Basil Tsvetkov

Holy Venerable Martyr Basil Tsvetkov, an archimandrite, whose name in the world was Gabriel Georgievich Tsvetkov, was born on 21 March 1867 in the village of Lesok, Ryazan district, in the family of the sexton Egor Tikhonovich Tsvetkov and his wife Varvara Nikolaevna. From 1884 he worked as a postman at the Pronsk office. After the theological school he resolved to dedicate himself to the service of God and in 1893 entered as a novice the Nikolo-⁠Radovitsky Monastery in the Egoryevsk district. On 28 April 1896 he was ordained hierodeacon, and on 14 May 1899 hieromonk, moved to the Holy Trinity Monastery in Ryazan and appointed sacristan. In 1902 he became treasurer and received a distinction, then the blessing of the Holy Synod for pure monastic life and labours as treasurer. In 1906 he was moved to the Pronsk Hermitage, in 1907 returned to the Trinity as a member of the economic council, in 1910 treasurer, in 1911 deputy abbot, and then abbot of the Spassky Hermitage in Pronsk and raised to the rank of hegumen. In 1912 he moved to the Pokrovo-⁠Voldinsky Monastery in Astrakhan, where he received the Order of Saint Anne, and on 5 June 1916 he was made archimandrite. In the same year he returned to the Ryazan diocese as abbot of the Pokrov Monastery in Dankov, where he served until its closing.

In August 1918 he wrote to Archbishop John of Ryazan about how the peasant council had taken the inventory of the monastery's property and even his typewriter had been taken; asked how to behave at the closing of the monastery, he received the answer: note it and file it. From 1919 to 1930 he served at the church of Saint Demetrius in Dankov and in the villages of Zhukovo and Lipyagi, and on 5 April 1930 he was appointed rector of the church of Saint George in Stary Kelets, Skopin district.

On 26 August 1937 he was arrested because "throughout the revolution he conducted an implacable struggle against Soviet power". People loved him greatly and came to him from everywhere, honouring his spiritual wisdom and eldership; the NKVD itself recorded this. He was held in Skopin prison until 17 September, when the case was sent to the troika of Moscow region, which on 11 October 1937 sentenced him to death. The sentence was carried out on 17 October 1937, and he was buried near Butovo, on the fenced ground of the former firing range. He was rehabilitated in 1989.

He is commemorated on 17 October, on 29 May (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Butovo, on 23 June in the Synaxis of the Saints of Ryazan, on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, and on 23 September in the Synaxis of the Saints of Lipetsk, all in the new style.