Basil of Mirozh

Holy Venerable Martyr Basil of Mirozh, of Pskov, is remembered together with Venerable Joasaph of Snetnaya Gora. Both suffered at the hands of the Germans in the two oldest monasteries of Pskov, in the thirteenth century. Venerable Basil headed the Transfiguration Monastery of Miroz, founded about 1156 by Saint Nifont, bishop of Novgorod (commemorated 8 April), and Venerable Abraham of Miroz (24 September). Joasaph was abbot, and according to some Pskov synodikons even founder, of the monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God on Snetnaya Gora. They laboured much for the outward and inward good order of the monasteries. By the strict communal rule introduced by Joasaph, the life of the monks was full of prayer, abstinence and labour. Nearly ninety years after his death, Archbishop Dionysius of Suzdal took up his rules in the new typikon of the Snetnaya Gora monastery. Here Venerable Euphrosynus of Pskov (15 May) and Venerable Sabbas of Krypets (28 August) began their ascetic labours.

The monasteries stood outside the city walls, undefended. On 4 March 1299 the Germans attacked Pskov and set fire to the monasteries of Miroz and Snetnaya Gora. During the fire, in the churches, together with other monks, Basil and Joasaph died. Many people suffered then in the city, monks of other monasteries, women and children, but, says the chronicler, "through the prayers of the Holy Venerable Martyrs, the Lord preserved the men". Under the leadership of the prince of Pskov, Saint Dovmont-⁠Timothy (20 May), they went out against the enemy and beat them on the bank of the Pskova, by the church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Basil and Joasaph were buried with their companions in the churches of their monasteries, beneath the floor. The venerable head and part of the relics of Joasaph were kept in view in a shrine at Snetnaya Gora. The holy prince Dovmont built from his own means a stone church in place of the burned one and helped much in restoring monastic life. Soon after their martyrdom came their glorification at Pskov: in the parchment Pskov Prologue of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries their commemoration is on 5 March, while in the chronicle and the old synodikons the day of their blessed repose is 4 March. With them suffered, according to the chronicle, the priest Joseph, and according to the Prologue, the priest Constantine.

Saint Basil is commemorated on 11 July (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Pskov, in the new style.