Basil Krylov

Holy Hieromartyr Basil Krylov, a priest, was born in 1906 in the village of Podlipichye, Dmitrov district, Moscow province, in the family of the psalm-⁠reader Sergei Krylov. He attended the village school, and in 1917 his parents sent him to the theological school in Dmitrov, but he studied only a year, for in 1918 the school was closed by the godless. As the son of a psalm-⁠reader, he was not accepted in other schools. When his father fell gravely ill, Basil served for a time at the church, helping him. In 1923 his father died, and Bishop John (Vasilievsky) of Bronnitsy sent him as psalm-⁠reader to the church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Markovo.

On 22 October 1926 Bishop Nikita (Delektorsky) ordained him deacon for the Saviour church in Vedernitsy, and soon he was moved to the Epiphany church in Elokhovo, in Moscow. In 1929 he was assigned to the Ascension church in Ramenye. On 19 February 1931 Archbishop Philip (Gumilevsky) of Zvenigorod ordained him priest for the Nativity church in the village of Rozhdestveno on the Istra. On 4 June 1931, as one deprived of electoral rights, he was taken for labour in the rear militia, from which he returned only on 29 June 1934 and was sent to the Holy Trinity church in Ryazantsy, Shchelkovo district. He was twenty-⁠eight and served with the zeal of a young pastor, working to bring the youth to faith, some of whom had already been raised in unbelief.

After the secret NKVD order for mass arrests, he was arrested among the first in the Shchelkovo district, on 16 August 1937, and at once interrogated. He denied everything charged against him, rejected the testimony of false witnesses and said that he had never spoken with anti-⁠Soviet intent. Interrogated a second time on 8 October, he again denied. On 13 October 1937 an NKVD troika sentenced him to ten years in a camp. The priest Basil Krylov died on 31 May 1942 in a camp site of Sevzheldorlag, in the Komi region.

He is commemorated on 31 May, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, on 11 February in the Synaxis of the Saints of Komi, and on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, all in the new style.