Basil Bogdashevsky

Saint Basil (Bogdashevsky), Archbishop of Kaniv, was a great professor of the New Testament and the last rector of the Kiev Theological Academy before its closure. He served as a vicar bishop of Kiev in the years of revolution and schism, passed through prison and exile, and died in 1933, exhausted by hunger, on the day he set out to celebrate the vigil. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church numbered him in 2019 among the locally venerated saints of the diocese of Kiev.

Childhood and studies

In the world he was Dmitry Ivanovich Bogdashevsky, born on 19 October 1861 in the village of Zavidov in Volhynia, into the family of the priest John Dmitrievich Bogdashevsky. He received his first education at home from his father. He graduated from the Melets theological school (1876) and the Volhynian Theological Seminary (1882), first in his class, and then, as its best student, was sent to the Kiev Theological Academy, which he completed in 1886 as a candidate of theology and was retained to prepare for a professorship.

The professor

From 1887 he taught the history of ancient and modern philosophy at the Kiev Academy. In 1890 he received the master's degree in theology for a prize-⁠winning study of the false teachings opposed in the First Epistle of Saint John, and then defended his doctoral thesis on the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, which won the Macarius Prize and was printed in 1904 in a volume of more than 700 pages.

From 1897 he moved to the chair of New Testament, where he became docent, then extraordinary professor (1902) and ordinary professor (1905-1912). From 1909 he was inspector of the Academy, and from 1910 editor-⁠in-⁠chief of its journal. He wrote for the Orthodox Theological Encyclopaedia and was twice awarded prizes for his articles and his translation of Tertullian's dogmatic works. He wrote on the philosophy of Kant, on Greek philosophy, on the relation between philosophy and natural science, on the Gospels, on the Acts of the Apostles, on the Church, on the Mystical Supper, on the Apostle Paul, on Saint John Chrysostom as seen in his letters, on Christian charity, on the causes of contemporary unbelief, and a study of the Gospel of Matthew (1915).

Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) wrote that he was a brilliant professor who lectured from memory, with enthusiasm and in a thoroughly churchly spirit, and that the students listened with such delight that they sometimes applauded him.

Priest and monk

In 1910 he was ordained deacon and priest, without marrying, and in recognition of his scholarly merits was at once raised to archpriest. In 1912, on the twenty-⁠fifth anniversary of his work, he received the title of professor emeritus, and his colleagues presented him with a commemorative volume. He replied that he loved the Academy boundlessly, that he had given it all his strength, that scholarly work was an inner need of his soul, and that whatever he had done he had done by the grace of God, thanking Him for everything.

On 24 September 1913, in the cave of Saint Anthony in the Kiev Caves Lavra, Metropolitan Flavian (Gorodetsky) of Kiev tonsured him a monk with the name Basil, and that same year he was raised to archimandrite.

Rector and bishop

In July 1914 he was appointed rector of the Kiev Theological Academy and abbot of the Brotherhood Monastery of the Theophany, which housed the Academy, and on 6 August 1914, in Saint Sophia Cathedral, he was consecrated Bishop of Kaniv, second vicar of the diocese of Kiev. He was a member of the commission for the scholarly edition of the Slavonic Bible and an honorary member of the theological academies of Moscow (1914), Petrograd and Kazan (1915).

After the Revolution, in 1918, he fell gravely ill from hunger and unheated lodgings, but remained rector. When the Academy's buildings were seized he continued to lead it, with classes held in the professors' homes. He opposed the autocephalist movement in Ukraine but supported steps towards Ukrainisation of the Church that did not violate the canons: from 1918 he chaired the committee for translating Holy Scripture and liturgical texts into Ukrainian, and in 1920 he attended a service in Ukrainian. In 1921 he signed the appeal of the Orthodox episcopate of Ukraine urging the faithful not to recognise the decisions of the gathering that had proclaimed an uncanonical autocephaly.

Persecution

On 4 April 1923 he was arrested together with the other vicar bishops of Kiev for refusing to join the Renovationists. He was taken to Moscow, to Butyrka prison, and then exiled in 1923-1924 to the village of Izhma in the Komi region. Released in 1924, he returned to Kiev and was appointed Bishop of Pryluky, and in 1925 he was raised to archbishop with the right to wear a cross on his koukoulion. At the end of 1925 he again became Archbishop of Kaniv, first vicar of the diocese of Kiev. On 12 March 1926 he signed, with other Ukrainian bishops, a letter to Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) condemning the Gregorian schism. He opposed any compromise with the Soviet authorities.

Metropolitan Manuel (Lemeshevsky) wrote of him that he was gentle, accessible to all and deeply believing, and that in the years of hardship he was a pillar of Orthodoxy in Kiev, defending the Church through his simple and convincing sermons from the wolves in sheep's clothing, the Renovationists and other schismatics.

Repose

He died in the year of the great famine. According to the recollections of Professor Rybinsky, gravely ill and against his doctor's advice, he set out on Saturday, 25 February 1933, the eve of Forgiveness Sunday, to celebrate the vigil, saying that he wished to die in church. Reaching the Dormition Cathedral, he collapsed and died on the spot. He was carried at once to the Brotherhood Monastery and vested, and so spent his last vigil standing before the Lord. Many of his contemporaries saw in this death the end of a righteous man. The death certificate preserved in the archives gives the date of 26 February. Some sources say he died of exhaustion caused by hunger.

He was buried in the Theophany Cathedral of the Brotherhood Monastery, near the first pillar from the entrance. After the cathedral was demolished in 1935 his remains were moved to the Lukyanivka cemetery, where his grave lies to this day, near the church of Saint Catherine.

Glorification

On 3 April 2019 the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church numbered him among the locally venerated saints of the diocese of Kiev as a hieromartyr and included him in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Kiev Theological Academy. He is commemorated on 26 February.