Basil Spassky

Holy Hieromartyr Basil Spassky, a priest, by his full name Basil Georgievich Spassky, was born in 1878 in the churchyard-⁠village of Kozmodemyansky, Tver district and province, in the family of a priest. After the seminary he was ordained and served in the churches of the Tver diocese. In 1929 he was arrested and sentenced to six months in prison and a fine. In 1931 he was arrested again, on a charge of "counter-⁠revolutionary agitation", and sentenced to three years of exile. Returning in 1934, he served at the Transfiguration church in the village of Kholokholnya near Staritsa.

On 2 January 1938 he was arrested and held at Zubtsov. He did not admit guilt. Asked by the investigator about earlier convictions, he confirmed that he had been tried twice, but said that he did not know why the second time. The NKVD troika of Kalinin region had decided on 31 December 1937 to have him shot, before his arrest. The priest Basil Spassky was shot on 5 January 1938. He was glorified by the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2000.

He is commemorated on 5 January, on 7 February (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, and on 18 July (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Tver, all in the new style.