Basil (Archbishop of Novgorod)

Prior to his election as an archbishop, he traveled to the Middle East in holy places, as can be seen from his Message of Paradise . The time of his archbishopric coincided with severe circumstances for Novgorod and misfortunes of every kind. Novgorod, having just managed to protect itself from the Tver princes with the help of the Prince of Moscow, began to suffer from Moscow. Ivan Kalita greatly oppressed Novgorod, and Vladyka Vasily had to be represented before him for the freedom of his hometown.

In Pskov, there was a desire to acquire independence from Novgorod, and this was primarily expressed in the desire of the Pskov people to have their own special bishop. They even selected a certain Arseny for this post and sent him for approval to Metropolitan Theognost , who was then in Volyn. Gedimin and Pskov Prince Alexander Mikhailovich convinced Arseny Feognost to confirm. However, he did not go to meet them, not becoming a division of the diocese, and approving the archbishop of Novgorod and Pskov Basil, elected Novgorod.

When Vasily returned from Vladimir-Volynsky to Novgorod in 1331, thanks to Theognost’s warning, he managed to break away from the chase organized by Gedymin. But near Chernigov, the Kiev prince Fyodor with the Horde Basques and a detachment of 50 people attacked them, took the mercy and captured Ratslav, Protodeacon Feognost. In addition, Vasily concluded an agreement with Fedor on accepting Fyodor’s nephew Gleb (Narimunt) Gediminovich to serve in Novgorod, which was the first case of the adoption of the Prince-Neryurikovich in Novgorod. Although the historian Karamzin expressed doubts about the fact that Vasily kept his promise made under threats. In his opinion, the calling of Narimunt was a voluntary decision of the Novgorodians, dictated by their own interests.

Knowing that the Novgorodians brought a lot of silver from Kama as a result of the trade, Ivan Kalita demanded that this silver be given to him. Having been refused, in 1333, together with the lower and Ryazan princes, he occupied Bezhetsk and Torzhok and began to ravage the environs. Archbishop Basil went to him in Pereslavl to negotiate peace with Novgorod, but he could not appease him. Novgorodians gave the Grand Prince 500 rubles of silver, with the condition that he return the villages and villages occupied by him, but Ivan did not agree and then left in anger for the khan .

This danger forced the Novgorodians to reconcile with the Pskov prince Alexander Mikhailovich. Basil went to Pskov with his choir, blessed the people and baptized the son of a prince, and then remained his teacher. This was the first visit of the Archbishop of Novgorod to Pskov in 7 years.

Only in 1334, Basil, through Metropolitan Theognosto, to whom he traveled to Vladimir , managed to reconcile Kalita with Novgorod. Prince Ivan Danilovich visited Novgorod, and as a sign of favor for the honor and friendliness of the inhabitants, he called to Moscow the archbishop and the main Novgorod officials to pay them the same for a sumptuous treat.

In 1337 , however, the Novgorodians again quarreled with the Grand Duke, and he again began to ravage their lands. Vasily again went to Pskov for support, but this time the Pskov, considering the Novgorodians to be their enemies, took him very cold. He was not even given him the ordinary so-called court duty, or a tenth of the judicial proceeds. He was forced to leave, declaring the city a curse, as Metropolitan Feognost had previously done with Pskov.

The rich Sofia treasury, by order of Vasily, generously released funds for charity and for decorating the city. In 1337, the Great Bridge , which connected the Trade and Sofia sides of Novgorod, was destroyed by the Volkhov spill, and there was an argument between the parties about the construction of a new bridge that threatened bloodshed: Basil built a bridge to the account of the sovereign treasury. He also with his own hands laid the new city wall on the other side of Volkhov.

