Basil Sitnikov

Holy Hieromartyr Basil Sitnikov, a deacon, by his full name Basil Ivanovich Sitnikov, was a deacon of the church of Saint Nicholas in Dalmatov, Perm province. He completed three classes of theological school and from 1885 was a psalm-⁠reader. In 1898 he was ordained deacon and served first at the church of Saint John the Baptist in the village of Izedeginskoe, Shadrinsk district, Ekaterinburg diocese, then at the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the village of Baklanskoe. On 5 November 1913 he was moved to the church of Saint Nicholas in Dalmatov, where he received the death of a martyr from the atheists who had come to power.

In 1918, after his fellow servants, the priests Vladimir Sergeev and Alexander Sidorov, were arrested, Deacon Basil began to rebuke the godless for plundering the property of the arrested pastors. They took note and took vengeance. Deacon Basil Sitnikov was killed the day after the martyrdom of the priests with whom he served, on 28 June 1918.

He is commemorated on 11 July and on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, in the new style.