Righteous Basilisk of Siberia (Turinsk)

St. Basilisk of Siberia (secular name Vasily Gavrilovich Gavrilov) was born around 1740 into a peasant family in Tver province. Renouncing worldly life, he was tonsured a monk and became a hermit under the spiritual guidance of the elder Adrian. He spent many years in desert asceticism, attaining the gift of unceasing Jesus Prayer — his disciple and spiritual companion St. Zosima (Verkhovsky) later recorded 75 accounts of its grace-filled manifestations. Around 1799–1800 he and Zosima journeyed to Siberia, wandering for about a year in search of a place for a hermitage, and in 1802 founded a skete in the forests of the Kuznetsk district. In 1822 Basilisk helped establish the Holy Trinity–St. Nicholas convent in Turinsk, where he served as spiritual elder until his death in 1824. His relics were uncovered in 2000 and now rest in the Transfiguration-Tikhvin Convent in Yekaterinburg; he was glorified as a saint in 2004.