06 — The Cathedral

The building the world calls “St. Basil’s” is dedicated not to Basil but to the Intercession of the Theotokos. This section gives the true history — the Cathedral of the Intercession on the Moat, built 1555–61 for the conquest of Kazan — and the 1588 chapel over Basil’s grave that lent it the fool’s name.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox (glorified 1588; feast 2 August O.S. / 15 August N.S.)

The cathedral is the reason Basil’s name is known worldwide, and the relationship between saint and building is precisely inverted in popular understanding: the church came first and was dedicated to the Theotokos; the saint’s chapel was added, and his name migrated onto the whole. The first file gives the cathedral’s own history and dedication; the second treats the 1588 chapel and the relics, and how that corner of the building renamed it.

Section Contents

• The Cathedral of the Intercession on the Moat — the true dedication, the 1555–61 construction for the Kazan victory, and the symbolic program
• The Chapel and the Relics — the 1588 chapel over Basil’s grave, the relics, and the naming of the cathedral

See Also

• The Name and the Cult — the migration of the name treated from the saint’s side
• Basil in Art and National Memory — the cathedral as national symbol
• Canonization 1588 — the glorification that built the chapel

References

• Brumfield, William Craft. A History of Russian Architecture. Cambridge University Press, 1993, ch. 4.
• Erusalimsky, K. Yu., and A. S. Preobrazhensky. “Василий Блаженный.” In Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya, vol. 7. Moscow, 2004. pravenc.ru/text/150789.html.
• Flier, Michael S. Studies on the Intercession Cathedral and the symbolic program of Red Square.