Elder Basilisk of Turinsk

[Barbara]

Yesterday was this desert-dweller's repose day. A few notes to start. Elder Basilisk is known to the Orthodox world because of the biography of his student, Elder Zosima. The latter's life was written by his niece, Abbess Vera [Verkhovsky], elder daughter of Zosima's older brother Elias.

Elder Basilisk [a wonderful name] was one of the diciples of Elder Adrian in a small group of desert dwellers in the Bryansk forests. This was a well-known refuge around the turn of the 19th century for monks seeking a free monastic life as opposed to trying to win a place in the state-run monasteries. Access to the latter was highly restrictive under laws brought by Catherine II, a determined enemy of the Russian Church.

The Bryansk Forest was quite some ways south of Smolensk and slightly west. It was Elder Zosima's next older brother Elias who first had met Elder Basilisk when visiting the Bryansk desert while considering a monastic life.

About Basilisk's past, not much has been preserved. His name in the world was Basil ; he was born in about 1740 in the village of Ivanish, near Kalyazin, Tver Governate into a family of "government peasants". His parents were Gabriel and Stephania. Gabriel insisted his son marry, but Basil left his family - with his wife's agreement - to pursue the monastic path. After spending time in regular monasteries, he become a hermit in the Chuvashia forests.

One day, a wandering monk told Basil of Fr Adrian, a skilled spiritual father who lived with his disciples in the Bryansk woods. Basil immediately felt this Elder would be the right teacher to guide his spiritual development. He journeyed to Bryansk.

There, Elder Adrian tonsured Basil a monk and gave him advanced instruction on the ascetic life.

By the time that the future Elder Zosima met Fr Basilisk there, some irregularities had occurred so that the latter possessed no passport. This problem was causing anxiety for the desert-dweller. Thus the future Elder Zosima leapt to help, overcoming formidable obstacles to procure the elusive document for the exceedingly humble desert-dweller he hoped would then agree to become his Elder.

[Barbara]

Fr Clement Sederholm on Desert Dwellers of the Roslavl and neighboring Bryansk forests. This Optina hieromonk, the well-known convert from Lutheranism, gives insight into Elder Basilisk's early years with his Elder, Fr Adrian :

"In 1775, Hieromonk Adrian of Ploshchansk came to live in the Bryansk forests with the monk Jonah and two novices.
Adrian had originally entered Ploshchansk Hermitage around 1768 and for four years had fulfilled his monastic obediences there with great zeal.

However, since he greatly desired to receive the monastic tonsure and since at that time there were no monastic "vacancies" in all of Orel Diocese, he decided in 1772 to transfer to the Simonov Monastery in Moscow, where he was tonsured and then ordained hieromonk. In 1775, upon returning to Ploshchansk Hermitage, he conceived the desire to embark upon an eremetic [hermit] life of stillness,and with the superior's permission, he went to live in the dense and in those days impassable forests of Bryansk with the monk Jonah and two novices.

Here he struggled in asceticism for over eight years. But soon neighboring settlers began to chop down the forest and thus compelled Adrian to move to another location better suited to the eremitic life. He settled about six miles from the cell of ..Elder Barnabas, who was struggling in complete stillness with a single disciple.

But they did not enjoy tranquility for long. One night robbers attacked them...and plundered their cells. The Lord preserved Adrian's life but Barnabas was destined to receive a martyr's crown...After the martyric death of Father Barnabas, Father Adrian and his disciples moved from the Orel forests to the vicinity of Smolensk, where by God's dispensation they found benefactors who received them with solicitude and built them cells in the wilderness.

But their stay here was brief. Many reverent and pious landowners chose Father Adrian as their confessor, and the local presbyters [priests] became very angry with him as a result, supposing that he received much pay for his confessions.
They submitted a complaint  against Father Adrian...to the civil authorities and then to Bishop  Partheny of Smolensk.

He gave him [Fr Adrian] permission to reside in Smolensk diocese only on the condition that he be officially registered under the jurisdiction of the diocese of Smolensk. But since at that time the monasteries of Smolensk needed monks, the Elder was afraid that once he and his disciples were received...they would not be permitted to live the eremitic life, but would be forcibly assigned to some monastery.

Therefore Father Adrian decided to transfer to the St Petersburg diocese to be under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Gabriel, a friend of monastics. With the Metropolitan's blessing, he and his disciples came to live at Konevits Hermitage.

Continued

[Barbara]

Since today is the repose day of Elder Adrian, I am including some more material about him.

Later, Elder Adrian returned to the Bryansk woods, hoping to persuade Fr Basilisk and Fr Zosima to join his Konevits island Monastery. This by the way is the Finnish spelling ; in Russian, it's called the Konevsky Monastery.

Neither of the two disciples wished to leave their happy "desert life". Only when Elder Adrian insisted that they, as his spiritual sons, MUST obey him, did the two reluctantly concede that they needed to do what their respected Elder wished.

To the outright sobs of the rest of the Bryansk desert-dwellers. who had gathered to see them off, the 3 departed the forests for the long journey to the Lake Ladoga region. They did not stop anywhere, not even Smolensk, Fr Zosima's family's hometown, and arrived safely to their new spiritual abode.

Once there, Frs Basilisk and Zosima requested to be able to live apart from the main monastery in cells. Fr Adrian promised, and eventually allowed them to retire to the desert.
However, the latter asked Fr Zosima, who was 24 years old at the time, to go collect money for the monastery's needs in St. Petersburg. Fr Zosima obeyed, but was uncomfortable in the midst of bustling life in what was then the Empire's capital.
Fr Zosima was particularly averse to having to deal with women. The young monk developed a system of crossing the street to avoid having to pass a woman ; never buying goods from female market vendors, and if somehow he happened to be in the presence of a woman - for example, when received at wealthy homes where he was soliciting donations, Fr Zosima would actually cross his eyes so he could not see her ! Or else blur his vision.
The monk did this for 8 years in a row on his annual fundraising trips of a month each.

Eventually, word in the Konevits region began to spread about the existence of hermits. Pilgrims arrived in numbers, asking for prayers, healing, advice for their lives, spiritual instructions. At this, the dismayed fathers Basilisk and Zosima petitioned Abbot Adrian to be released so they could retreat to Mt Athos, Moldavia, or an uninhabited island out in the sea.

But Abbot Adrian begged them to stay longer at Konevits to help him in his old age and weak state. Of course, they could not abandon their elder, so the two monks stayed on until finally in 1796, their spiritual father himself petitioned the Synod to be released from his abbatial duties. Abbot Adrian left for the Simonov Monastery in Moscow, bestowing his blessing on the two monastics to go seek their calling anywhere they felt God wished them to labor.

However, Abbot Adrian mentioned - likely a hint - that Siberia would be a fruitful area for their monastic endeavors.
And, so it was to Siberia that his two disciples traveled after meeting with Metropolitan Gabriel of St Petersburg. The hierarch instantly granted their request, as Fr Adrian had already notified him as to the wishes of his two star disciples.

Abbot Adrian gave his final words of advice to them. He suggested they sing or read a troparion to Our Lady of Kazan without fail at the end of their regular prayer-rules.

Fr Adrian set out south for the famous Simonov Monastery, where he was tonsured into the Schema, becoming Schemamonk Alexis. The elderly monastic reposed this day in the fateful year of 1812.