Saint Blessed Basil, the Moscow Wonderworker, was born in December 1468 on the porch of the Yelokhovsky church near Moscow in honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. His parents were simple and sent their son to learn the shoemaking trade. During the teaching of the blessed one, his master had to witness one amazing case when he realized that his disciple was an extraordinary person. One merchant brought bread to Moscow on barges and went to the workshop to order boots, asking to make them so that he would not tear them down in a year. Blessed Basil shed tears: "We will sew you such that you will not wear them out." To the puzzled question of the master, the student explained that the customer would not put on boots, he would soon die. A few days later, the prophecy came true.
At the age of 16, the saint came to Moscow and began the thorny feat of foolishness. In the scorching summer heat and the cracking bitter frost, he walked naked and barefoot through the streets of Moscow. His actions were strange: he would overturn a tray of rolls, then spill a jug of kvass. Angry merchants beat the blessed one, but he gladly accepted the beatings and thanked God for them. And then it turned out that the rolls were poorly baked, the kvass was cooked unusable. The veneration of Blessed Basil grew rapidly: he was recognized as a fool, a man of God, a denouncer of unrighteousness.
One merchant conceived the idea of building a stone church on Pokrovka in Moscow, but its arches collapsed three times. The merchant turned to the blessed one for advice, and he sent him to Kiev: "Find the poor John there, he will give you advice on how to complete the church." Arriving in Kiev, the merchant found John, who was sitting in a poor hut and rocking an empty cradle. "Who are you rocking?"  The merchant asked. "Dear mother, I am paying an unpaid debt for the birth and upbringing." Then the merchant only remembered his mother, whom he had kicked out of the house, and it became clear to him why he could not finish the church in any way. Returning to Moscow, he returned his mother home, asked for her forgiveness and completed the church.
Preaching mercy, the blessed one helped first of all those who were ashamed to beg, and yet needed help more than others. There was a case that he gave rich royal gifts to a foreign merchant who was left without everything and, although he had not eaten anything for three days, could not ask for help because he wore good clothes.
The blessed one severely condemned those who gave alms for selfish purposes, not out of compassion for poverty and misfortune, but hoping to attract God's blessing to their deeds in an easy way. One day the blessed one saw a demon who took the form of a beggar. He sat at the Prechistensky Gate and provided immediate assistance to all those who gave alms. The Blessed One solved the crafty fiction and drove the demon away. For the sake of saving his neighbors, Blessed Basil also visited taverns, where he tried to see the grain of goodness in even the most degraded people, to strengthen them with affection, to encourage them. Many noticed that when the blessed one passed by a house where they were having a lot of fun and drinking, he hugged the corners of that house with tears. The fool was asked what this meant, and he replied: "Mournful angels stand outside the house and lament the sins of men, and I tearfully begged them to pray to the Lord for the conversion of sinners."
Having cleansed his soul by great deeds and prayer, the Blessed One was also granted the gift of foresight of the future. In 1547, he predicted the great fire of Moscow; he extinguished the fire in Novgorod with prayer; once he reproached Tsar John the Terrible that during the divine service he was busy thinking about building a palace on Vorobyovy Gory.
Blessed Basil died on August 2, 1557. Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow performed the burial of the saint with the cathedral of the clergy. His body was buried at the Trinity Church, on the moat, where the Intercession Cathedral was built in 1554 in memory of the conquest of Kazan. Blessed Basil was glorified by the Council on August 2, 1588, which was headed by His Holiness Patriarch Job.
In the description of the saint's appearance, characteristic details have been preserved: "he is completely naked, with a staff in his hand." The veneration of Blessed Basil has always been so strong that the Trinity Church and the attached Intercession Church are still called St. Basil's Cathedral.
The saint's chains are kept at the Moscow Theological Academy.