Venerable
Venerable Basil the Confessor
VIII в. — ок. 750
Also known as: Василий Декаполит, Прп. Василий исповедник, сподвижник прп. Прокопия Декаполита
A monk of Constantinople, disciple and companion of St Procopius the Decapolite; for venerating the holy icons he was tortured and imprisoned under the iconoclast emperor Leo III the Isaurian. He died around 750.
Venerable Basil the Confessor lived in Constantinople during the first period of iconoclasm under Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717–741). A monk of one of the city's monasteries, he was the disciple and companion of St Procopius the Decapolite (commemorated on 27 February). For their devotion to the holy icons both were tortured and imprisoned, and they remained in prison until the emperor's death in 741. Released, they continued their monastic life, teaching many in the Orthodox faith, and Basil died in peace around 750.
No separate Life of Basil exists; he is mentioned in the unpublished Life of Procopius. Russian calendars also call him "the Decapolite", but Greek synaxaria do not, so he may have received the name by analogy with his teacher. His commemoration on 28 February is already found in the Typikon of the Great Church of the ninth and tenth centuries, and a canon to him was composed by Theophanes. He is depicted in the great schema, often together with Procopius.