Basil Studnitsyn

Holy Hieromartyr Basil Studnitsyn, a priest, was born on 18 March 1890 in the city of Serpukhov, Moscow province, in the family of the psalm-⁠reader Alexei Studnitsyn. In 1914 he finished the Moscow seminary and entered as psalm-⁠reader the cemetery church of All Saints in Serpukhov. In 1920 he was ordained priest, and in 1929 moved to the Holy Trinity church in Serpukhov. In 1930 he was arrested for non-⁠payment of tax and sentenced to a year in a camp. After his return he served again at the Holy Trinity, was raised to archpriest, and in 1936 was appointed dean of the parishes of the Serpukhov district.

On 14 April 1937 the priest Alexei Sinaisky, rector of the Dormition church in Serpukhov, was called in for interrogation and agreed to give testimony about Father Basil: he described him as a dean registered with the city council, who required strict keeping of the canonical order, was the link between the clergy and the episcopate and demanded from the churches lists of the members of their councils, and who in 1936-1937 visited several churches on great days to show the beauty of the service and draw the faithful. He also said that in 1930, in a conversation, Studnitsyn said that they must not let go of the villages around Serpukhov and must work carefully among the peasants, and that he proposed using nuns for agitation against the collective farms.

On 26 November 1937 he was arrested, held at Serpukhov and interrogated for several days. He said that he followed the old orientation of Tikhon, now led by Metropolitan Sergius, and admitted that at a funeral, at the meal, he had spoken of the hardships of life under Soviet power, which lays taxes beyond means, especially on the clergy. The investigation ended on 30 November, and on 5 December an NKVD troika sentenced him to death. Taken to Moscow, he was photographed in the NKVD prison before execution. Archpriest Basil Studnitsyn was shot on 9 December 1937 and buried in an unknown common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow. He was rehabilitated in 1957, and the Holy Synod numbered him among the New Martyrs of Russia on 26 December 2001, for veneration throughout the Church.

He is commemorated on 9 December, on 29 May (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, and on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, all in the new style.