Vasily (Roslyakov)

Family

Father, Ivan Fedorovich Roslyakov - military. During the Great Patriotic War, he fought in the Northern Fleet, after the war he served in law enforcement. Mother, Anna Mikhailovna, worked as a weaver at the Krasnaya Roza factory in Moscow. The family lived in Kuzminki, on the street of Young Leninists .

Childhood and Youth

Soon after birth, Igor was baptized with his own name ( Igor ) - in honor of the blessed Grand Duke Igor Chernigov.

Young years

He graduated from the journalism faculty of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov . He was seriously engaged in water polo . He played for the university water polo team, at that time one of the strongest in the USSR . In his asset - the title of the best player in the European Championship among youth teams.

Optina Desert

In November 1987, the former Soviet Museum of Optina Deserts was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church . The restoration of the monastery began , and on June 3, 1988, the first service was held in it. Upon learning of the revival of the desert , Igor decided to visit it and arrived at the monastery as a novice , shortly after the glorification of the reverend Optina Elder, Hieroschimonhos Ambrosius (Grenkov) , held on June 6, 1988. After spending a short time in the monastery, Igor felt a desire to stay in it. He returned home to pay off worldly affairs, and on October 17, 1988, he again came to the monastery - this time forever. It so happened that on this visit he was settled in the cell of the very old man Ambrose.

In the monastery, Igor performed various obediences - unloading bricks, cleaning up garbage, working in the icon shop, reading the Psalter in the church, and on duty at the monastery gate. April 29, 1989, on Holy Saturday , was adopted into the fraternity . So he wrote at that time in his diary: "The mercy of God is given for nothing, but we must bring to the Lord everything that we have."

Fulfilling obedience, he meekly endured remarks and reproaches, being focused on repenting meditation and remembrance of the sufferings of Christ . He wrote that "to take the cross and follow Christ means willingness to accept death for Him and suffer, and whoever has the desire to die for Christ will hardly be upset when he sees works and sorrows, reproaches and insults."

Once his mother Anna Mikhailovna came to the monastery. She asked him to leave the monastery for a long time, but Igor was firm in his intention to stay in the monastery.

On January 5, 1990, Igor Roslyakov was tonsured a monk with the name Vasily in honor of St. Basil the Great . Settled in a monastery house. The bed was made of two boards laid on a cot and covered with felt on top, a pillow was made of two crypt bricks with the relics of the venerable Optina Elder Joseph. The main property that was in this cell is a large number of patristic books , which he sometimes reads several at a time. He was distinguished by humble wisdom, disobedience, a desire for solitude and private prayer, he was a strict fasting. So, during Lent, he ate food only once a day - vegetables or sour berries with a small amount of bread.

On April 8, 1990, the monk Basil was ordained hierodeacon , and on May 9, at the Pentecostal meditation , he preached for the first time. Many noted its depth, and subsequently, as one of the best preachers, Father Vasily was instructed to read sermons for the holidays. In sermons, he sought to reveal the causes of sin , avoiding reproof.

On August 23, 1990, he was tonsured in a mantle in honor of Moscow Christ for the sake of the holy fool Vasily Blessed . The priest's obligations related to the need to often communicate with parishioners were not fully consistent with the desire for solitude, but Father Basil took ordination as obedience, seeking to carry out his pastoral duty with compassion and caring attention to his spiritual children, of whom he had few.

November 21, 1990, at the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael and other heavenly forces ethereal , was ordained a hieromonk . Gradually parting with his worldly habits , soon after the ordination he stopped writing poetry. Instead, he began to write verses . So, he composed a few sticher about Optina Desert, worked on the compilation of a service to the reverend Optina elders, which he did not manage to finish. Passed the obedience of the canonarch , sang the stichera. He conducted catechetical conversations in the prison of the city of Sukhinichi , conversations with the Baptists in the prison of the city of Yertsevo , a Sunday school in the city of Sosensky and a school for pilgrims in the Optina Desert.

The Great Lent of 1993, Father Basil was held with particular severity. I didn’t eat food at Holy Week . The fraternity noted at that time his weakness and pallor. On Great Saturday , he professed all day, and in the evening he suddenly felt ill due to severe overwork. Before the Easter liturgy, he performed proskomidia , at the end of the liturgy he canonized.

