Alexander Pavlovich built a small house. A throne was installed in the house and daily statutory services were performed. Vladyka and Alexander Pavlovich served alone; no outsiders were present at their services, since there was an Orthodox church nearby, where a priest close to Vladyka served, for whom Alexander Pavlovich had once been a psalm-reader.

So, in almost complete solitude, the bishop lived for about six months, and then went to Sarov to pray for the last time at the relics of St. Seraphim; was in Diveevo, from there he went to Nizhny Novgorod, where, together with the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) and Bishop Alexander (Shchukin), he participated in the consecration of Hieromonk Nikolai (Golubev) as Bishop of Vetluzh. Metropolitan Sergius informed Bishop Vasily about the transfer of Bishop Korniliy (Sobolev) of Vyaznikovsky to the Yekaterinburg See and that the Vyaznikovites were asking him to join them. “However,” he added, “you will be considered Kineshemsky, the Vyaznikovsky department will be temporary for you.” In Vyazniki the bishop continued the work begun in Anapol. For a long time he wanted to collect the conversations he had in church and in circles into one book. He handed over the manuscript of the book to trusted people in Kineshma, and they copied it by hand. At the beginning of 1927, Bishop Afanasy (Sakharov) sent his cell attendant Hieromonk Damaskin (Zhabinsky) to Vladyka in Vyazniki with a note asking whether Bishop Vasily would accept temporary administration of the Vladimir diocese in view of the fact that he, Bishop Afanasy, had been arrested and could not continue serving.

The Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), was arrested, and Archbishop Seraphim (Samoilovich) took over the administration of the Orthodox Church. Bishop Vasily turned to him to resolve this issue, but Bishop Seraphim sent Bishop Damian (Voskresensky) to Vladimir, and appointed Bishop to the Ivanovo See. But there was no need to take advantage of the appointment. By this time, the bishop’s sermons and his spiritual fortitude began to attract many people to the temple and the authorities sent the bishop to Kineshma. Here he served for several months when the authorities demanded that he leave.

In 1928, the bishop went to Yaroslavl to talk with Metropolitan Agafangel on issues of church life. He met him in the temple, where he had come to pray. The Metropolitan invited Bishop Vasily to remain in Yaroslavl as a vicar bishop. The Bishop refused.

In August of this year, the bishop returned to Kineshma and a month later was arrested.

Bishop Vasily spent about six months in Ivanovo prison and was sentenced to three years of exile.

The bishop went into exile in a prison convoy. He settled in the small taiga village of Malorechka, twenty-five kilometers from the regional town of Taborovo, Yekaterinburg region. Alexander Pavlovich shared with him the difficulties of exile here too. Together they set up a throne in the house, the bishop consecrated it and performed divine services every day.

Prayer, hard work in the forest - life was like a monastery with the most severe rules. Alexander Pavlovich earned money by fishing and making wooden troughs. They spoke to each other little and rarely. Sometimes the hour of rest came, and they went into the forest. The waters of the river splash in the darkness. The fire burns, illuminating the bishop’s concentrated face, his soul immersed in prayer. The forest darkness surrounds them tightly, Alexander Pavlovich wants to talk, but, looking at the bishop, he does not dare to disturb him.

Three years passed in solitude, prayer and work, and the fourth was already ending. The bishop's thoughts were inclined to remain here forever.

But it turned out that the link cannot be chosen freely. Just as he was about to ask the local authorities for permission to stay, they themselves began to demand that he leave.

Bishop Vasily thought about it. Where, where should we go? Which place should you choose as your place of exile? Ruined Sarov...

Diveevo... Optina Pustyn. Alexander Pavlovich often told Bishop Vasily about Optina and his stay there, and he loved to hear about this monastery beloved by the Russian people. I loved hearing about the obediences in which Alexander Pavlovich had to work.

- What about the baker Photius, whom you helped in Optina, where you were from?

- From Orel.

- Well, that’s good, let’s go to the homeland of Photius.

The bishop arrived in Orel in September 1932. Immediately, nun Vitalia came to him from Kineshma and brought many letters. To some he wrote the answers himself, to others he gave answers orally, so that they would write them down and pass them on. Vitaly’s mother did not stay long with the bishop. While he was writing letters, she rested, and he told her to go back without delay.

Until December, the bishop lived alone, because Alexander Pavlovich lingered in the Urals, waiting for the winter route to be established in order to take things out of the taiga wilderness.

