07 — The Fool-for-Christ Tradition

The wider tradition to which Basil belongs: yurodstvo, holy foolishness, as a distinctive Russian spiritual path with deep Byzantine roots — and the company of other Russian fools among whom Basil is the most famous. This section situates him in a lineage that runs from sixth-century Emesa to eighteenth-century Petersburg.

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

Basil is not a solitary curiosity but the greatest exemplar of a coherent tradition. The first file treats the theology of holy folly and its Byzantine roots more fully than the introductory Section 02 — the Pauline foundation, Symeon of Emesa and Andrew of Constantinople, and the scholarship of Ivanov and Fedotov. The second places Basil among the other Russian fools — especially Nikola Salos of Pskov, whose deeds the tradition partly transferred to Basil, and the arc that reaches forward to St. Xenia.

Section Contents

• Yurodstvo as a Russian Path — the theology of holy folly, 1 Cor 4:10, and the Byzantine roots (Ivanov)
• Basil Among the Russian Fools — the other Moscow and Russian fools; Nikola Salos of Pskov; the tradition’s arc to Xenia

See Also

• Foolishness for Christ in Rus’ — the introductory treatment of the same tradition
• Basil and Ivan the Terrible — the borrowed Nikola Salos deeds
• St. Xenia of St. Petersburg — the tradition’s great later witness

References

• Ivanov, Sergey A. Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond. Trans. Simon Franklin. Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Fedotov, G. P. The Russian Religious Mind, vol. 2. Harvard University Press, 1966.
• Erusalimsky, K. Yu. “Василий Блаженный.” In Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya, vol. 7. Moscow, 2004. pravenc.ru/text/150789.html.