Martyrdom

On Easter morning , April 18, 1993, he went obediently to the monastery - to confess communion in the middle monastery liturgy. On the way I heard a bell ringing - the monks Ferapont and Trofim rang. The ringing suddenly broke. Father Vasily went to the belfry. A stranger walked towards him, who, having caught up, struck him with a long dagger . About an hour Father Vasily was still alive, but the wound was fatal - a dagger pierced a kidney, a lung and damaged a cardiac artery, and Father Vasily died before the end of the liturgy. As it was soon discovered, monks Ferapont and Trofim were killed in the same way on the belfry. The investigation established that Father Vasily met face to face with the killer and there was a short conversation between them, after which Father Vasily turned his back on the killer.

Patriarch Alexy II sent a telegram to Optina Desert that day:

Christ is Risen! I share Easter joy with you and with the brethren of the monastery! Together with you, I share the grief over the tragic death of the three inhabitants of Optina Desert. I pray for the repose of their souls. I believe that the Lord, who called them on the first day of the Holy Resurrection of Christ through martyrdom, will make them participants in the eternal Easter in the non-evening days of His Kingdom. Soul with you and with the fraternity. Patriarch Alexy II , April 18, 1993.

Last entry in the diary of Father Basil:

By the Holy Spirit we know God. This is a new organ unknown to us, given to us by the Lord to know His love and His goodness. This is some new eye, a new ear for seeing the unprecedented and for hearing the unheard of. It is as if you were given wings and said: now you can fly all over the universe. The Holy Spirit is the wings of the soul.

• Hieromonk Vasily. "I was created by the Divine Word." - M.: Publishing House of the Sretensky Monastery, 2002.
• The penitential canon of the holy martyr Basil of Optina (Roslyakova) .
• Poems by Hieromonk Vasily Roslyakov .
• Extracts from the diary .
• There is no death in God. Hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakov). Interview, penitential canon, songs on his poems (inaccessible link) . The recording format is MP3. Publisher: Holy Vvedensky Monastery of Optina Deserts.

• The penitential canon performed by Hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakova) (inaccessible link) (Recording format - MP3. Size - 4.5 Mb)
• Optina Deserts

• Virtual Museum of Hieromonk Vasily (Igor Roslyakov) .
• Pavlova N.A. Easter Red. About the three Optina New Martyrs killed on Easter 1993 . - Address-Press, 2002. ISBN 5-8305-0030-2 . // - Alta-Print, 2008. ISBN 978-5-98628-090-5 .
• Pavlova N.A. Easter Red. The brothers were killed! on the site Orthodoxy and Peace .
• Biography of the Optina New Martyrs Hieromonk Vasily, Monk Ferapont, Monk Trofim. - Publishing House of the Holy Vvedensky Monastery Optina Deserts, 2003.
• Heavenly warriors. Biography and miracles of the Optina New Martyrs . - M .: St. Cyprian, 2008 .-- 336 p. - 10,000 copies. - ISBN 5893200683 . .
• Biography of Igor Roslyakov on the website Poetry of Moscow State University .
• Biography of the Optina Hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakova) .
• Igor Roslyakov on Peoples.Ru .
• Memoirs of T.V., a teacher at Moscow State University .
• Red Easter in Optina Desert on Orthodoxy.Ru .
• Hegumen Ipatiy (Khvostenko). Lamps of Optina desert. // Blagovest, September 15, 2000.
• Vasina G. Red Easter in Optina Desert. // Russian line, 05/06/2003.
• Gotovtseva O. Easter red. // Blagovest, 04/23/2004.
• Petrosova A. Angels among us ... When the monks were killed, they did not resist. // Russian line, February 9, 2007.
• Martyrs of Optina. About Father Vasily (Roslyakov). // Orthodoxy and the world , May 19, 2006.
• About Father Vasily (Roslyakov). Part 2. // Orthodoxy and Peace , May 26, 2006.
• Biography of Hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakova) // Official website of the Optina Desert Monastery.
• The criminal case on charges of N. N. Averin in the murder of the monks of Optina Desert about. Feraponta, about. Trofim and Fr. Vasily 04/18/93)
• Photos
• Easter Red - Nina Pavlova , Pavlova Nina Alexandrovna. Easter Red