In the village of Navoloki, where the bishop had a circle, the church was captured by renovationists, and the Orthodox - primarily the spiritual children of the bishop - began to go to the church in the village of Semigorye, where priest Pavel Nikanorovich Berezin served. He was not personally acquainted with Bishop Vasily, but in absentia he was his great admirer and always remembered him during divine services, even when the Kineshma See was abolished after his arrest. During interrogations, he told investigators: “I consider Bishop Vasily a pillar of the Russian Orthodox Church and a righteous man.” Father Paul was a good preacher, and his church was always full during services. Informants reported in detail to the authorities about church life in Semigorye. In December 1932, the GPU arrested Father Paul and Deacon Vasily Mager, and many were summoned for interrogation. In March 1933, the bishop received news that his spiritual children were being interrogated in Kineshma, some had already been arrested, and investigators were asking about the bishop.

On March 31, Bishop Vasily and Alexander Pavlovich were summoned to the Oryol vocational school, arrested and sent to the Kinesha prison.

The Bishop was accused of the fact that he, “being an opponent of Soviet power, focusing on the restoration of state power, in 1918 created a network of counter-revolutionary circles - a branch of the TOC (True Orthodox Church), which set as its task, through the religious anti-Soviet education of the religious masses, the overthrow of the existing system... Organized and trained cadres of secret prayer monasticism... He achieved in a number of village councils of the Kineshma region the decline of the growth of collectivization, mass unrest and the departure of old women workers from production.”

The bishop served his imprisonment near Rybinsk during the construction of a canal.

The interrogations began the very next day. And on the same day at night. And the next day. And the next day. And again at night. There were two investigators, and they changed. Sometimes they were replaced by a third investigator. The bishop was interrogated, not allowing him to sleep for many days.

The investigative conveyor belt, when they were not allowed to sleep for many days, torture by hunger against the backdrop of the infirmities and diseases of old age, broke the will to resist investigative speculation. And when the investigator once again brought the interrogation report typed ahead of time, the bishop signed it; he decided to speak at least somehow, to explain at least something. He talked for a long time about his religious path. How he was in England before the revolution and watched the Christian student movement there with interest, how he returned to Russia and here he himself became a member of the Moscow student circle. How he later created “evangelical circles” and how he reacted completely negatively to the October revolution. For some time he thought that as a result of the law on the separation of the Church and the state, it would gain freedom from state violence, but soon the state opened the most severe persecution of the Church, and then he left for Kineshma to visit his father.

The investigator wrote in his own way: “Having united around himself people dissatisfied with the Soviet regime from among the supporters of the illegal church living in the cities and districts of the Ivanovo and Yaroslavl regions, he created an anti-Soviet organization and led it until the moment of his arrest, nurturing in himself the hope of the inevitability of change in our country.” in a country of political system..."

In January 1944, the NKGB of the USSR telegraphed to Yaroslavl so that Bishop Vasily would be transported to Moscow to an internal prison.

Exhausted by a two-month stay in a Yaroslavl prison and interrogations, he was brought to Moscow barely alive. Upon admission to the internal prison of the NKGB on January 26, the doctor diagnosed: myocarditis, arteriosclerosis, exhaustion and wrote out a referral to the hospital.

Bishop Vasily was included in the same “case” with Bishop Afanasy (Sakharov), who was also taken to Moscow.

On July 13, the bishop was transferred to Butyrka prison and the sentence was announced: five years of exile, after which the bishop suffered a severe heart attack.

A remote Siberian village, abandoned among rivers and endless forests. The morals of youth are corrupted by godlessness and hardened by war. Even small children became wild from the cruelty happening all around. For a long time the bishop could not find an apartment for himself and finally settled in the house of a widow who had three young children. When the bishop prayed, they rolled horse dung into balls and threw them at the bishop with the words: “Here, grandfather, eat.”

Soon the Lord gave him some relief: believing women found him another apartment. The owner was lonely, and at that time an exiled nun lived with her.

Ascetic labors, years of imprisonment and exile undermined the health of Bishop Vasily, he began to get very sick, in Birilyussy he suffered partial paralysis, now it became difficult for him to walk and required care.

On August 13, 1945, the bishop felt death approaching and called the nun who lived with his mistress. He asked her to read the canon on the outcome of the soul. The nun began a leisurely reading, the bishop prayed. When she read the last prayer, he himself said in a firm voice: “Amen,” and quietly rested.

From the spiritual heritage of Bishop Vasily, sermons have been preserved, but in the greatest completeness - “Conversations on the Gospel of Mark”, in which the voice of the great preacher is clearly heard, who turned the hearts of many people to Christ.