Basil of Moldovita

Basil was a hieromonk and abbot of Moldovița Monastery in the fifteenth century, confessor of Prince Alexander the Good. The Paterikon calls him Saint Basil of Moldovița. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; the sources available to us give no day of commemoration.

He was born in northern Moldavia, to a God-⁠fearing peasant family. Hearing of the fine order of Moldovița, he became a monk there and surpassed many in humility, prayer and spiritual wisdom. Seeing his struggle, Metropolitan Joseph Mușat ordained him priest and appointed him abbot of the monastery. His name appears as abbot in the commemoration book of Moldovița and in a deed of gift of Alexander the Good dated 14 April 1415.

He guided the community with wisdom, so that monks and many lay believers sought him out. Tradition tells that he had the gift of healing and foresight. He was counsellor and spiritual father to the prince, as well as to many holy monks and hermits. He had disciples on Mount Athos and at the Stoudios Monastery in Byzantium, from where he brought dozens of church manuscripts. At Moldovița he founded a school of monk-⁠catechists and calligraphers, for the needs of village churches.

He reposed in peace, leaving more than a hundred disciples. According to the Paterikon his body was found incorrupt, and the faithful venerated him as a saint. In 1621-1622 the Ukrainian hieromonk Zacharias Kopystensky called him in his writing Saint Basil the wonderworker of Moldovița. His relics lay for over a hundred years in the new church built in 1535; then, in hard times, they were hidden in a secret place in the church, where they remain today.