In 1340, the archbishop again performed the role of peacemaker, when the Novgorodians had a conflict with the Grand Duke Semen Proud because of Torzhok . The Grand Duke sent his governors there, but the boyars Torzhok did not accept them and, with the help of Novgorod, chained them. When Semyon began to prepare the army for the campaign, the residents rebelled, liberated his governors, expelled the Novgorod boyars and received the grand duke. Frightened by a strong army, the Novgorodians sent Vasily and the boyars to ask for peace. As a result, they ceded to Semyon all the tribute collected on the lands near Torzhok, or 1000 rubles of silver, and the grand duke, following the custom, by letter of undertaking undertook to comply with their ancient charters. Semyon for a long time could not forgive Novgorod. Only in 1347, at the call of Vasily, who came to Moscow, he went to Novgorod, where he sat down on the table and stayed for three weeks.

In the same year, a strong fire caused great devastation in Novgorod, on both sides many houses and shops, 48 ​​wooden and 3 stone churches were burned, the Kremlin , the lords' chambers , and St. Sophia Cathedral were burnt. Not survived and the house of the Archbishop. Fearing new fires, residents fled from their homes, lived in the fields, even on the water in boats, and the archbishop could hardly calm them down with church moves and prayers. Vasily renewed the walls of St. Sophia Cathedral, covered it with lead, set up a new iconostasis, helped restore the burnt churches from his treasury, and again built the "Great Bridge" across the Volkhov.

In Novgorod there were many disorder and hostility between the parties, and Vladyka was their peacemaker. So it was, for example, in 1344 , when a new posadnik was elected.

Vladyka himself was engaged in painting and decorated temples with his skill: the icon of the princes Boris and Gleb written by him for the Borisoglebsk church is well known. He also adorned the Sofia Church with copper, gilded gates and Greek painting. The patriotic and charitable activities of St. Basil earned him great respect and love from Novgorod. He was also honored in Constantinople : unlike the other Russian bishops, the Patriarch of Constantinople sent him cross-vestments and a white hood , about which the whole story was subsequently composed, with a definite aim to glorify Novgorod in comparison with Moscow. When in 1348, ambassadors arrived in Novgorod from the Swedish king Magnus to challenge a dispute about faith, the bishop replied: “ If you want to know which faith is better: yours or ours, send this to the patriarch — we accepted the faith from the Greeks .”

The active shepherd was not a skilled theologian. , which, by the way, is noticeable in his famous “ Epistle to Theodore, Bishop of Tver , about Paradise ”. He diligently proves Theodora that the paradise in which the first people lived is intact and exists in the East, and many have seen the place of torment in the West.

The very death of Basil testifies to his love for the flock. In 1352, a terrible infection appeared in Pskov - the “ black death ”, and in a short time it caused great devastation in the city. The Pskovs, depressed by grief and fear, asked the archbishop, who had previously been plagued by disobedience, to come to them and pray for them and with them. Vladyka arrived immediately, performed a divine service in three churches, walked around the city with a procession and comforted the Pskovites. Here he fell ill, and died on his way back to Novgorod, in the monastery of the Archangel, at the mouth of the river Uza , which flows into Shelon , on July 3, 1352 .

Before him, and on him at the Novgorod department was the archbishop Moses ( 1325 - 1329 and 1352 - 1359 ), who apparently was in hostility with the metropolitan Feognost .

Local veneration of Basil as a saint dates back to the middle of the 15th century.

The church worship of St. Basil was confirmed in 1981 by the inclusion of his name in the Novgorod Saints Cathedral .

• Fedor (Prince of Kiev)
• Orthodoxy in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

• Vasilyev P.P. Vasily, Archbishop of Novgorod and Pskov // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 t. (82 t. And 4 add.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• M. V. Pechnikov, A. A. Turilov, M. M. Vasily Kalika // Orthodox encyclopedia . - M .: Church Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2004. - T. VII. - S. 200-203. - 752 s. - 39 000 copies - ISBN 5-89572-010-2 .
• Karamzin N.M. History of Russian Goverment. - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix Publishing, 1995

• Vasily Kalika on the website of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) RAS.
• Vasily Kaleka (Kaleika) on the website Russian Orthodoxy
• St. Basil, Archbishop of Novgorod on the website Orthodoxy.Ru