Basil Teplovodsky

Saint Basil Teplovodsky, hieromartyr, was an archpriest of the Russian Church, born, it is supposed, in 1882, and dead in prison at Oktyabrsk on 15 May 1926. He was glorified among the hieromartyrs. The source does not say on what date or by whom he was canonized.

It is supposed that he was born in 1882. Nothing is known of his childhood and youth. In 1925 he began to serve at the Smolensk monastery of Staro-⁠Kostychevo, three years before its closure. In the civil registry office of Oktyabrsk a "record of the death of the citizen Teplovodsky V. F." was found, from which it is known that Basil died of a heart defect on 15 May 1926, aged forty-⁠four. Similar letters were sent to the families of the persecuted. Basil had been arrested by the NKVD under article 58 (counter-⁠revolutionary propaganda). He was in the prison of Oktyabrsk, in strict isolation. The nuns were not allowed, however much they tried, to send him any parcel of food or other things.

His body was given to the nuns, who buried the sufferer in the monastery cemetery. Teplovodsky's grave was not far from that of the schemamonk Panteleimon, although they could not have known of each other in life. Later, on 15 April 2004, Basil's relics were found, and on 22 April of the same year they were moved to the Smolensk church.