The Life
Who He Was Basil was a shoemaker's apprentice who, as a young man, began to behave strangely -- giving away his clothes, walking the streets of Moscow barefoot and nearly naked even in the depths of Russian winter, sleeping rough, talking to people in riddles. He became a familiar figure in Moscow over the following decades: the barefoot man who could see through pretense, who wept over sins the sinners hadn't admitted, who gave to those who were genuinely poor rather than to professional beggars. He became so respected -- or so feared -- that even Ivan the Terrible treated him with deference. When Basil rebuked Ivan for thinking about something other than the Liturgy while attending church, Ivan reportedly received the rebuke. Basil died in 1557 at an advanced age; Ivan himself helped carry his coffin. The famous cathedral in Red Square that everyone calls Saint Basil's was built by Ivan -- originally called the Cathedral of the Intercession -- and Basil was buried there.