Basil Erekaev

Holy Venerable Martyr Basil Erekaev, a hieromonk, by his full name Basil Egorovich Erekaev, was born in 1879 in the village of Nosakino, Spassk district, Tambov province, in a peasant family. He attended the village school and entered the Sarov Hermitage of the Dormition of the Mother of God, where he struggled until its closing in the spring of 1927. He was ordained a hieromonk and served at the church of the Dormition in the village of Staraya Pichemorga, Torbeevo district (now merged with Nosakino). In 1932 he was arrested and soon released.

He was a diligent pastor, visited his parishioners in the village and neighbouring villages, explained to them Orthodox doctrine and the moral duties of a Christian and warned them against the danger of deviating into schism. Many came to him for spiritual guidance and advice in life. In March 1937 he was arrested on a charge of "systematic counter-⁠revolutionary activity aimed at the overthrow of Soviet power". He did not admit guilt, saying that he gave guidance to believers out of his pastoral duty. He was shot on 10 August 1937 by decision of the NKVD troika of Mordovia of 5 August. He was glorified by the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2000.

He is commemorated on 10 August, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, and on 12 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Nizhny Novgorod Metropolia, all in the new style.