Basil the Confessor

Venerable Basil the Confessor (also called Basil the Decapolite) was a Byzantine monk, disciple and companion in struggle of Venerable Procopius the Decapolite, and died around 750. He is commemorated on 28 February (by the new calendar, 13 March by the old; according to the Serbian source, also on 12 April). Our sources mix this monk with another Basil the Confessor, bishop of Parium, so we tell of each separately.

He was a monk in Constantinople, in one of the monasteries. In the time of the iconoclast persecution of the emperor Leo the Isaurian, he was subjected together with Procopius to many torments and put in prison, where both monks remained until the emperor's death, in 741. After the emperor's death Basil lived nearly ten years more, returned to his monastery and died a natural death, in 750 (the Serbian source gives the year 747). In the Menologion of Basil II (end of the tenth century), under 27 February, there is a short common life of Procopius and Basil, in which both are called confessors. In the Synaxarion of the Church of Constantinople (tenth century) the life of Procopius is under 27 February, and that of Basil under 28 February. In the Menologion the image of the two venerable ones is painted. In Russian calendars Basil is called the Decapolite, but in the Greek ones this name is missing.

The other Basil the Confessor was a monk and was elected bishop of Parium, in Asia Minor. In February 754 the emperor Constantine V convened the synod of Hieria to condemn the veneration of icons. Basil refused to sign the decision to destroy icons and then avoided any dealings with the iconoclasts. For this he suffered much persecution, hunger and deprivation. He is commemorated on 12 April. The Serbian source considers that they are one and the same person and says that he was bishop at Parium, refused to sign the decision against the veneration of icons and was tormented, then returned with Procopius to their monastery. The two accounts do not agree.